DOCSLIB.ORG

Ibrary/~Erkeley Regional Oral History Office Daniel Em Koshland, Sr. THE

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Ibrary/~Erkeley Regional Oral History Office Daniel Em Koshland, Sr. THE University of California Bancrof t ~ibrary/~erkeley Regional Oral History Office Daniel Em Koshland, Sr. THE PRINCIPLE OF SHARING With an Introduction by John R. May An Interview Conducted by Harriet Nathan @ 1972 by The Regents of The University of California and The Trustees of the Judah L. Magnes Memorial Museum All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between the Regents of the University of California and the Trustees of the Judah L. Magnes Memorial Museum, and Daniel E. Koshland, dated December 17, 1970, The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes, All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley and the Judah L. Magnes Memorial Museum, No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley, Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, 486 Library, and should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user. The legal agreement with Daniel Ew Koshland requires that he be notified of the request and allowed thirty days in which to respond, TABLE OF CONTENTS Daniel E. Koshland, Sr. PREFACE INTRODUCTION By JOHN B. MAY INTERVIEW HISTORY FAMILY TREE AND EARLY TRAINING 1 GOING TO SCHOOL IN SAN FRANCISCO Pacific Heights Grammar School Lowell High School Faculty THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY Carleton Parker Some Faculty Members and Students AFTER COLLEGE: JOBS AND TRAVEL The Darmstadter Bank and German Sympathies New York and the Equitable Trust Co, Herbert Lehman A1 Smith Introduction to Social Work Montefiore Hospital and Occupational Therapy Jewish Charities and the San Francisco Community Chest Lewis Strauss bating in New York Dancing Class A Horseback Ride in Central Park TH.3 WORLD IdAR I YEARS Plattsburg, New York and the Presidio of San Francisco Governor's Island Narriage to Eleanor Haas Rabbi Stephen Wise and the Free Synagogue New York Again: Lazard Frkres Family Feeling Children and Grandchi ldren Walter Haas's Invitation LEV1 STRAUSS & CO. The Valencia Street Factory Levi Strauss and The Gold Rush From Wholesaling to Manufacturing Ex~ansionAfter 1940 Walter Jr. and Peter Haas Labor Relations An Interest in Science The Levi St rauss Foundation Levi Strauss and the Centennial Fund UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE ISSUES San Francisco State College U .C. President Charles Hitch U .C . ' s Centennial Fund Student Co-op Housing The Loyalty Oath Committee Some U.C. Presidents Civil Disobedience ThFSaKta--CmzCampus A "Distinguished Lectureship" The Koshland Award PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATIONS The San Francisco Foundation Establishing and Operating a Foundation The Idea of Seed Money Some Possible Pitfalls The Consortium Functions of the Levi Strauss Foundation Fund-Raising for the Independent Colleges The Newhouse Foundation The Tanforan Foundation The College of San Mateo Foundation THE LIFE-SPAN OF CIVIC AGENCIES Maimonides Hospital The Council for Civic Unity The Constraints on an Aaencv Leader Homewood Terrace The California Social Hygiene Associati The San Francisco Housing Association Investing for Charities PUBLIC OFFICE AND PUBLIC ISSUES The State Industrial Welfare commission Probation and Delinquency Committees San Francisco Juvenile Probation Committee Subcommittee of the Human Rights Commission of San Francisco United States Refugee Service A Non-Profit Corporation for Low-Cost Housing: The San Francisco Development Co. Private vis-'a-vis Public Agencies POLITICS AND POLITICAL CANDIDATES Harding v. Cox and Other Elections California Candidates Arthur Younger The Pete McCloskey Campaign THE KINGMANS' CITIZENS' LOBBY Ruth Kingman and the Return of the Japanese- Americans Stiles Hall MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS Special Funds or the Community Chest Competition for Support The Politics of Philanthropy Fund-Rai sing by Stunts THE STRATEGY OF FUND-RAISING A Meeting and a Leader The Second Meeting: Major Givers Forming Teams According to Trades The United Negro College Fund Rockefeller's Interest Criteria for Donating or Refusing Report Meetings Recruiting Leadership Brandeis Universitx The Problem of the Last Million THE COLLEGE OF SAN MATE0 The 1964 Bond Campaign The 1968 Campaign: Taxes and Bonds Community Participation THE CHANGING ROLES OF THE JEWISH COMl/IUNITY Union of American Hebrew Congregations Religion and Social Action Jewish Education Questioning the Need for Jewish Institutions Religious Affiliation Prominent Families and a Lack of leaders hi^ A Tendency to Lose Jewish Identity Anti-Semitism Factions Within the Jewish Community Trip to Israel - 1962 Some Religious Leaders in San Francisco The Rabbi as Ambassador Teaching and Jewish Education Israel and the American Council for Judaism SOME FURTHBR INTERESTS National Ice and Cold Storage Company Wells Fargo, American Trust, and the Jewish Board Member Liquid Carbonic Corporation Social Clubs and Organizations Negotiation Now APPENDIX -- The Honorary LL.D. INDEX PREFACE The Northern California Jewish Community Series is a collection of oral history interviews with persons who have contributed significantly to Jewish life and to the wider secular community. Sponsored by the Western Jewish History Center of the Judah L. Magnes Memorial Museum, the interviews have been produced by the Regional Oral History Office of The Bancroft Library. Moses Rischin, professor of history at San Francisco State College, Fs advisor to the serxes, assisted- by the Center's Advisory Committee: Harold PI. Edelstein, Seymour Fromer, Nrs. Theodore Geballe, James Me Gerstley, Professor James D. Hart, Louis H. Heilbron, Frank H. 'Sloss,-.- .. .and - - Robert-.-. E.-- Sinton. The series was inaugurated in 1967. In the oral history process, the interviewer works closely with the memoirist in preliminary research and in setting up topics for discussion. The interviews are informal conversations which are tape recorded, transcribed, edited by the interviewer for continuity and clarity, checked and approved by the interviewee, and then final-typed. The resulting manuscripts, indexed and bound, are deposited in the Jesse E. Colman Memorial Library of the Western Jewish History Center, The Bancroft Library, and the University Library at the University of California at Los Angeles. By special arrange- ment copies may be deposited in other manuscript repositories holding relevant collections. Related information may be found in earlier interviews with Lawrence Arnstein, Amy Steinhart Braden, Adrien J. Falk, Alice Gerstle Levison, Jennie Matyas, Walter Clay Lowdemilk, and Nrs. Simon J. Lubin. Untranscribed tapes of interviews with descendants of pioneer California Jews conducted by Professor Robert E. Levinson are on deposit at The Bancroft Library and the western Jewish History Center. The Regional Oral History Office was established to tape record autobiographical interviews with persons prominent in recent California history. The Office is under the administrative supervision of Professor James- -- D. Hart,. - the director of The =croft Library . Willa K. hum, Head Regional Oral History Office 30 January 1971 Regional Oral History Office 486 The Bancroft Library University of California at Berkeley INTRODUCTI ON Perhaps I should not have read this account of Dan Koshland's life of service before trying to write an intro- duction to it. Everything I could say about the subject is said -- explicitly or implicitly, in the memoir itself. Certainly I have seldom if ever been so flattered by the assignment of a writing task, but I have found the completion of it difficult, For the resulting delay, I offer my apologies to the editors, It would be idle to say that a living memoir of Daniel Edward Koshland needs no introduction. That would be like shirking one's duty in presenting a speaker as "one who needs no introductione" Both the skillful interviewer and the willing subject deserve better, But the simple fact is that the essence of this complex, kind, modest and highly intelli- gent man cannot be summed up in the space of an introduction, It is shown in absorbing detail (both to those who know and therefore love him and to the stranger, I think) in the pages which follow, Read them; if you want to know this man, here he is, He has responded generously and fully to the inter- viewer's skillful leading questions, Why, I have wondered, was I asked to introduce Dan to the readers of this history? Possibly it is because his life in business, finance, public service, philanthropy, human relations, educational and artistic interests -- all have been involved in his long guidance of The San Francisco Foundation, of which I have been privileged to serve as Executive Director for twenty-two years. As the Foundation shakily began its existence, Dan's faith sustained it -- and me, As it developed, he guided it -- and me, And a friendship developed. It is one which I treasure, I have known Dan in good times and in bad ones -- his and others'. I have seen him suffer (and I've wanted to mitigate the pain) and I have seen him rejoice (sharing his joys presents no problem), I have seen the great things he has done -- some of them -- and a few of the quiet, hidden, little ones, I have also been somewhat relieved to hear him give voice to malicious comments -- though never to do damage, He is no saint (though he has been so described) -- his humor is . too keen and human for that. There must be those who dislike, resent or denigrate Dan, but in more than two decades of association with him I have not found them, nor did I hear of them in the years before when I knew him only from afar as one of those "leading citizens" whose names are farni%liar. I have criticized him, too, usually on trivial things -- and of course I have made outrageous charges, in private, to him, in riposte to his -- of course -- unwarranted assaults upon my character, competence and morals.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Jewish Community Center of San Francisco 3200 California Street San Francisco San Francisco County California
    HABSNo. CA-2724 Jewish Community Center of San Francisco 3200 California Street San Francisco San Francisco County California PHOTOGRAPHS WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA Historic American Buildings Survey National Park Service Western Region Department of the Interior San Francisco, California 94107 HABs C.AL :;<o-sA HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDING SURVEY JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF SAN FRANCISCO HABS No. CA - 2724 Location: 3200 California Street (at Presidio Avenue) . San Francisco, San Francisco County, California 94118 - 1904 UTM Coordinates: 10-548750-4181850 Present Owner: Jewish Community Center of San Francisco Present Occupant: Jewish Community Center of San Francisco Present Use: Vacant Significance The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco QCC SF) was formally incorporated in 1930. However, its roots go back to 1874 with the establishment of the city's first Young Men's Hebrew Association (YMHA). The JCC SF reflects a progressive period in American history that resulted in provision of services and facilities for the underprivileged, and/or for minority ethnic groups. The Jewish Community Center project reflected both national and local efforts to facilitate coordination and effective work among Jewish social, athletic, cultural and charitable organizations by gathering them under one roof. Nationwide the Jewish community was influential in group social work, helping to develop the profession of social workers, and a wide variety of inclusive charitable organizations. In the era spanning 1900 to 1940, Jewish leaders in many American cities promoted the local development of these community centers to serve their communities as a central location for public service organizations, and recreational and social venues. The JCC SF is not closely associated with any specific event in the history of San Francisco or community, nor with any one individual significant to the city, state or nation.
    [Show full text]
  • Harriet Rochlin Collection of Western Jewish History, Date (Inclusive): Ca
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt9p3022wh No online items Finding Aid for the Harriet Rochlin Collection of Western Jewish History Processed by Manuscripts Division staff © 2004 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Finding Aid for the Harriet 1689 1 Rochlin Collection of Western Jewish History Finding Aid for the Harriet Rochlin Collection of Western Jewish History UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections Manuscripts Division Los Angeles, CA Processed by: Manuscripts Division staff Encoded by: ByteManagers using OAC finding aid conversion service specifications Encoding supervision and revision by: Caroline Cubé Edited by: Josh Fiala, May 2004 © 2004 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Descriptive Summary Title: Harriet Rochlin Collection of Western Jewish History, Date (inclusive): ca. 1800-1991 Collection number: 1689 Extent: 82 boxes (41.0 linear ft.) 1 oversize box Repository: University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections. Los Angeles, California 90095-1575 Abstract: Harriet Shapiro (1924- ) was a freelance writer and contributor of articles, feature stories, and reviews to magazines and scholarly journals. The collection consists of biographical information relating to Jewish individuals, families, businesses, and groups in the western U.S. Includes newspaper and magazine articles, book excerpts, correspondence, advertisements, interviews, memoirs, obituaries, professional listings, affidavits, oral histories, notes, maps, brochures, photographs, and audiocassettes. Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information. Language: English. Restrictions on Access COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Advance notice required for access.
    [Show full text]
  • UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles the New Jewish Pioneer
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles The New Jewish Pioneer: Capital, Land, and Continuity on the US-Mexico Border A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Chicana/o and Central American Studies by Maxwell Ezra Greenberg 2021 © Copyright by Maxwell Ezra Greenberg 2021 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The New Jewish Pioneer: Capital, Land, and Continuity on the US-Mexico Border by Maxwell Ezra Greenberg Doctor of Philosophy in Chicana/o and Central American Studies University of California, Los Angeles, 2021 Professor Robert Chao Romero, Chair Ethnic Studies epistemologies have been central to the historicization and theorization of the US-Mexico border as an ordering regime that carries out structures of settler colonialism, racial capitalism, and white supremacy. While scholars of Jewish history have explored the connections between colonial borders, transnational economic structures, and Jewish merchants, little is known about the role of Jewish entrepreneurs in the process of modern US-Mexico border formation. This dissertation explores how state, corporate, and military imperatives of US imperialism between the American Southwest and Northern Mexico created the conditions for Jewish inclusion into a white settler class and a model of Jewish continuity beyond Europe since the mid-nineteenth century. To explore the imprint of US settler colonialism on Jewish settlement, inclusion, and continuity, Chapter one reviews how Jews have been historicized as exceptional subjects in the contexts of colonial Mexico and the modern American West. Subsequently, Chapter two utilizes archival sources to reinscribe the Jewish border entrepreneur into the history of capitalist and ii military expansion across the new US imperial frontier.
    [Show full text]
  • Executivesfcomm00raabrich.Pdf
    University of California Berkeley Regional Oral History Office University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California Earl Raab EXECUTIVE OF THE SAN FRANCISCO COMMUNITY RELATIONS COUNCIL, 1951-1987; ADVOCATE OF MINORITY RIGHTS AND DEMOCRATIC PLURALISM With an Introduction by Douglas Kahn Interviews Conducted by Eleanor Glaser in 1996 Copyright 1998 by The Regents of the University of California Since 1954 the Regional Oral History Office has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the Nation. Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through tape-recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well- informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. The tape recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is indexed, bound with photographs and illustrative materials, and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ************************************ All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The Regents of the University of California and Earl Raab dated June 5, 1996. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley.
    [Show full text]
  • Case Studies
    We organize families and committed residents of San Francisco into a collective political voice. Section Three: Illustrative Case Studies This is the third section of "Report on SFUSD School Renaming" by Families For San Francisco. Ten case studies of the Committee’s review process are presented. (This is not meant to be an exhaustive list; the number ten is chosen simply because it is a round number.) Historical figures are considered in the order in which the Committee reviewed them. #1 and #2; Abraham Lincoln High School and George Washington High School [August 12, 00:55:08 and 00:59:50 respectively] There was effectively no discussion of Lincoln and Washington. The consideration of Abraham Lincoln took five seconds, and the consideration of George Washington took twelve seconds, basically the length of time it took in each case to state the name and record the Committee’s assent that the school in question should be renamed. #3; Lowell High School [August 12, 1:02:30] The entirety of the research done on James Russell Lowell cited in the Google Sheet is a copy and paste of portions of the first paragraph of the “Beliefs” section of Lowell’s Wikipedia page. The Committee member who copy/pasted the Wikipedia excerpt asserted that Lowell met criteria for renaming, but another Committee member indicated an inability to verify this via research and questioned why Lowell should be removed. The first Committee member then read the excerpted text verbatim, with one crucial, erroneous ad hoc comment added. The text that was read indicated that although Lowell was a lifelong abolitionist who had fought for the rights of African-Americans, Lowell’s commitment to the anti-slavery cause wavered over the years, and he sometimes espoused views regarding the inferiority of Blacks.
    [Show full text]
  • The Frisco Kid Movie Introduction Michael Cohen
    March 2012 The Frisco Kid Movie Introduction Michael Cohen It is 1850 and a very small Jewish community in San Francisco needs a Rabbi. The leader of the Jewish community needs a husband for his daughter. Enter the Frisco Kid, a cute, semi-wacky story of a rabbi from Poland who makes his way across the frontier to a new life in San Francisco. Avram, played by Gene Wilder, is determined to reach his destination, despite a series of comical mishaps, and great obstacles. With only his faith in God, and his Torah, he faces this great adventure with optimism and determination. Robbers, thieves, blizzards, Indians all are miraculously overcome, as he makes his way west. It is an truly an unbelievable story, but then again, I do recall a story about a rabbi from America, specifically, Altoona, who traveled half way around the world to a lead a congregation in Warsaw, Poland. So anything is possible. While previewing The Frisco Kid, I began to wonder what it must have been like to travel across our great country in 1850 by foot, horse, wagon and train. I also began to wonder about the Jewish experience in the westward movement. As a child of parents, grandparents and great grandparents from Des Moines, Iowa, I have always known that the Jewish experience in America was more than just urban tenements and city life. So I did a little research and I discovered the following: Before 1849 there were only a handful of Jews in San Francisco. But after the gold rush of 1849-50, San Francisco would become the second largest center of American Jewry by the 1870’s.
    [Show full text]
  • Western Jewish History Center, Vertical Files, 1868-2010, Bulk 1967-2010
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8416zqc No online items Finding Aid to the Western Jewish History Center, Vertical Files, 1868-2010, bulk 1967-2010 Finding Aid written by Jeffrey P. Sahaida The Bancroft Library University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, California, 94720-6000 Phone: (510) 642-6481 Fax: (510) 642-7589 Email: [email protected] URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ © 2007 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Finding Aid to the Western Jewish BANC MSS 2010/775 1 History Center, Vertical Files, 1868-2010, bulk 1967-2010 Finding Aid to the Western Jewish History Center, Vertical Files, 1868-2010, bulk 1967-2010 Collection Number: BANC MSS 2010/775 The Bancroft Library University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, California Finding Aid Written By: Jeffrey P. Sahaida Date Completed: November 2013 © 2013 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Collection Summary Collection Title: Western Jewish History Center, Vertical files Date (inclusive): 1868-2010, Date (bulk): bulk 1967-2010 Collection Number: BANC MSS 2010/775 Creator : Western Jewish History Center Extent: Number of containers: 23 cartons, 1 box, 2 oversize boxesLinear feet: 29.95 linear feet Repository: The Bancroft Library University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, California, 94720-6000 Phone: (510) 642-6481 Fax: (510) 642-7589 Email: [email protected] URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ Abstract: The Western Jewish History Center, Vertical Files contain the office reference and research files of the Center and document its efforts to provide guidance and assistance in the study of western Jewish Americana. Languages Represented: Collection materials are in English and Hebrew Physical Location: Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use.
    [Show full text]
  • The Integration of Jewish Refugees from Shanghai Into Post-World War II San Francisco
    The Integration of Jewish Refugees from Shanghai into Post-World War II San Francisco Sara Halpern American Jewish History, Volume 104, Number 1, January 2020, pp. 87-114 (Article) Published by Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ajh.2020.0000 For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/755246 [ This content has been declared free to read by the pubisher during the COVID-19 pandemic. ] The Integration of Jewish Refugees from Shanghai into Post-World War II San Francisco1 Sara Halpern The transnational story of “Shanghai Jews” began in 1938 after the Nazi annexation of Austria (Anschluss) and the November pogroms (Kristallnacht), when German and Austrian Jews sought to escape the inferno. Shanghai, which was one of the few places in the world that did not require an entry visa, offered one possible route out.2 In their quest to get there, more than 16,000 Jews rode on trains through the Brenner Pass on the Austrian-Italian border and embarked on ocean liners in Genoa. After that path closed in June 1940, they traveled on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok, where they boarded ships bound for Shanghai via Japan.3 Those trains and ships carried them to safety in Asia’s largest port, a city with over 5,000,000 Chinese and 50,000 foreigners. Over the next decade, as China experienced military and political turmoil, these German-speaking Jewish refugees formed a cohesive community of families and unaccompanied men, who were 1. The author expresses deep gratitude to present and past editors and anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback on earlier drafts.
    [Show full text]
  • Harriet Rochlin Collection of Western Jewish History, Date (Inclusive): Ca
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt9p3022wh No online items Finding Aid for the Harriet Rochlin Collection of Western Jewish History Processed by Manuscripts Division staff © 2004 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Finding Aid for the Harriet 1689 1 Rochlin Collection of Western Jewish History Finding Aid for the Harriet Rochlin Collection of Western Jewish History UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections Manuscripts Division Los Angeles, CA Processed by: Manuscripts Division staff Encoded by: ByteManagers using OAC finding aid conversion service specifications Encoding supervision and revision by: Caroline Cubé Edited by: Josh Fiala, May 2004 © 2004 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Descriptive Summary Title: Harriet Rochlin Collection of Western Jewish History, Date (inclusive): ca. 1800-1991 Collection number: 1689 Extent: 82 boxes (41.0 linear ft.) 1 oversize box Repository: University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections. Los Angeles, California 90095-1575 Abstract: Harriet Shapiro (1924- ) was a freelance writer and contributor of articles, feature stories, and reviews to magazines and scholarly journals. The collection consists of biographical information relating to Jewish individuals, families, businesses, and groups in the western U.S. Includes newspaper and magazine articles, book excerpts, correspondence, advertisements, interviews, memoirs, obituaries, professional listings, affidavits, oral histories, notes, maps, brochures, photographs, and audiocassettes. Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information. Language: English. Restrictions on Access COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Advance notice required for access.
    [Show full text]
  • American Jerusalem Press
    Actual Films and Switchback Films Present Press Kit Contact: Jackie Krentzman, executive producer/producer 510-524-7499 [email protected] About the film: Logline: American Jerusalem tells the story of the pioneer Jews of San Francisco, who came to California from Germany during the Gold Rush and were instrumental in Building the city. The roles they were relegated to in Germany⎯peddler and petty merchant⎯were highly valued in the Gold Rush. Therefore, because of the openness of Gold Rush California, these Jews were far more assimilated into and had a greater impact on the Building and defining of a major city than any other Jewish community in America. But this acceptance came at a price, as assimilation put this community in danger of losing its Jewish identity. Storyline: In 1850 20-year-old Adolph Sutro stepped off a steamer ship into the ragtag city of San Francisco, after an arduous journey from New York through the Panama Isthmus and up the Pacific Coast. No one made any special notice of him or his Jewish faith. For a young man who'd grown up in Germany, who had migrated to America with his mother and siblings to escape poverty and anti-Semitism, this was startling. American Jerusalem will trace the arcs of Sutro, Isaias Hellman and Levi Strauss, from tightly constrained lives in Germany to the unprecedented opportunities of Gold Rush San Francisco, to their critical role in putting on the 1915 World’s Fair—which demonstrated how thoroughly integrated the Jews were into the city’s power structure. Thousands of Jews left Germany around 1850 seeking economic and religious freedom in the United States.
    [Show full text]
  • The Journal of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society
    The Journal of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society Volume XXV, Number 1 February 2005 CALENDAR OF GENEALOGICAL EVENTS Meetings of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society Please note: Unless otherwise indicated, the meeting schedule is as follows: San Francisco: Sunday, Doors open 12:30 p.m. Program begins at 1 p.m. Jewish Community High School, 1835 Ellis Street. Jewish Community Library open on second floor. Free parking: enter parking area from Pierce Street. Los Altos Hills: Monday, Library opens at 7 p.m. Program begins at 7:30 p.m. Congregation Beth Am, 26790 Arastradero Road. Berkeley: Sunday, 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut Street, North Berkeley. Sun. February 27, Berkeley: Kvetch & Kvell! A Roundtable Discussion. Here’s an opportunity to share your success and stumbling blocks. Bagels and lox will be served. Mon. February 28, Los Altos Hills: A Recent Trip to Lithuania and Latvia. Presented by Jerry Delson, SFBAJGS Member. Last August, Delson and his wife Esther attended the Second World Litvak Congress in Vilnius, Lithuania. This was his second trip to Vilnius. The previous trip was in 1991, when Lithuania was just severing its ties with the USSR. Jerry’s talk will be based on material from the Congress, the visits and the people he met and books that have recently been published. His theme is Lithuanian Jewish history and the current rebirth of its Jewish community. Sun. March 20, San Francisco: The Holocaust Center of Northern California. The Holocaust Center of Northern California is moving into its new home on Steuart Street in San Francisco.
    [Show full text]
  • Draft Historic Context Statement: Golden Age of School Construction, San Francisco, California,” (2009)
    Revised Mission Dolores Neighborhood Context Statement November 2020 MISSION DOLORES NEIGHBORHOOD HISTORIC CONTEXT STATEMENT PREPARED FOR MISSION DOLORES NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA NOVEMBER 2020 PREPARED BY: ROLAND & NAWI ASSOCIATES 2007 CAREY & COMPANY 2009 CONSULTANTS KATHERINE PETRIN & SHAYNE WATSON 2016 SAN FRANCISCO PLANNING REVISIONS 2020 1 Revised Mission Dolores Neighborhood Context Statement November 2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Project History 5 Definition of Survey Area 8 PART I: METHODOLOGY 8 Field Methodology 8 Research Methodology 9 Evaluation Methodology 9 Significance & Integrity Framework 9 Evaluation Guidelines 14 Individual Properties Historic Districts PART II: HISTORIC CONTEXT 20 Themes: Natural Environment 21 Pre-Historic Settlement (Pre-1776) 21 Spanish Exploration and Settlement of Alta California (1776-1834) 23 Subtheme: Mission Development and the Native Americans Subtheme: Mission San Francisco de Asís Mexican Rule (1821-1848) 28 Early American Period (1848-1864) 30 Early Development Period (1864-1906) 36 1906 Earthquake and Reconstruction: (1906-1915) 50 Modern Development (1916-1943) 65 Postwar Era (1943-1965) 70 1965 to the Present 72 PART III: PROPERTY TYPES 76 Archeological 76 Residential 77 Mixed-use 79 Commercial 80 Institutional 80 PART IV SURVEY FINDINGS 83 Previously Designated Resources 83 Individually Eligible 84 Eligible Districts 84 Recommendations 86 BIBLIOGRAPHY 90 Cover Image: Mission Dolores, circa 1903. Source: Open SF History/wnp15.832.jpg. (Open SF History Historical Images of San Francisco, A Program of the Western Neighborhoods Project) 2 Revised Mission Dolores Neighborhood Context Statement November 2020 INTRODUCTION The Mission Dolores Neighborhood Context Statement and Neighborhood Survey are a result of a series of draft efforts by consultants Roland-Nawi Associates (2007), Carey & Co.
    [Show full text]