HISTORY OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITIES
OF WASHINGTON STATE
Washington's Jewish Heritage
By Craig Degginger
Who are the Jews of Washington
state? First off, there are about 40,000 of us. We say "about,"
because the precise numbers are a bit sketchy. The last major
demographic study conducted by the Jewish Federation of Greater
Seattle, in 1990, showed there were an estimated 30,000 Jews
in the greater Seattle area. Since then, there has been a
continuing influx of newcomers, and that number is believed
to have swelled to approximately 35,000. Add to that the estimated
5,000 Jews in the rest of the state, and we come to the number
of "about" 40,000. But who was Jew number one? The
first Jews, generally of German descent, settled in the Tacoma
and Olympia area about the same time as the future State of
Washington achieved territorial status in 1853. Although Washington
state has never had a Jewish governor, Washington territory
did in 1870, with the appointment of Edward Salomon. The first
Jewish organization, the Hebrew Benevolent Society of Puget
Sound, was founded in Olympia in 1873, and the Jewish cemetery
in that city dates to that time. The first permanent Jewish
settlers arrived in the village of Seattle in the 1860s, and
by 1885 there were perhaps 100 Jewish families. Bailey
Gatzert, the city's only Jewish mayor, was elected in
1876.
Many of Seattle's Eastern European Jews peddled wares, collected
junk, worked as tailors or jewelers or owned second-hand stores.
Jews had also migrated to Eastern Washington by this time.
The town of Marcus, Washington was named for Jewish merchant
B. Marcus Oppenheimer. The first High Holy Day services were
held in Spokane in 1885. Jews from Poland and Russia made
up the next wave of migration to Washington, fleeing poverty
and violent anti-Semitism between 1880 and World War I. Sending
for more relatives to join them in a new land, they made up
the bulk of Seattle's 4,500 Jews in 1910. The first synagogue
in Seattle was Ohaveth Sholum (Lovers of Peace), begun in
1889, but internal disputes over religious practices led to
its downfall in 1896. Traditional Orthodox Jews founded Bikur
Cholim Congregation, and Reform Jews founded Temple De Hirsch.
The first Sephardic Jews-those who came from Turkey and the
Isle of Rhodes and who spoke a unique language called Ladino-landed
in Seattle in 1902. Expelled from Spain in 1492, now they
fled the Ottoman Empire. The early Sephardim peddled fish
and fruit. They joined their Ashkenazi brethren in living
in the Yesler Way Cherry Street neighborhood of central Seattle.
The Turkish Jews founded Sephardic
Bikur Holim Congregation and the Jews of Rhodes began Congregation
Ezra Bessaroth. Seattle now has the third largest concentration
of Sephardim in the United States, numbering about 14 percent
of the total Jewish population. It remains a strong, cohesive
community. Rabbi Solomon Maimon, who served Sephardic Bikur
Holim Congregation for 40 years, was the first Sephardic rabbi
ordained in the United States. Seattle has produced more Sephardic
rabbis than any other American city. Jews built small communities
throughout the state during this time, including synagogues
in Aberdeen, Bellingham, Centralia, Everett, Spokane and Tacoma.
Until after World War II, the Yesler-Cherry Street neighborhood
served as the center of Seattle Jewish culture. A half dozen
synagogues, the Talmud Torah school, and other organizational
buildings were located here. An estimated 85 percent of the
city's Jews lived in the area. But interestingly, the Sephardim
and Ashkenazim often didn't mix socially despite living in
the same neighborhood, occasionally aiming mild epithets at
each other. In those days, intermarriage not only meant a
union between Jew and gentile, but also between Ashkenazim
and Sephardim. The old neighborhood began to break up after
1950, as the Seattle Jewish community began branching out
to neighborhoods away from the inner city. The three Orthodox
synagogues-Bikur Cholim (which later merged with Machzikay
Hadath Congregation), Sephardic Bikur Holim, and Ezra Bessaroth-relocated
to Seward Park. Herzl Congregation moved to Mercer Island
and merged with a fledgling Bellevue congregation to become
Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation. Temple Beth Am,
Reform, was founded in the North End along with Conservative
Congregation Beth Shalom. Temple B'nai Torah was founded on
Mercer Island, and now plans a move to larger quarters in
Bellevue. Only Temple De Hirsch remained in the Central Area,
but it too merged with another Bellevue congregation to become
Temple De Hirsch Sinai, with sanctuaries on both sides of
Lake Washington.
The growth in the community has led to
some growing pains; nearly every Seattle-area synagogue listed
in this guide is either running out of space or planning some
kind of expansion in the next few years. Day schools are experiencing
record enrollments. Experts say the booming increase in the
state's Jewish population will continue, with more than 10,000
Jews expected to move to Washington in the next 20 years.
(Some material in this article is
reprinted from Coat of Many Colors, The History of Seattle's
Jewish Community, by Howard Droker.)
Tacoma's Jewish History
by Deb Freedman
Tacoma's Jewish community began with a few
merchant families in Steilacoom in the 1860's (Isaac &
Seraphina Pincus and Hyman and Louisa Goodtime) and a few
in Olympia (Julius Coleman and Morris Dobrin.) By the 1870's
Meyer Kaufman, Louis Levin and Louis Wolff had opened saloons
such as the Pacific Hotel in what became Old Tacoma. The families
joined to form a cemetery in Olympia - the Hebrew Benevolent
Society of Puget Sound. The first graves were those of Morris
Dobrin's daughter Celia, Meyer Kaufman's brother-in-law Robert
Fischer, and Isaac Pincus' baby daughter Minnie. 1878 marked
the arrival of the first Gross brothers, David and Ellis.
Their store on New Tacoma's Pacific avenue grew and they sent
back to Poland for brothers Morris and Abe. Later they would
employ innovative techniques such as organizing departments
over several floors, hiring a nurse to care for infants while
mothers shopped, and opening a free kindergarden for children
of low-income families. They had meteorological instruments
installed atop their store and ran the weather forecast at
the head of their daily newspaper ad. Their brick store on
9th and "C" was eventually torn down to build the
Pantages Theatre. By the early 1880's Tacoma had won the county
seat and the terminus of the railroad. The Jewish population
grew quickly. The wedding reception of Louis Wallerstein and
his bride at the Tacoma hotel in 1884 was "one of the
most fashionable affairs of the season," according to
the Tacoma Daily Ledger.
Within a few years Jewish merchants dominated
the male- oriented businesses on Tacoma's Pacific avenue -
cigar and tobacco shops, men's clothing, shoes and boots,
and alcohol. They sold dry goods and wet goods. Charles Langert
was a major wholesaler of liquor throughout the state. Albert
Weinberg ran the Monogram Saloon. Charles Reichenbach, Mentein
Cohn, Sam Gottschalk, Sol Jacoby, the Isaacs brothers, and
the Gross brothers all had dry goods and clothing stores within
a few blocks of each other, all technically in competition
with each other, and they all prospered. By 1889 Tacoma organized
it's own cemetery - the FIRST Hebrew Benevolent Society. The
women formed a branch of the Judith Montefiore Society to
educate the children, and the Harmony Club was established
- a social club which housed young bachelors, hosted dances,
and provided a hall for high holidays. In 1892 Congregation
Beth Israel was incorporated and services were first held
in the new temple on 10th and "I" in the fall of
1893.
As Tacoma's Orthodox community grew, the
Chevra Talmud Torah was organized in 1908. The Chevra Kadisha
cemetery was created in 1914. In 1924 Chevra Talmud Torah
purchased land at South 4th and "I." The synagogue
was dedicated in 1930, and the name was later changed to Sinai
Temple. Under Rabbi Baruch Treiger the congregation joined
the conservative movement in 1938. In 1960, under the guidance
of Rabbi Richard Rosenthal, the two temples merged and formed
Temple Beth El.
The History of the Jews of Bellingham
by Tim Baker
Congregation Beth Israel has a rich heritage
that dates back to the early
1900's. Fleeing from pogroms and restrictions in the Russian
Pale of
Settlement, Jews immigrated to the U.S. in vast numbers between
1880 and
1924. Among them were families from the shtetls of Skopishok
and Rakishok,
in northeastern Lithuania...more:>>>http://www.bethisrael.com
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