Jewish Heritage

The first known Jewish resident of the Mexican Pueblo de Los Ángeles arrived in 1841.

When California entered the Union in 1850, the census listed just eight Jews living in Los Angeles. By 1855, the fledgling city had a Hebrew Benevolent Society and a Jewish cemetery. The first Jewish congregation and kosher market were established in 1862. Meanwhile, Jewish merchants and business owners founded banks, fraternal orders, charities, athletic clubs, and social service organizations. Jewish property owners developed vast areas of Los Angeles and beyond into the neighborhoods and cities we know today. By 1897, the city’s Jewish population was large enough to support its own newspaper. The 20th century brought waves of Jewish immigrants and migrants to Los Angeles, where they built the motion picture and television industries, Cedars-Sinai and City of Hope medical centers, the Jewish Home for the Aging, urban and suburban synagogues and Jewish centers, and other institutions. The foundations laid by these enterprising pioneers helped transform Los Angeles into a major metropolis.

Jonathan L. Friedmann, director of the Jewish Museum of the American West and president of the Western States Jewish History Association, brings together images from the association’s archives, exhibits from the museum, and articles from 50 years of the quarterly journal Western States Jewish History.

Culinary Traditions Preserved, Stories Never to be Forgotten/

This vital collection of survivor stories uplifts and inspires alongside recipes that nourish your soul. Read about daring partisans who fought in the woods, hidden children who sought comfort from strangers and those who endured unimaginable internment. For Holocaust survivors, food was a way to connect their lives before the war with the homes they created after. Their kitchens were filled with the aromas of familiar foods like chicken soup and brisket while unfamiliar delights they adopted, like arroz con pollo and gnocchi, became part of their repertoire. These are the recipes they share with you. Culinary icons such as Michael Solomonov, Jonathan Waxman, Ina Garten and more contribute their own recipes as tribute to the remarkable survivor community. Author June Hersh gives readers a taste of history and a life-affirming message that honors the legacy of Holocaust survivors. 

A portion of the proceeds from sales of this book will benefit organizations committed to Holocaust education.

From a disregarded, forlorn island in the early 1900s to the world-famous resort and go-to place of today, Jews have played a prominent role in Miami Beach’s achievements and fame. Initially consigned to a tiny enclave on the southern tip of Miami Beach, the community’s Jewish population quickly expanded north, from South Beach to Golden Beach, and assumed a leadership position in nearly every phase of the city’s life by the late 1900s. At every step of Miami Beach’s rich history—from commerce, architecture, and banking to hospitality, real estate, and government—the Jewish community blossomed, enabling Jews to play singular roles in a drama that continues to unfold. 

Take a culinary journey through the foods, restaurants and businesses that define the cuisine of New York City and the Jewish immigrant experience...

No trip to New York’s five boroughs is complete without a hand sliced pastrami sandwich at Katz's deli or a bagel and lox with a schmear of cream cheese from Russ and Daughters.  Any true New Yorker can tell you where to get the savoriest bowl of matzo ball soup or the crispest kosher dill pickle. Manischewitz wine became the icon it is today after Sammy Davis Jr. became its offical spokesperson.

Join author June Hersh as she reveals the iconic Jewish foods, establishments and products that left their imprint on the taste buds of New Yorkers and the world.

Pioneers in Broadcloth

In the 1800s, territorial Arizona offered excitement and adventure to new arrivals, including many Jewish families. Anna Solomon tended the family’s general store in the remote Gila River Valley while her husband, Isadore, cut timber and burned charcoal for the furnaces at Henry Lesinsky’s Clifton copper mines. In Phoenix, young Morris Goldwater sat at the telegraph in his father’s store, sending and receiving the messages that kept the town in touch with the outside world. To the west, Ike Levy navigated his barge around treacherous shoals and sand bars on the Colorado River.

Join author and historian Blaine Lamb as he reveals the unique characters and events that shaped the pioneer Jewish community of Arizona.

The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma on January 24, 1848, initiated one of the largest migrations in US history.

Between 1849 and 1855, hundreds of thousands of migrants arrived in Northern California hoping to find gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.The rapid population growth and economic prosperity led to boomtowns, banks, and railroads, making California eligible for statehood in 1850. An international cast of gold-seekers, merchants, and tradespeople arrived by land and through the port of San Francisco, which was transformed from a small village to a cosmopolitan metropolis. Jewish pioneers, many of whom had been merchants in Europe, opened stores and businesses in small towns and mining camps in and around the Mother Lode. They established benevolent societies and cemeteries, founded synagogues and companies, held public office and positions of influence, and contributed greatly to the multicultural fabric of the Gold Country.

Jonathan L. Friedmann, director of the Jewish Museum of the American West and president of the Western States Jewish History Association, brings together images from the association’s archives, exhibits from the museum, and articles from 50 years of the quarterly journal Western States Jewish History.

Authors Emily Ford and Barry Stiefel delve into the Jewish communities settled in New Orleans and along the Mississippi Delta.

The early days of Louisiana settlement brought with them a clandestine group of Jewish pioneers. Isaac Monsanto and other traders spited the rarely enforced Code Noir banning their occupancy, but it wasn't until the Louisiana Purchase that larger numbers colonized the area. Immigrants like the Sartorius brothers and Samuel Zemurray made their way from Central and Eastern Europe to settle the bayou country along the Mississippi. They made their homes in and around New Orleans and the Mississippi River delta, establishing congregations like that of Tememe Derech and B'Nai Israel, with the mighty river serving as a mode of transportation and communication, connecting the communities on both sides of the riverbank.

Relive and discover the remarkable evolution and contribution of Jewish people of Chicago, from the 1840s to present day.

For many years Chicago had the third largest Jewishpopulation of any city in the world. Through the medium of historic photographs, this book captures the remarkable evolution of the Jewish people of Chicago, from their immigrant beginnings in the 1840s to their present-day communities. It is a story of the cultural, religious, economic, and everyday life of Chicago's Jews. These pages bring to life the people, events, neighborhoods, and institutions that helped shape and transform today's Jewish community. The photos and maps, culled from the author's and other collections, paint a vivid and informative picture of Chicago Jewry. In addition to recalling the early immigrant German and later Eastern European Jews, this book delves into Jewish neighborhoods including the West Side, South Side, North Side, suburban communities, and Maxwell Street, a neighborhood which produced such prominent Jews as musician Benny Goodman, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, Admiral Hyman Rickover, community organizer Saul Alinsky, and CBS founder William Paley. Chicago Jews have also made contributions to the city and the nation in the arts,commerce and industry, government service, entertainment, and labor, including seven Nobel prize winners. The images show Jews as peddlers and sweatshop workers as well as successful business entrepreneurs and professionals.

The first recorded Jewish immigrants arrived in New York in 1654 by way of Brazil. Their assimilation and influence on the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, and the continual influx of Jewish immigrants from Germany, Eastern Europe, and Russia, have provided a rich tapestry of historic sites in New York. Author Paul M. Kaplan has written more than a mere travel guide; he has provided a road map to the history of Jewish immigration in this great American city. With a focus on the communities of Manhattan, Kaplan includes museums, places of historic interest, restaurants, synagogues, and entertainment venues of the present and those that no longer exist.

Alive in vintage photos, these sites are divided by their location, traveling from the south to the farthest northern tip of Manhattan. Each section provides a map of the area and a broad introduction to the district's place in the historic timeline of Jewish immigration. Included are the regions known as Lower Manhattan; the Lower East Side; Greenwich Village and the East Village, Chelsea, and Midtown; the Upper East Side and Upper West Side; Harlem and Morningside Heights; and Washington Heights. The author provides suggested itineraries, tips for the visitor, and reference notes for further exploration. Kaplan's historical introduction provides the framework for locals and visitors of every religion and nationality to delve into the rich history and contribution of Jewish immigrants in New York.

America's Only Shelter Established for Holocaust Refugees/

During the height of the second World War, at the order of President Roosevelt, Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York housed 982 refugees, rescued from the horrors of the Holocaust. The community of Oswego answered the call of service and opened its arms to the survivors. Oswegonian and WWII veteran Joseph Spereno’s connection with refugee Jake Sylber helped launch his tailoring business that was a fixture in the city for more than 20 years. Then high school Principal Ralph Faust was among local educators who fought to allow the refugee children into Oswego schools, forging connections with those young people who went on to distinguished careers. Local Boy Scout leader Harold Clark created a troop for refugee children to share in the American experience of scouting.Author Ann Callaghan Allen presents the harrowing narrative of how Oswego gave shelter to hundreds of Holocaust survivors.

Brick City Past Revealed/

Newark's history is as diverse and powerful as the community that continues to call New Jersey's largest city home. The colonial settlement at Four Corners—the Broad and Market intersection—grew into one of the most heavily traveled thoroughfares in the nation. In the nineteenth century, innovations such as the public use of the electric light bulb in Military Park and the discovery of how to make patent leather established Newark as a flourishing industrial hub. Dramatic events including the battle between Nazi sympathizers and city residents in the 1930s, hearings held by the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s and the event that triggered the infamous 1967 riots, defined a raucous twentieth century in Newark. Today, urban farming can be found in the Ironbound, NBA star Shaquille O’Neal has helped fund the city's first high-rise tower in fifty years and revitalization efforts continue. Author Helen Lippman presents hidden history of Newark, New Jersey.

Documented as part of the Lowcountry since the 1690s, Charleston Jews have contributed to the region, the nation and the world. In 1800, the city boasted the largest and wealthiest Jewish population in the country, and Charleston has been continually shaped by this significant group of men and women, both religious and secular, humble and heroic.

Here are their stories—both old and new—all intermixed with tales of historic buildings, congregations, religious movements and cemeteries, wonderfully told by preeminent Charleston Jewish historian Solomon Breibart. Collected from a lifetime of work, these explorations offer the reader a wealth of material: essays of historic significance, biographies, lists and chronologies, and telling vignettes that together suggest the rich mosaic of Jewish life that has been part of Charleston and the Lowcountry.

It's a tale told nowhere else, and no one could tell it better, or in such a lively way, than Solomon Breibart.

Known as Newark's ""Jewish Frontier,"" Weequahic was home to 35,000 Jewish residents from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Homes built on farm lots, known as Lyons Farms, attracted the city's upwardly mobile Jewish families. Weequahic High School still remains at the heart of the community, drawing generations of alumni for annual reunions and events. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Philip Roth, a Weequahic High School graduate, found inspiration in the community, documenting its intricacies in his work. The high school still houses a mural, The Enlightenment of Man, painted by New Deal painter Michael Lenson. This mural is regarded as one of the most important pieces of public art in the state. Jews of Weequahic captures the life of this vibrant community that has become one of Newark's legendary neighborhoods.

The Jewish Community around North Broad Street weaves the tale of the Jewish community in this part of Philadelphia through a collection of rare and stunning images. The construction of the North Broad Street subway in the 1920s and the row house Jewish community known as Logan are parts of this story. The development of business districts led to a more cohesive north and northwest Jewish community that allowed for satellite Jewish enclaves to flourish, complete with their own synagogues, bakeries, kosher meat markets, and hundreds of other shops that served the general population. In the 1950s, new neighborhoods, such as Mount Airy and West Oak Lane, alleviated an acute housing shortage at a time when 110,000 Jews lived in north-central and northwest Philadelphia.

In The Jewish Community of Shreveport the rich history of this influential and vibrant citizenry is chronicled by well-known Louisiana historian Eric J. Brock, archivist of Shreveport's B'nai Zion Temple. Nearly 18 decades of Jewish life in Shreveport are depicted in over 200 vintage images, many of which are previously unpublished. Both of the city's synagogues, B'nai Zion and Agudath Achim, are represented, as are many of the rabbis, business leaders, political leaders (including three mayors), and laypeople from the community's long history.

Your roadmap to Jewish life in South Florida!

A rich history and Jewish cultural tradition lie beneath the surface of South Florida. Beyond the stereotype of elderly Jews visiting sunny beaches, Florida boasts a distinctive Jewish population. The area is inhabited by Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardic Jews with roots in Spain or Turkey, and those from Cuba and other Latin American countries. This cultural mingling makes the Jewish way of life in South Florida so unique, featuring synagogues and eateries from Boca Raton, Palm Beach, and Miami. More than simply a travel guide, this book approaches each profiled location as an opportunity to bring to light the culture of the Jews that have made South Florida their home.

Strawberry Mansion: The Jewish Community of North Philadelphiais a testament to the urban experience in American Jewish life. Perfect for fans of Jewish-American History.

A section of North Philadelphia, Strawberry Mansionis nestled high on the banks of the Schuylkill River, adjacent to the large expanses of Fairmount Park, with many wonderful venues such as Woodside Park.

The area became the setting for America's premiere Jewish Community in the 20th century, with over 50,000 inhabitants.Strawberry Mansionwas the first Jewish suburb within an urban setting. Affectionately known as the Mansion, it was only a trolley car ride away from South Philadelphia's immigrant district. Jewish families migrated from one neighborhood to another as they advanced economically in American society during the early 1900s. By the mid-1950s, the decision to discontinue the once heavily traveled Route ,9trolley car marked the decline and eventual demise of Strawberry Mansionas a Jewish enclave.

The Jewish Community of West Philadelphia portrays Jewish life throughout West Philadelphia in the mid-twentieth century, including rare and vintage photographs.

The Jewish community of Philadelphia west of the Schuylkill River is a composite of seven distinct neighborhoods surrounding West Philadelphia proper. These include Fortieth and Girard, Parkside, Wynnefield, Overbrook Park, Wynnefield Heights, Southwest Philly, and Island Road. A gathering of seventy-five thousand Jewish people in West Philadelphia during the twentieth century qualified the area known as ""a city within a city"" as a second settlement area. Excellent public transportation included the famed Market Street Elevated. The West Philadelphia Jews flourished and supported dozens of synagogues and bakeries, and more than one hundred kosher butcher shops at the neighborhood's height from the 1930s through the 1950s. Newly arrived immigrants embraced traditional Jewish values, which led them to encourage their offspring to acquire a secondary education in their own neighborhoods as a way of achieving assimilation into the community at large. The Jewish Community of West Philadelphia portrays Jewish life throughout West Philadelphia in the mid-twentieth century. The book captures rare, nearly forgotten images with photographs gleaned from the community at large.

The earliest settlers-such as Nehemiah Marks, who was living and doing business in Stamford as early as 1720-opened stores and other commercial enterprises. By the mid-1800s, city dwellers began coming to the region for summer vacations. After 1880, settlers arrived via the peddlers' routes and, after accumulating a little capital, stayed to open shops and establish themselves socially and politically. The greatest influx came in the 1890s and early 1900s, when many Jews arrived from the Pale of Settlements, eastern and central Europe, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Romania, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

No matter where the scattered Jews of Chicago live now, many can trace their roots to this ""Jerusalem of Chicago.""

For nearly half a century, the greater Lawndale area was the vibrant, spirited center of Jewish life in Chicago. It contained almost 40 percent of the city's entire Jewish population with over 70 synagogues and numerous active Jewish organizations and institutions, such as the Jewish People's Institute, the Hebrew Theological College, and Mount Sinai Hospital. Its residents included ""King of Swing"" Benny Goodman, Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, journalists Irv Kupcinet and Meyer Levin, federal judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz, civil rights attorney Elmer Gertz, Eli's Cheesecake founder Eli Shulman, and comedian Shelley Berman. Many of the selected images come from the author's extensive collection. This book will bring back memories for those who lived there and retell the story of Jewish life on the West Side for those who did not.

In the pages of Jewish Life in Omaha and Lincoln: A Photographic History, peoples' lives, events, neighborhoods, and institutions that helped shape and transform today's Jewish community are brought to life. This vibrant tapestry is captured in images ranging from a mid-19th century stereopticon to a recent aerial photograph. The over 230 images, culled from the collection of the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society, focus on immigration patterns that brought Jews into the region, from the opening of the West, to the Holocaust, to the arrival of Soviet Jews. Other images look at the changing face of synagogues and religious practices in the Midlands. Jewish-founded businesses that are mentioned in this book are landmarks in Omaha and throughout the Midwest, from the Nebraska Furniture Mart to Omaha Steaks International.

With this collection of the best of his columns from the Baltimore Jewish Times, Gilbert Sandler crafts a brilliant portrait of Jewish Baltimore.

Baltimore is the cultural hub of Maryland's Jewish community, and for three decades, local legend Gilbert Sandler has chronicled its stories. With this collection of the best of his columns from the Baltimore Jewish Times, Sandler crafts a brilliant portrait of Jewish Baltimore. Join Sandler as he evokes memories of the corner drugstore, rides at Carlin's Park and freshly fried coddies. From these warmly familiar scenes of neighborhood life, Sandler moves to stories of the community banding together during the Great Depression and the extraordinary courage of rabbis and their congregations during the civil rights protests of the 1960s. Recall the halcyon days and share the joys and sorrows of Charm City's Jewish community.

Images of America: Jews of Paterson is more than just nostalgia—it is the remarkable story of how the city's Jewish population built a community and made it into a special place.

When Jews immigrated to Paterson in the early 20th century, they came as skilled weavers from the Russian Polish textile centers of Lodz and Bialystok. They brought strong notions of social justice and living righteously; ideas that came alive during the 1913 Industrial Workers of the World silk strike. They raised families, became Americans, and reluctantly moved when the economic base collapsed. Despite this, Paterson Jews defend the aging, gritty city as a wonderful place, and they never left it spiritually or emotionally. Former and current residents recall the Hamilton Avenue bagel bakery, Purity Cooperative rye bread, candy stores, delicatessens, the YMHA, bar mitzvah coaches, rabbis, the baby doctor, pediatricians, schoolteachers, and even the synagogue shammes. They remember and honor the past as a bridge between the present and the future.

Stories of Jewish Dayton recovers the lost history of Jewish life in the Miami Valley.

Many stories of Jewish Dayton's past have faded over time. Others, painful to recall, may have been intentionally buried. All are sure to surprise new generations. The Jews of Dayton drank wine during Prohibition, debated Zionism, fought the Klan, and joined the battle for civil rights in the trenches. Balancing tradition and modernity across eras, they navigated the American dream and faced challenges often strikingly similar to those we face today.

Marshall Weiss -- founding editor and publisher of the Dayton Jewish Observer and project director of Miami Valley Jewish Genealogy & History -- reaches back nearly two centuries to unearth forgotten episodes of Jewish history in Ohio's Miami Valley.

Drawing from select archives and family collections, over 150 years of  Dayton's Jewish history comes to life.

Since the arrival of approximately a dozen German-Jewish immigrants in the 1840s, the Jewish community of Dayton has actively contributed to the betterment and welfare of the Gem City. Jewish Community of Dayton recalls forgotten stories of Arthur Welsh, the first Jewish airplane pilot; orphan turned social reformer Rabbi David Lefkowitz; Golda Meir's impassioned 1948 visit on behalf of the new Jewish state; and opera star Jan Peerce giving the final performance of his career with the acclaimed Beth Abraham Youth Chorale. This book illustrates how Dayton's Jews have responded and adapted to challenges ranging from the Great Flood of 1913 to resettlement of immigrants throughout the 20th century, from sacrifices for the state of Israel to activism in the civil rights era.

Although the fact is seldom recognized, Jews have been a part of the American experience since the early colonial days.

They brought to these shores skills and traditions that America has welcomed and rewarded. They have made major contributions to this country's social, scientific, and cultural fabric. Despite their small numbers, the Jews of Rhode Island can claim two governors and many lawyers, physicians, scientists, manufacturers, businessmen, artists, and educators in state history. The Jews of Rhode Island 1658-1958 is the first comprehensive pictorial history of the Rhode Island Jewish experience. It provides a broad sweep of the first 300 years of Jewish history in Rhode Island beginning with the very first Jewish settlers in Newport in 1658 and includes images of their lives in all parts of the state.

The Jewish Community of South Philadelphia is a tribute to tradition and pride that will serve as a valuable tool in teaching the history of Jewish immigrants in America.

For many Jewish immigrants to America, Philadelphia's row houses provided an instant community of neighbors where they were able to combine the traditions of the Old World with new American ideals. In their flight to a new land and a new life, Jewish immigrants found a place to call home in South Philadelphia. This unprecedented collection of images celebrates the people and places of this community, from their struggles to their triumphs and the family bonds that provided their strength along the way. Join Allen Meyers in this exploration of the past that will be enjoyed for generations to come.

Spanish explorers arrived in Tampa Bay in the 16th century.

Jews were first allowed to live in Florida in 1763 and less than 100 years later, Tampa became a city. The arrival of the railroad and the cigar industry in the 1890s attracted immigrants. Many were Jews, who helped propel growth, especially in Ybor City, where they owned more than 80 businesses. Over the decades, Jews participated in civic and Jewish organizations, the military, politics, and in developing Tampa as a sports center. Today, with about 23,000 Jews in Tampa, there are fifth-generation residents who represent the continuity of a people who contribute vibrancy to every area of the community.

Long Island has one of the most vibrant and largest Jewish communities in the nation.

After World War II, hundreds of thousands of Jewish soldiers returned from war looking for a life in the suburbs and synagogues to join, but the demand exceeded the supply. In 1946, Rabbi Elias Solomon called a meeting of Conservative rabbis from Manhattan to map out a plan to build a synagogue at ever South Shore Long Island Railroad stop, from Valley Stream to Patchogue. Central Synagogue of Nassau County and Beth El in Great Neck both grew to more than 1000 families as Reform Judaism took hold, and the growth of the Chabad movement in recent decades as spurred an increase of Orthodox Judaism. Author Ira Poliakoff catalogues the history of synagogues and congregations that have shaped Long Island’s past and present.

A Lifeline from Darkness

More than a year before America entered World War II, a ship from Europe became one of the nation’s first and closest experiences with the wickedness of the Holocaust. As war raged across their homeland, dozens of Jews boarded the SS Quanza in the summer of 1940, desperate to escape Nazi evil. Tragically, the United States barred their entry. When Mexico denied them as well, it seemed that they would become the next victims of the Holocaust. But a lucky stop in Norfolk, Virginia, saved their lives. Sallie and Jacob Morewitz, lawyers who had fought for the Jewish community for years, rushed into court on their behalf, and Jewish and pro-refugee groups rallied to their cause. Even Eleanor Roosevelt stepped in. After many defeats, America welcomed them to a new, safe life.

Award-winning journalist Jason Norman unfolds this remarkable story of deliverance.

Jewish Detroit chronicles in photographs the history of this remarkable community in Detroit, from its growth within the city to its migration to the suburbs, from its battles against anti-Semitism at the hands of Henry Ford and others to celebrating its own heroes like Hank Greenberg, the all-star first baseman of the Detroit Tigers.

With a forward by Elizabeth Thalhimer Smartt, learn about William Thalhimer's elaborate plan to save Jewish Germans from Hitler and the Third Reich.

During Hitler's rise to power in the 1930's, Richmond department store founder, William Thalhimer and his family traveled to Germany to visit relatives and business contacts. Thalhimer was deeply disturbed and increasingly alarmed as the anti-Semitism that he and his family witnessed escalated into the violence Brown Shirts and Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. Thalhimer became determined to aid Jews fleeing from Germany, and he eventually met a representative of Gross Breesen, a German-Jewish agricultural training institute. The mission of Gross Breesen, and eventually Thalhimer, was to train young Jews in agriculture in hopes that the expertise gained would ensure the students' successful emigration from Germany. Thalhimer purchased a farm, Hyde Farmlands, in Burkeville, Virginia to give the students a home in Virginia.

These pages bring to life the people, events, neighborhoods, and institutions that helped shape and transform today's Jewish community. These photographs, derived from the collections of the Minnesota Historical Society and the Ramsey County Historical Society, paint a poignant and vivid picture of Jewish life in St. Paul. In addition to recalling the establishment of Mt. Zion and Sons of Jacob, the first two major synagogues in St. Paul, this book displays the distinct impact that prominent Jews of the community, such as Abram Elfelt, Judge Isaac N. Cardozo, and Isador Rose, had on the shaping of St. Paul.