Jewish San Francisco, California (Images of America Series) Book

In San Francisco, the "instant city" of the gold rush days, Jews were pioneers among pioneers. Some came as immigrants directly from Europe, others as resettled adventurers from the East Coast, and still others as scions of southern Sephardic families. Out of this mixed multitude emerged a community with synagogues and institutions to care for the needy and the sick, along with a dignified social fabric. New immigrants following the Russian pogroms of 1883 were absorbed, and the ashen ruins from the 1906 earthquake were rebuilt. The city's cultural treasures and social needs were enriched, and the city's Jews were nurtured by civic commitments. Today's 70,000 San Francisco Jews, standing upon the shoulders of pioneering giants, continue to build and rebuild.

Edward Zerin, Ph.D, a retired congregational rabbi, psychotherapist, university professor, and author of The Birth of the Torah, has a long and distinguished record of Jewish history writing and consulting. In Jewish San Francisco, using vintage images from private collectors, as well as the archives of the Western Jewish History Center of the Judah L. Magnes Museum, Zerin portrays a mother lode of Jewish history on the West Coast and taps into a vein of social and cultural riches.