https://foundsf.org/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=Topher&feedformat=atomFoundSF - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T15:03:45ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.39.1https://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Nobby_Clarke%27s_Folly&diff=5621Nobby Clarke's Folly2008-03-06T08:25:41Z<p>Topher: fixed links</p>
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<div>[[Image:castro1$nobby-clarke_s-folly-present.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Nobby Clarke's Folly in the 1990s'''<br />
<br />
Nobby Clarke's Folly, at the corner of Douglass and Caselli in [http://shapingsf.org/wiki/popup_orvid?.html upper Eureka Valley], built on a 30-acre spread in 1892. Nobby Clarke got his money as clerk to the Police Chief during the first decades of San Francisco's urban existence.<br />
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[[Image:castro1$nobby-clarke_s-folly-]]<br />
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Nobby Clarke's Folly early view<br />
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[[Image:castro1$nobby-clarke_s-folly-]]<br />
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Nobby Clarke's Folly #2<br />
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Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Carlsson,Chris - Photographer-Artist ''<br />
<br />
Gaar Collection,San Francisco,CA - Publisher or Photographer<br />
<br />
[[1997 downtown view |Prev. Document]] [[Corwin Community Garden and Seward Mini-Park |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Mt._Olympus&diff=5609Mt. Olympus2008-02-29T09:51:40Z<p>Topher: </p>
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<div>[[Image:castro1$mount-olympus-view.jpg]]<br />
<br />
View of Mount Olympus from the Castro 1990s<br />
<br />
On a beautiful day in 1887, a large group of people gathered at a San Francisco intersection which no longer exists. At 16th and Ashbury, on the top of a hill known as Mt. Olympus, you would find the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, a band, the entire student body from the Sanchez Street School, and dozens of other onlookers. They came to witness the dedication of a huge statue called Triumph of Light that Adolph Sutro had donated to the City. Sutro, an eccentric millionaire entrepreneur and owner of roughly one twelfth of the land in San Francisco (most of it in the Richmond and the Sunset), was giving a mercifully short speech. He praised the view this public statue would command from Mt. Olympus: Marin and Vallejo in the distance; the roofs of the Mission up close.<br />
<br />
Over one hundred years later, I sat in UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library (home to rare books and archival papers) reading a pamphlet created to commemorate the event. The thick cover was cracking with age, and its references to civic pomp from so much earlier in San Francisco's history made what was once a cheesy souvenir into a bizarre and mysterious relic. I tried to imagine what it would have been like to stand on a hill in San Francisco and see only sand dunes where my Richmond apartment is now.<br />
<br />
Describing this long-ago dedication ceremony, the author of the pamphlet wrote, ''"The Monument, with a square of ground one hundred feet each way, is the gift of Adolph Sutro to the People and City of San Francisco . . . Time will spread the city to its base. Within a few decades it will be the center of life and stir. Old men will sit to rest on its steps, and playful children climb to the summit. Generations will fade away, and still that monument will Dally with the wind, and scorn the sun. Yet, while a semblance of its shape remains, the name of Adolph Sutro will linger in the memory of man. Children shall ask: Who built this Monument? And old men shall answer, Adolph Sutro, a pioneer of this fair land, a successful miner, a joyous free American Sovereign, a lover of Light and Liberty, that for all time those who live at its feet may be like him, and love them too!" ''<br />
<br />
But few people today remember Adolph Sutro, who was among other things one of the City's most anti-corporate mayors. And the City has not only spread to his Monument's base, but has consumed it. After nearly being destroyed by vandals, Sutro's much-celebrated gift was removed to make way for some of San Francisco's most valuable real estate. And yet Sutro's name floats at the edges of San Francisco's cultural and urban geography: Sutro Tower sits atop Sutro Hill; UC San Francisco was built on land that Sutro donated; tourists flock to [[Sutro Heights]] next to Golden Gate Park; and the ruins of [[The Sutro Baths (ruins) |Sutro's Baths]] decay enigmatically beneath the [[Cliff house]] (also built by Sutro).<br />
<br />
Sutro's Monument to liberty at the now-vanished corner of 16th and Ashbury has become in the end a monument to the powers of capital to rearrange the landscape of history even more effectively than politics can. Remembering another kind of history, in which the masses deserve free public parks and cheap transportation, takes work. You can find it hidden in libraries of rare books, newspaper archives, and reports written up for the National Parks Service. But it isn't obvious; you can't really see it in the ruins of another century without a great deal of interpretation.<br />
<br />
Perhaps this is why every several decades we have to learn again that the Octopus must be destroyed. In the remains of Sutro's Baths, and the populist spirit they embodied, we can find what was forgotten one hundred years ago.<br />
<br />
''--by Annalee Newitz, excerpted from "In Search of Adolph Sutro" in the ''San Francisco Bay Guardian'', January 13, 1999''<br />
<br />
[[Image:castro1$mt-olympus.jpg]]<br />
'''View of Mount Olympus from the Castro 1990s'''<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Carlsson, Chris - Photographer-Artist ''<br />
<br />
''San Francisco Bay Guardian, San Francisco,CA - Publisher''<br />
<br />
''Newitz, Annalee - Writer''<br />
<br />
''Weirde, Dr. - Writer''<br />
<br />
[[Castro Street 1997 |Prev. Document]] [[1997 downtown view |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Mt._Olympus&diff=5608Mt. Olympus2008-02-29T09:43:13Z<p>Topher: fixed links, added links</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:castro1$mount-olympus-view.jpg]]<br />
<br />
View of Mount Olympus from the Castro 1990s<br />
<br />
On a beautiful day in 1887, a large group of people gathered at a San Francisco intersection which no longer exists. At 16th and Ashbury, on the top of a hill known as Mt. Olympus, you would find the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, a band, the entire student body from the Sanchez Street School, and dozens of other onlookers. They came to witness the dedication of a huge statue called Triumph of Light that Adolph Sutro had donated to the City. Sutro, an eccentric millionaire entrepreneur and owner of roughly one twelfth of the land in San Francisco (most of it in the Richmond and the Sunset), was giving a mercifully short speech. He praised the view this public statue would command from Mt. Olympus: Marin and Vallejo in the distance; the roofs of the Mission up close.<br />
<br />
Over one hundred years later, I sat in UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library (home to rare books and archival papers) reading a pamphlet created to commemorate the event. The thick cover was cracking with age, and its references to civic pomp from so much earlier in San Francisco's history made what was once a cheesy souvenir into a bizarre and mysterious relic. I tried to imagine what it would have been like to stand on a hill in San Francisco and see only sand dunes where my Richmond apartment is now.<br />
<br />
Describing this long-ago dedication ceremony, the author of the pamphlet wrote, ''"The Monument, with a square of ground one hundred feet each way, is the gift of Adolph Sutro to the People and City of San Francisco . . . Time will spread the city to its base. Within a few decades it will be the center of life and stir. Old men will sit to rest on its steps, and playful children climb to the summit. Generations will fade away, and still that monument will Dally with the wind, and scorn the sun. Yet, while a semblance of its shape remains, the name of Adolph Sutro will linger in the memory of man. Children shall ask: Who built this Monument? And old men shall answer, Adolph Sutro, a pioneer of this fair land, a successful miner, a joyous free American Sovereign, a lover of Light and Liberty, that for all time those who live at its feet may be like him, and love them too!" ''<br />
<br />
But few people today remember Adolph Sutro, who was among other things one of the City's most anti-corporate mayors. And the City has not only spread to his Monument's base, but has consumed it. After nearly being destroyed by vandals, Sutro's much-celebrated gift was removed to make way for some of San Francisco's most valuable real estate. And yet Sutro's name floats at the edges of San Francisco's cultural and urban geography: Sutro Tower sits atop Sutro Hill; UC San Francisco was built on land that Sutro donated; tourists flock to [[Sutro Heights]] next to Golden Gate Park; and the ruins of [[The Sutro Baths (ruins) |Sutro's Baths]] decay enigmatically beneath the [[Cliff House]] (also built by Sutro).<br />
<br />
Sutro's Monument to liberty at the now-vanished corner of 16th and Ashbury has become in the end a monument to the powers of capital to rearrange the landscape of history even more effectively than politics can. Remembering another kind of history, in which the masses deserve free public parks and cheap transportation, takes work. You can find it hidden in libraries of rare books, newspaper archives, and reports written up for the National Parks Service. But it isn't obvious; you can't really see it in the ruins of another century without a great deal of interpretation.<br />
<br />
Perhaps this is why every several decades we have to learn again that the Octopus must be destroyed. In the remains of Sutro's Baths, and the populist spirit they embodied, we can find what was forgotten one hundred years ago.<br />
<br />
''--by Annalee Newitz, excerpted from "In Search of Adolph Sutro" in the ''San Francisco Bay Guardian'', January 13, 1999''<br />
<br />
[[Image:castro1$mt-olympus.jpg]]<br />
'''View of Mount Olympus from the Castro 1990s'''<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Carlsson, Chris - Photographer-Artist ''<br />
<br />
''San Francisco Bay Guardian, San Francisco,CA - Publisher''<br />
<br />
''Newitz, Annalee - Writer''<br />
<br />
''Weirde, Dr. - Writer''<br />
<br />
[[Castro Street 1997 |Prev. Document]] [[1997 downtown view |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Castro_Street_1997&diff=5607Castro Street 19972008-02-29T09:26:18Z<p>Topher: </p>
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<div>[[Image:castro1$castro-street-n-1997.jpg]]<br />
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'''1997 View northward on Castro Street from above 19th Street.'''<br />
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''''''<br />
<br />
== 1997 photograph of Castro Street at 19th. ==<br />
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[[Image:castro1$drag-queen-with-golf-ball.jpg]]<br />
<br />
Drag Queen with Golf Ball 1990s Castro<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Carlsson, Chris - Photographer-Artist ''<br />
<br />
''Gerharter, Rick - Photographer-Artist''<br />
<br />
[[Castro St North 1901 |Prev. Document]] [[Mt. Olympus |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Castro_St_North_1901&diff=5606Castro St North 19012008-02-29T09:22:57Z<p>Topher: fixed links</p>
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<div>[[Image:castro1$castro-street-n-c--1901.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Above 19th looking north on Castro c. 1901.'''<br />
<br />
''''''<br />
<br />
== 1901 photograph of Castro Street at 19th. ==<br />
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[[quarry_itm |Prev. Document]] [[Castro Street 1997 |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=18th_and_Castro_1914-5&diff=560318th and Castro 1914-52008-02-29T09:10:07Z<p>Topher: </p>
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<div>[[Image:castro1$castro-street-n-1915.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Northerly view up Castro from between 18th and 19th Streets November 6, 1914'''<br />
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''''''<br />
<br />
== Two photographs of Castro Street from 1914 and 1915. ==<br />
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[[Image:castro1$castro-street-n-1914.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Northerly view up Castro from between 18th and 19th Streets July 12, 1915.'''<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Gaar Collection,San Francisco,CA - Publisher or Photographer ''<br />
<br />
[[Market and Church |Prev. Document]] [[The Castro District: The rise of gay community |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Who_Pays_for_Public_Water%3F_S.F._vs._Suburbs&diff=5602Who Pays for Public Water? S.F. vs. Suburbs2008-02-29T09:07:39Z<p>Topher: </p>
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<div>[[Image:ecology1$pulgas-water-temple.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''San Francisco Water Department's Pulgas Waterworks'''<br />
<br />
'''They win--we lose '''<br />
<br />
Understanding the City-based water user's relationship to suburban water district growth is key to understanding the political thinking behind the November 1997 bonds and the PUC's ([[Public Utilities Commission]]) $2.36 billion expansion plan.<br />
<br />
Suburban water districts use 65 percent of the water delivered by our Water Department. Capital costs cannot be incrementally passed on to the suburban wholesale users until new construction is finished and up and running. Repair and replacement costs cannot be passed along to suburban users except as their formulaic share of ordinary maintenance costs.<br />
<br />
To make a long story shorter, the Suburban Purchasers (BAWUA) sued the City. A Settlement Agreement/Master Water Contract, signed in 1984, allows the suburbs to purchase Water Department supplies at the wholesale cost of production and delivery.<br />
<br />
The Suburban Purchasers receive pro-rata rebates for their "share" of utility plant equity; depreciation expense; and interest earned on the City's banked bond proceeds, which further reduces the urban costs. The Suburban Purchasers pay nothing for capital improvements performed inside City limits.<br />
<br />
The Suburban Purchasers are charged for their share of suburban-based capital improvements funded by revenue bonds. The suburban share is calculated according to the cheap wholesale rate base--and fixed asset value of the wholesale-only portion of the improvements--not the actual cost of the improvements.<br />
<br />
While City-based water rates are upwardly-affected by the value of improvements funded through Federal and State grants--the suburban rates are not.<br />
<br />
The eventual payment by suburban wholesale customers for their very moderate share of capital improvement bonded debt does not accrue to the people who put the money up-front. The SF retail consumer covers the entire debt with instantly increased rates: cold cash. The suburban contribution is painlessly realized, years later, by decreasing the amount of yearly "rebates."<br />
<br />
Nor do suburban payments figure in the PUC's calculations as a way to reduce rates proportionate to SF retail use. Suburban payments simply accrue to the PUC's cooked ledgers and transform into larger budgets for consultants and annual surpluses for the Board of Supervisors. As the surpluses flow to the supes, water rates increase--vitiating any "savings" from eventual pay-down on capital improvement costs by the Suburban Purchasers. In other words, the suburban wholesale buyers have a great deal--and we don't.<br />
<br />
'''Pipe dreams '''<br />
<br />
In 1996, City and suburban rate payers each paid $57 million for water. But, City retail users accounted for less than 35 percent of the water used. (City agencies and enterprises, e.g. Airport, receive "free" water, purchased by the SF taxpayer.) Last year, the suburbs were credited with $10 million off the above $57 million payment, due to their share of Water Department "income" and PUC "mistakes" in incorrectly classifying eighty assets as part of the wholesale rate base; failing to calibrate meters correctly; incorrectly calculating interest expense; and trying to charge the suburbs for construction projects that were uncompleted.<br />
<br />
SF residential and commercial rate payers are subsidizing suburban wholesale water costs due to PUC inefficiencies.<br />
<br />
In the instance of the proposed bonds, the PUC disingenuously implies that the suburbs will pick up 50-65 percent of the costs. The Suburban Purchasers may eventually pay a portion, but the payment will be vastly reduced by the fact that many of the bond-funded projects are within City limits. And most of the projects are covering up for the PUC's criminal failure to provide ordinary preventive maintenance to our system.<br />
<br />
The November bonds are not necessitated by any seismic emergencies. The system withstood Loma Prieta (7.1 Richter scale earthquake). In contradiction to Don Solem's campaign strategy of creating earthquake hysteria, the PUC informed bond investors in 1996 that, "The Water Department's transmission and distribution systems are engineered to withstand the effects of most earthquakes." The PUC admits that anticipated seismic improvements will not secure the system against anything larger than a 7.0 earthquake.<br />
<br />
The PUC's sky-is-falling bull about "aging infrastructure" is given the lie by the fact that the PUC depreciates the entire system at life spans up to 160 useful years.<br />
<br />
'''Esoterica '''<br />
<br />
The extent to which SF retail customers subsidize other users can be discerned in 1996 water rates--in cost units of 100 cubic feet--as opposed to the Controller's flotsam about "single family residences."*<br />
<br />
Retail rate per 100 cu. ft.<br />
<br />
Within City limits: $1.26<br />
<br />
Outside City limits: $1.19<br />
<br />
Wholesale rate per 100 cu. ft.<br />
<br />
Suburbs: $0.69<br />
<br />
Using a ratio derived from the smallest increment of the rate base, we see that the City retail user's share of capital bond payments is, at least, 1.83 times the Suburban Purchasers share. Under the best possible scenario, we pay double the operating and debt costs of the Suburban Purchasers, who use 65 percent of the water! By 2001, the PUC calculates that the suburbs will be using 69 percent of the water--despite Mission Bay, etc.<br />
<br />
* Before he was appointed Controller in 1991, Ed Harrington was the chief financial officer of the PUC.<br />
<br />
'''Damming the Flood '''<br />
<br />
Constructive alternatives to water bonds<br />
<br />
SFI makes a few suggestions for fixing the water system maintenance problems described in the Bond Report; the $2.36 billion Ten Year Plan; and the State's Compliance Orders.<br />
<br />
Construct a capital improvements and maintenance plan based on actual operational necessities and available funds--not pyramids of bond issuances. Charge suburban users and private developers for capital costs of infrastructure growth and development. Secure alternative sources of funding for essential maintenance and expansion needs from available State and Federal grants and loans. Reduce interest costs by amortizing instruments over shorter terms. Spend idle bond proceeds on urgent capital improvements and repairs and replacements (at least $102 million). Bid all contracts competitively with cost effectiveness as the main criteria. Cease the annual average $30 million surplus "gift" to over-spending supes and apply the funds to preventive maintenance. Require City agencies to stay within their budgets or be sanctioned. Require performance evaluations of consultants, civil service and union employees. Purge the PUC of ineffective, expensive consultants--as detailed by Rose and White. Reduce local water rates to parity with the Suburban Purchaser's wholesale price.<br />
<br />
'''Cut PUC fat. '''<br />
<br />
Fully combine the Water Department with Hetch Hetchy to achieve economies of scale and fiscal accountability. Keep the Charter priority to ensure the physical integrity of the water system before the requirement to pay bond principal and interest. Stop hiring tens of millions of dollars worth of "consultants" to do the work we already pay hundreds of PUC engineers and bureaucrats to do. Fire the "policy" makers and managers who have allowed our water system to become imperiled through demonstrably incompetent administration. Implement instructions of our Independent Auditors immediately. Prosecute white collar crime.<br />
<br />
'''PUC Ignores Water Safety Compliance Orders '''<br />
<br />
Slackers use fear to blackmail public<br />
<br />
SFI reviewed ten compliance orders issued to the San Francisco Public Utilities commission by the California Department of Health Services (DHS), which oversees Environmental Protection Agency regulations for maintaining safe drinking water standards. These orders are being used by the PUC as an excuse for demanding the November bonds.<br />
<br />
The orders--issued from 1993 to 1997--paint a picture of gross operational ineptitude--ranging from lack of adequate staff training, to discrediting of the PUC's water quality laboratory.<br />
<br />
DHS began commanding the PUC to monitor and report water quality deviations in 1993. The PUC consistently failed to comply with these easy orders, paying thousand of dollars in fines for its recidivism.<br />
<br />
Serious violations include contamination of the City's local drinking water during 3-alarm fires, due to the PUC's consistent refusal to segregate drinking water from non-potable fire-fighting water--an elementary mechanical operation. Incredibly, the November Bond Report fails to even mention this pressing problem.<br />
<br />
The most serious ongoing violation challenges the very structure of the PUC's water and power supply system. DHS complains that our safe drinking water is "compromised" by using it for generation of electrical power as it enters the aqueducts.<br />
<br />
Time after time, DHS begs the PUC to operate the drinking water system in compliance with reasonable environmental standards by doing its job professionally. Nowhere does DHS indicate the need for tremendous capital improvements.<br />
<br />
'''Selected DHS comments '''<br />
<br />
"If we cannot be assured that credible, accurate [water quality] data is being submitted, we would require the use of a laboratory not affiliated with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission." -- July 7, 1997<br />
<br />
Twelve major Findings concern "organizational, operational and plant equipment deficiencies ... the effects of sick leave, vacations ... training on [ability of staff to perform duties]." --February 5, 1996<br />
<br />
"Hetch Hetchy is operating O'Shaughnessy Dam without a domestic water supply permit." Failure to collect water samples, as per previous orders, is a "violation of primary drinking water standards and DHS citations." -- July 20, 1995<br />
<br />
PUC and SF Fire Department have not taken steps to segregate fire-fighting water from drinking water which has "resulted in contamination of the City's drinking water supply, and can endanger the health and safety of the City's residents." -- Sept. 29, 1995<br />
<br />
Noncompliance with emergency notification procedures to customers concerning water quality problems. PUC told DHS that a system was in place. When DHS checked, it discovered that the PUC had lied. Fined $3,000. -- August 9, 1995<br />
<br />
Failure to monitor turbidity; no well-defined performance criteria; failures to notify customers of water quality problems. "Questions raised regarding the degree to which drinking water is potentially compromised by the operation of this system to generate power." -- April 12, 1995<br />
<br />
All of these violations could be corrected with minimal operating expenditures--by a competent utility. Unless San Francisco is prepared to officially turn over our public utilities to PG&E and Bechtel--we better start insisting on normal professional competence from the highly paid slackers at the PUC.<br />
<br />
'''Surplus Scam Runs Deep '''<br />
<br />
PUC cooks books<br />
<br />
"PUC bureaucrats work to maximize Empire--while striving to endow their shenanigans with moral purpose." -- Jim Kindregan, PUC budget analyst for Mayors Moscone and Feinstein.<br />
<br />
The Water Department has $102 million in water bond cash sitting in an unrestricted investment account. Instead of using the $102 million for preventive maintenance, desk-jockeys cry poverty and impending doom--in order to float unneeded bonds.<br />
<br />
Utility-crats been raiding Water Department maintenance budgets to fund an endless series of "studies" and design and construction cost-overruns. They confidently squander the proceeds from our water bills on untenable "surpluses."<br />
<br />
SFI crunched 15 years of the City's annual financial statements and determined that, since 1982, the PUC has delivered $510 million in Water Department cash to the Board of Supervisors in the form of a Hetch Hetchy Project "surplus." Accounting gimmicks hide the fact that the phony surplus is attributable to excessive water charges--sucked from San Francisco's homeowners and commercial establishments.<br />
<br />
The surpluses were made possible by mis-appropriating revenue and bond money--while criminally neglecting the most basic maintenance of the water system. If the system was adequately maintained--there wouldn't be a "profit," or "surplus." Nor would there be a need for rate increases and 95 percent of the boondoggles listed in the PUC's $2.36 billion capital improvement plan.<br />
<br />
The generation of false "surpluses" depends on a paper-only separation of the Water Department from its ancillary: the Hetch Hetchy Project. The method guiding Surplus Scam aims to keep the Hetch Hetchy division's fund balances flush--in order to squeeze out the supe's slush. Water Department operating and capital budgets are pirated to jack up Hetch Hetchy's balance sheet.<br />
<br />
The arbitrary transfer of funds--on paper only--from the Water Department to Hetch Hetchy makes it look like the Water Department is poor--if one conveniently ignores the $102 million in unrestricted cash on hand. ("Restricted" cash is set-aside for bond repayments.)<br />
<br />
The Charter prohibits the supes from appropriating a "surplus" unless: "There is no unfunded operating or capital program which by its lack of funding could jeopardize health, safety, water supply or power production."<br />
<br />
The very existence of $355 million in outstanding bond principal--and $304 in proposed bond principal--shows that the Charter condition was not met when the supes declared a $45.7 million Hetch Hetchy surplus this year.<br />
<br />
In defiance of a Charter amendment approved by voters many years ago, a long trail of supes have saved their annual surpluses by refusing to combine the Water Department and its Hetch Hetchy Project at the budget level--as they are combined in practice, and in the City's audited annual financial statements.<br />
<br />
'''Waterfoul '''<br />
<br />
Hetch Hetchy is the power and water wholesale component of the Water Department. The Water Department is a wholesale buyer; wholesale seller; and retailer. In combination, the Water Department and Hetch Hetchy generated $191 million in liquid revenues last year. After expenses, the combined enterprises enjoyed a net income of $66 million. None of this "profit" went back into operating costs--which would have reduced our water rates! - or preventive maintenance, which would obviate the need for bonds.<br />
<br />
Instead, the profit went into the unrestricted cash account and to the supes. City Hall views these enterprises as cash cows--milking them to cover-up Mayor Brown's deficit spending--which is illegal.<br />
<br />
'''Bottomless well '''<br />
<br />
Last year, the Water Department sub-fund transferred $17 million--on paper--to the Hetch Hetchy sub-fund as a payment for water supplies, i.e. the Water Department purchased water from itself. The PUC accountants then cut $2.75 million from the Water Department maintenance budget and transferred it to the Hetch Hetchy account. Then, they charged the bulk of 664 Water Department/Hetch Hetchy salaries--and combined operating expenses--to the Water Department sub-fund alone--thus impoverishing the Water Department's operating budget--and generating a phony Hetch Hetchy "surplus" of $45.7 million--without touching the $102 million in lucrative investments!<br />
<br />
Ironically, the existence of the $102 million in "equity" allows the PUC to float more bonds--which we wouldn't need to do if we were not raiding the maintenance budget and cooking the books to generate the supe's slush.<br />
<br />
We have always had plenty of money to maintain the water system--and lower rates, too! But, the bureaucrats do not want to spend money on maintenance--because the system would then be well-maintained--and there would be no excuse to incur debt to hire friendly consultants to tell us that the system is under-maintained, and that friendly contractors can fix it.<br />
<br />
The Suburban Purchasers saw through the charade years ago and successfully sued the City for recompense. We local consumers should be so smart!<br />
<br />
''--Peter Byrne ''<br />
<br />
excerpted with permission from San Francisco Investigator, 3288 21st Street, Suite 161, SF CA 94110, tel. 415-285-7418, or on the web at www.ryzome.com/sfi<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''San Bruno Mountain Watch - Publisher or Photographer ''<br />
<br />
Caffentzis, Joe - Writer<br />
<br />
[[CISTERNS |Prev. Document]] [[The Hetch Hetchy Story, Part I: John Muir, Preservationists vs. Conservationists |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Who_Pays_for_Public_Water%3F_S.F._vs._Suburbs&diff=5601Who Pays for Public Water? S.F. vs. Suburbs2008-02-29T08:58:20Z<p>Topher: fixed links, typos</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:ecology1$pulgas-water-temple.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''San Francisco Water Department's Pulgas Waterworks'''<br />
<br />
'''They win--we lose '''<br />
<br />
Understanding the City-based water user's relationship to suburban water district growth is key to understanding the political thinking behind the November 1997 bonds and the PUC's ([[Public Utilities Commission]]) $2.36 billion expansion plan.<br />
<br />
Suburban water districts use 65 percent of the water delivered by our Water Department. Capital costs cannot be incrementally passed on to the suburban wholesale users until new construction is finished and up and running. Repair and replacement costs cannot be passed along to suburban users except as their formulaic share of ordinary maintenance costs.<br />
<br />
To make a long story shorter, the Suburban Purchasers (BAWUA) sued the City. A Settlement Agreement/Master Water Contract, signed in 1984, allows the suburbs to purchase Water Department supplies at the wholesale cost of production and delivery.<br />
<br />
The Suburban Purchasers receive pro-rata rebates for their "share" of utility plant equity; depreciation expense; and interest earned on the City's banked bond proceeds, which further reduces the urban costs. The Suburban Purchasers pay nothing for capital improvements performed inside City limits.<br />
<br />
The Suburban Purchasers are charged for their share of suburban-based capital improvements funded by revenue bonds. The suburban share is calculated according to the cheap wholesale rate base--and fixed asset value of the wholesale-only portion of the improvements--not the actual cost of the improvements.<br />
<br />
While City-based water rates are upwardly-affected by the value of improvements funded through Federal and State grants--the suburban rates are not.<br />
<br />
The eventual payment by suburban wholesale customers for their very moderate share of capital improvement bonded debt does not accrue to the people who put the money up-front. The SF retail consumer covers the entire debt with instantly increased rates: cold cash. The suburban contribution is painlessly realized, years later, by decreasing the amount of yearly "rebates."<br />
<br />
Nor do suburban payments figure in the PUC's calculations as a way to reduce rates proportionate to SF retail use. Suburban payments simply accrue to the PUC's cooked ledgers and transform into larger budgets for consultants and annual surpluses for the Board of Supervisors. As the surpluses flow to the supes, water rates increase--vitiating any "savings" from eventual pay-down on capital improvement costs by the Suburban Purchasers. In other words, the suburban wholesale buyers have a great deal--and we don't.<br />
<br />
'''Pipe dreams '''<br />
<br />
In 1996, City and suburban rate payers each paid $57 million for water. But, City retail users accounted for less than 35 percent of the water used. (City agencies and enterprises, e.g. Airport, receive "free" water, purchased by the SF taxpayer.) Last year, the suburbs were credited with $10 million off the above $57 million payment, due to their share of Water Department "income" and PUC "mistakes" in incorrectly classifying eighty assets as part of the wholesale rate base; failing to calibrate meters correctly; incorrectly calculating interest expense; and trying to charge the suburbs for construction projects that were uncompleted.<br />
<br />
SF residential and commercial rate payers are subsidizing suburban wholesale water costs due to PUC inefficiencies.<br />
<br />
In the instance of the proposed bonds, the PUC disingenuously implies that the suburbs will pick up 50-65 percent of the costs. The Suburban Purchasers may eventually pay a portion, but the payment will be vastly reduced by the fact that many of the bond-funded projects are within City limits. And most of the projects are covering up for the PUC's criminal failure to provide ordinary preventive maintenance to our system.<br />
<br />
The November bonds are not necessitated by any seismic emergencies. The system withstood Loma Prieta (7.1 Richter scale earthquake). In contradiction to Don Solem's campaign strategy of creating earthquake hysteria, the PUC informed bond investors in 1996 that, "The Water Department's transmission and distribution systems are engineered to withstand the effects of most earthquakes." The PUC admits that anticipated seismic improvements will not secure the system against anything larger than a 7.0 earthquake.<br />
<br />
The PUC's sky-is-falling bull about "aging infrastructure" is given the lie by the fact that the PUC depreciates the entire system at life spans up to 160 useful years.<br />
<br />
'''Esoterica '''<br />
<br />
The extent to which SF retail customers subsidize other users can be discerned in 1996 water rates--in cost units of 100 cubic feet--as opposed to the Controller's flotsam about "single family residences."*<br />
<br />
Retail rate per 100 cu. ft.<br />
<br />
Within City limits: $1.26<br />
<br />
Outside City limits: $1.19<br />
<br />
Wholesale rate per 100 cu. ft.<br />
<br />
Suburbs: $0.69<br />
<br />
Using a ratio derived from the smallest increment of the rate base, we see that the City retail user's share of capital bond payments is, at least, 1.83 times the Suburban Purchasers share. Under the best possible scenario, we pay double the operating and debt costs of the Suburban Purchasers, who use 65 percent of the water! By 2001, the PUC calculates that the suburbs will be using 69 percent of the water--despite Mission Bay, etc.<br />
<br />
* Before he was appointed Controller in 1991, Ed Harrington was the chief financial officer of the PUC.<br />
<br />
'''Damming the Flood '''<br />
<br />
Constructive alternatives to water bonds<br />
<br />
SFI makes a few suggestions for fixing the water system maintenance problems described in the Bond Report; the $2.36 billion Ten Year Plan; and the State's Compliance Orders.<br />
<br />
Construct a capital improvements and maintenance plan based on actual operational necessities and available funds--not pyramids of bond issuances. Charge suburban users and private developers for capital costs of infrastructure growth and development. Secure alternative sources of funding for essential maintenance and expansion needs from available State and Federal grants and loans. Reduce interest costs by amortizing instruments over shorter terms. Spend idle bond proceeds on urgent capital improvements and repairs and replacements (at least $102 million). Bid all contracts competitively with cost effectiveness as the main criteria. Cease the annual average $30 million surplus "gift" to over-spending supes and apply the funds to preventive maintenance. Require City agencies to stay within their budgets or be sanctioned. Require performance evaluations of consultants, civil service and union employees. Purge the PUC of ineffective, expensive consultants--as detailed by Rose and White. Reduce local water rates to parity with the Suburban Purchaser's wholesale price.<br />
<br />
'''Cut PUC fat. '''<br />
<br />
Fully combine the Water Department with Hetch Hetchy to achieve economies of scale and fiscal accountability. Keep the Charter priority to ensure the physical integrity of the water system before the requirement to pay bond principal and interest. Stop hiring tens of millions of dollars worth of "consultants" to do the work we already pay hundreds of PUC engineers and bureaucrats to do. Fire the "policy" makers and managers who have allowed our water system to become imperiled through demonstrably incompetent administration. Implement instructions of our Independent Auditors immediately. Prosecute white collar crime.<br />
<br />
'''PUC Ignores Water Safety Compliance Orders '''<br />
<br />
Slackers use fear to blackmail public<br />
<br />
SFI reviewed ten compliance orders issued to the San Francisco Public Utilities commission by the California Department of Health Services (DHS), which oversees Environmental Protection Agency regulations for maintaining safe drinking water standards. These orders are being used by the PUC as an excuse for demanding the November bonds.<br />
<br />
The orders--issued from 1993 to 1997--paint a picture of gross operational ineptitude--ranging from lack of adequate staff training, to discrediting of the PUC's water quality laboratory.<br />
<br />
DHS began commanding the PUC to monitor and report water quality deviations in 1993. The PUC consistently failed to comply with these easy orders, paying thousand of dollars in fines for its recidivism.<br />
<br />
Serious violations include contamination of the City's local drinking water during 3-alarm fires, due to the PUC's consistent refusal to segregate drinking water from non-potable fire-fighting water--an elementary mechanical operation. Incredibly, the November Bond Report fails to even mention this pressing problem.<br />
<br />
The most serious ongoing violation challenges the very structure of the PUC's water and power supply system. DHS complains that our safe drinking water is "compromised" by using it for generation of electrical power as it enters the aqueducts.<br />
<br />
Time after time, DHS begs the PUC to operate the drinking water system in compliance with reasonable environmental standards by doing its job professionally. Nowhere does DHS indicate the need for tremendous capital improvements.<br />
<br />
'''Selected DHS comments '''<br />
<br />
"If we cannot be assured that credible, accurate [water quality] data is being submitted, we would require the use of a laboratory not affiliated with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission." -- July 7, 1997<br />
<br />
Twelve major Findings concern "organizational, operational and plant equipment deficiencies ... the effects of sick leave, vacations ... training on [ability of staff to perform duties]." --February 5, 1996<br />
<br />
"Hetch Hetchy is operating O'Shaughnessy Dam without a domestic water supply permit." Failure to collect water samples, as per previous orders, is a "violation of primary drinking water standards and DHS citations." -- July 20, 1995<br />
<br />
PUC and SF Fire Department have not taken steps to segregate fire-fighting water from drinking water which has "resulted in contamination of the City's drinking water supply, and can endanger the health and safety of the City's residents." -- Sept. 29, 1995<br />
<br />
Noncompliance with emergency notification procedures to customers concerning water quality problems. PUC told DHS that a system was in place. When DHS checked, it discovered that the PUC had lied. Fined $3,000. -- August 9, 1995<br />
<br />
Failure to monitor turbidity; no well-defined performance criteria; failures to notify customers of water quality problems. "Questions raised regarding the degree to which drinking water is potentially compromised by the operation of this system to generate power." -- April 12, 1995<br />
<br />
All of these violations could be corrected with minimal operating expenditures--by a competent utility. Unless San Francisco is prepared to officially turn over our public utilities to PG&E and Bechtel--we better start insisting on normal professional competence from the highly paid slackers at the PUC.<br />
<br />
'''Surplus Scam Runs Deep '''<br />
<br />
PUC cooks books<br />
<br />
"PUC bureaucrats work to maximize Empire--while striving to endow their shenanigans with moral purpose." -- Jim Kindregan, PUC budget analyst for Mayors Moscone and Feinstein.<br />
<br />
The Water Department has $102 million in water bond cash sitting in an unrestricted investment account. Instead of using the $102 million for preventive maintenance, desk-jockeys cry poverty and impending doom--in order to float unneeded bonds.<br />
<br />
Utility-crats been raiding Water Department maintenance budgets to fund an endless series of "studies" and design and construction cost-overruns. They confidently squander the proceeds from our water bills on untenable "surpluses."<br />
<br />
SFI crunched 15 years of the City's annual financial statements and determined that, since 1982, the PUC has delivered $510 million in Water Department cash to the Board of Supervisors in the form of a Hetch Hetchy Project "surplus." Accounting gimmicks hide the fact that the phony surplus is attributable to excessive water charges--sucked from San Francisco's homeowners and commercial establishments.<br />
<br />
The surpluses were made possible by mis-appropriating revenue and bond money--while criminally neglecting the most basic maintenance of the water system. If the system was adequately maintained--there wouldn't be a "profit," or "surplus." Nor would there be a need for rate increases and 95 percent of the boondoggles listed in the PUC's $2.36 billion capital improvement plan.<br />
<br />
The generation of false "surpluses" depends on a paper-only separation of the Water Department from its ancillary: the Hetch Hetchy Project. The method guiding Surplus Scam aims to keep the Hetch Hetchy division's fund balances flush--in order to squeeze out the supe's slush. Water Department operating and capital budgets are pirated to jack up Hetch Hetchy's balance sheet.<br />
<br />
The arbitrary transfer of funds--on paper only--from the Water Department to Hetch Hetchy makes it look like the Water Department is poor--if one conveniently ignores the $102 million in unrestricted cash on hand. ("Restricted" cash is set-aside for bond repayments.)<br />
<br />
The Charter prohibits the supes from appropriating a "surplus" unless: "There is no unfunded operating or capital program which by its lack of funding could jeopardize health, safety, water supply or power production."<br />
<br />
The very existence of $355 million in outstanding bond principal--and $304 in proposed bond principal--shows that the Charter condition was not met when the supes declared a $45.7 million Hetch Hetchy surplus this year.<br />
<br />
In defiance of a Charter amendment approved by voters many years ago, a long trail of supes have saved their annual surpluses by refusing to combine the Water Department and its Hetch Hetchy Project at the budget level--as they are combined in practice, and in the City's audited annual financial statements.<br />
<br />
'''Waterfoul '''<br />
<br />
Hetch Hetchy is the power and water wholesale component of the Water Department. The Water Department is a wholesale buyer; wholesale seller; and retailer. In combination, the Water Department and Hetch Hetchy generated $191 million in liquid revenues last year. After expenses, the combined enterprises enjoyed a net income of $66 million. None of this "profit" went back into operating costs--which would have reduced our water rates! - or preventive maintenance, which would obviate the need for bonds.<br />
<br />
Instead, the profit went into the unrestricted cash account and to the supes. City Hall views these enterprises as cash cows--milking them to cover-up Mayor Brown's deficit spending--which is illegal.<br />
<br />
'''Bottomless well '''<br />
<br />
Last year, the Water Department sub-fund transferred $17 million--on paper--to the Hetch Hetchy sub-fund as a payment for water supplies, i.e. the Water Department purchased water from itself. The PUC accountants then cut $2.75 million from the Water Department maintenance budget and transferred it to the Hetch Hetchy account. Then, they charged the bulk of 664 Water Department/Hetch Hetchy salaries--and combined operating expenses--to the Water Department sub-fund alone--thus impoverishing the Water Department's operating budget--and generating a phony Hetch Hetchy "surplus" of $45.7 million--without touching the $102 million in lucrative investments!<br />
<br />
Ironically, the existence of the $102 million in "equity" allows the PUC to float more bonds--which we wouldn't need to do if we were not raiding the maintenance budget and cooking the books to generate the supe's slush.<br />
<br />
We have always had plenty of money to maintain the water system--and lower rates, too! But, the bureaucrats do not want to spend money on maintenance--because the system would then be well-maintained--and there would be no excuse to incur debt to hire friendly consultants to tell us that the system is under-maintained, and that friendly contractors can fix it.<br />
<br />
The Suburban Purchasers saw through the charade years ago and successfully sued the City for recompense. We local consumers should be so smart!<br />
<br />
''--Peter Byrne ''<br />
<br />
excerpted with permission from San Francisco Investigator, 3288 21st Street, Suite 161, SF CA 94110, tel. 415-285-7418, or on the web at www.ryzome.com/sfi<br />
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Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''San Bruno Mountain Watch - Publisher or Photographer ''<br />
<br />
Caffentzis,Joe - Writer<br />
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[[CISTERNS |Prev. Document]] [[The Hetch Hetchy Story, Part I: John Muir, Preservationists vs. Conservationists |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Yerba_Buena_Cove&diff=5600Yerba Buena Cove2008-02-29T08:20:30Z<p>Topher: </p>
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<div>[[Image:soma1$yerba-buena-cove-1849.jpg]]<br />
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'''Yerba Buena Cove in 1849.'''<br />
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<br />
== Drawings of Yerba Buena Cove from 1849 and 1859. Map of streets created by the filling of Yerba Buena Cove. ==<br />
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[[Image:soma1$yerba-buena-cove-lots-map.jpg]]<br />
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'''Map of Yerba Buena cove water lots to be filled in, c. 1852.'''<br />
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[[Image:soma1$yerba-buena-cove-from-s-1850.jpg]]<br />
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'''Yerba Buena Cove in 1850, looking towards Telegraph Hill from Rincon Hill.'''<br />
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Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''California Historical Society,San Francisco,CA - Publisher or Photographer ''<br />
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[[TAR FLAT |Prev. Document]] [[Pacific Mail Docks |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Yerba_Buena_Cove&diff=5599Yerba Buena Cove2008-02-29T08:19:48Z<p>Topher: </p>
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<div>[[Image:soma1$yerba-buena-cove-1849.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Yerba Buena Cove in 1849.'''<br />
<br />
<br />
== Drawings of Yerba Buena Cove from 1849 and 1859. Map of streets created by the filling of Yerba Buena Cove. ==<br />
<br />
[[Image:soma1$yerba-buena-cove-lots-map.jpg]]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Map of Yerba Buena cove water lots to be filled in, c. 1852.'''<br />
<br />
[[Image:soma1$yerba-buena-cove-from-s-1850.jpg]]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Yerba Buena Cove in 1850, looking towards Telegraph Hill from Rincon Hill.'''<br />
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Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''California Historical Society,San Francisco,CA - Publisher or Photographer ''<br />
<br />
<br />
[[TAR FLAT |Prev. Document]] [[Pacific Mail Docks |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Fillmore_Arches_Torn_Down&diff=5598Fillmore Arches Torn Down2008-02-29T08:05:54Z<p>Topher: </p>
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<div>[[Image:westaddi$fillmore-ppie-towers.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''In 1943, the iron towers that had crowned each intersection of Fillmore Street for decades, originally built as a gateway to the [[SAILING TO BYZANTIUM: 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition]] at the Marina, were torn down as scrap metal for WWII.'''<br />
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''''''<br />
<br />
== Photographs of the dismantling of the Fillmore Arches, torn down for scrap metal during World War II. ==<br />
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[[Image:westaddi$ppie-fillmore-scrap-1943.jpg]]<br />
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Arches from the PPIE on Fillmore being torn down in 1943.<br />
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Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Gaar Collection,San Francisco,CA - Publisher or Photographer ''<br />
<br />
Gaar Collection,San Francisco,CA - Publisher or Photographer<br />
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[[Fillmore Cultural Capital |Prev. Document]] [[Fillmore Street 1960 |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Fillmore:_A_Jewish_Neighborhood_in_the_1920s&diff=5597The Fillmore: A Jewish Neighborhood in the 1920s2008-02-29T08:02:42Z<p>Topher: </p>
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<div>[[Image:westaddi$bread-truck-1920s.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''By the early 1920s, Langendorf's Jewish Bakery had a fleet of trucks delivering across the city.'''<br />
<br />
San Francisco had a lively Jewish neighborhood in the 1920s and 1930s. It flourished as part of the Fillmore District for about forty years. Before Jewish families moved out to more fashionable residential areas of the city or to the suburbs, shoppers poured into the busy food stores and markets on Fillmore and McAllister Streets on Saturday nights and Sundays. There they bought Kosher meats and chickens at the butcher and poultry counters. On Saturday nights stores opened after sundown when the twenty-four hour Jewish Sabbath ended, and stayed open until eleven o'clock.<br />
<br />
This heavy concentration of Jewish families and businesses began to appear immediately after the 1906 earthquake and fire razed much of the South-of-Market area. Many of the Jews who had come to San Francisco before the turn of the century had settled south of Market. When their homes were demolished they moved up to McAllister and the Fillmore District.<br />
<br />
The former headquarters and social rooms of the San Francisco Labor Lyceum Association were in a basement at 1740 O'Farrell Street. The old Workmen's Circle and Socialist Party activities centered here.<br />
<br />
During the Jewish High Holidays, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, there were crowds throughout the day in front of the district's three synagogues on Geary, Webster, and Golden Gate Avenue. Many came outside periodically for some fresh air and a break from praying. A good percentage, however, never went in. Some couldn't afford membership in the congregations. Others were nonbelievers who nevertheless felt a need to identify themselves as Jews on the special days and "be counted."<br />
<br />
As in many other major American cities, Jews -- along with other whites moving up the middle class ladder -- had a mass exodus to the suburbs in the post-war era. San Francisco lost half its Jewish families between 1959-1973, many moved to Marin and the Peninsula. Suburbanization meant the demise of this dense, culturally rich Jewish neighborhood.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Langendorf Bakery, 1160 McAllister St.'''<br />
<br />
Langendorf's was considered to be the Number One Jewish bakery in the neighborhood. During the High Holidays, from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, the windows of the retail store would have on display jumbo-sized "challah" (egg twist) bread. Some were filled with raisins and candied fruit pieces, and the braided top crusts were sprinkled with colored candy or poppy seeds.<br />
<br />
Bernard Langendorf came to America from Vienna when he was sixteen. He moved his small bakery west from Chicago to San Francisco in 1895, establishing Langendorf's Vienna Bakery on Folsom Street, south of Market.<br />
<br />
His rye bread was reportedly made from an old Viennese formula. After the 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed his small bakery, Bernard re-opened at 878 McAllister, near Laguna. In 1915, with $400,000 raised from ten prominent San Franciscans, he built a new, expanded plant at 1160 McAllister. By the early Twenties, a fleet of delivery wagons with tow-horse teams rented from a nearby stable, together with several battery-operated white trucks, were covering the City. Neighboring merchants and former employees remember Bernard boarding the No. 5 McAllister streetcar and carrying a paper bag full of bakery cash on his way to the bank.<br />
<br />
'''Heineman & Stern, 1040 McAllister St.'''<br />
<br />
This was a sausage and meat-products factory with a retail counter. You walked into the white-tile-front store to a wooden floor covered with clean sawdust. Featured were displays of Kosher-style hot dogs, salamis, and balonies. The factory, established in 1877 on Larkin Street, moved to this location after the 1906 earthquake and fire. It remained here until 1971 when the business was sold and moved across the Bay to San Lorenzo.<br />
<br />
'''Jefferson Market, 1002 Buchanan St.'''<br />
<br />
The Jefferson, owned by I. Goldstein, was the principal fresh-chicken headquarters for the San Francisco's Jewish community. The place bulged with screeching chickens. A cloud of feathers constantly filled the air. Cages of noisy chickens were piled up on the sidewalk outside, leaving only narrow aisles for passing pedestrians and entering customers. You selected the chicken you wanted and one of the clerks would take it, squawking and flapping, out of the cage. He would carry it back to the rear of the market where the "shochet," the Kosher slaughterer, killed it with a straight-edge razor slit across the neck and hung it head down to let it bleed. Then it was plucked clean of feathers, wrapped in a newspaper, and handed to you.<br />
<br />
'''Congregation Kenesth Israel. 935 Webster Street.'''<br />
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One of the Fillmore District's two orthodox synagogues. It was founded by religious immigrant Jews who wanted to follow strictly the precepts their families had lived by in the Old Country. They had split away from another group which founded the Beth Israel Congregation, a conservative -- that is, less orthodox -- synagogue on Geary Street. The cornerstone for the Webster Street building was laid in 1903. Today, the congregation now holds services at the Jack Tar Office Building on Post Street.<br />
<br />
'''Diller's Strictly Kosher Restaurant. 1233 Golden Gate.'''<br />
<br />
Diller's was the biggest, the best, and the most popular Jewish restaurant in the neighborhood -- and the City. Dinner cost a "bissel" (little) more -- seventy-five cents instead of the fifty-cent price at Schindler's -- but it was worth it. On weekend nights Diller's was packed. Many Jewish families returning to the City from the popular Sunday picnics of that day at San Mateo Park or Alum Rock Park in San Jose would come directly to Diller's for dinner before going home.<br />
<br />
'''Hamilton Junior High School, Geary near Scott.'''<br />
<br />
The school was built in 1875 and torn down in 1930. It stood next door to Girl's High School, now Benjamin Franklin Junior High. The student body was predominantly a mixture of white, black and Japanese, reflecting the ethnic makeup of the portion of the Western Addition District.<br />
<br />
''--by Kate Shvetsky ''<br />
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'''Source''': Jerry Flamm, ''Good Life in Hard Times,'' Chronicle Books, San Francisco<br />
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Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Gaar Collection, San Francisco, CA - Publisher or Photographer ''<br />
<br />
Shvetsky, Kate - Writer<br />
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[[Fillmore Street 1906 |Prev. Document]] [[Fillmore Cultural Capital |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Gerstle_Family&diff=5596Gerstle Family2008-02-29T07:43:35Z<p>Topher: </p>
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<div>== Prominent early San Francisco Jewish family, the Gerstles. Photograph of the family. ==<br />
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[[Image:jewishsf$gerstle-family-portrait.jpg]]<br />
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All In The Family: The Gerstles<br />
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The failure of the revolutions of 1848 in Central and Western Europe to produce a change in the second class citizen status of Jews and the anti-Jewish policies of the Czar in Russia prompted many Jews to emigrate to the United States. Among that tide of immigrants was young [[ALASKA COMMERCIAL CORPORATION |Lewis Gerstle]] who came to this country in 1843, first settling in Louisville, Kentucky before arriving in California in 1850.<br />
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''''''<br />
[[Yiddish Culture in San Francisco | Prev. Document]] [[Jewish Life in SF menu | Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Yiddish_Culture_in_San_Francisco&diff=5595Yiddish Culture in San Francisco2008-02-29T07:42:16Z<p>Topher: </p>
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<div>[[Image:jewishsf$bassya.jpg]]<br />
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'''Yiddish actress Bassya, poet, author, secretary, and actress, from Bessarabia. Arrived in San Francisco in 1921.'''<br />
<br />
''"Once again in a rainy winter evening, a few young men sitting around over a hot glass of tea were thinking ways to reawaken the cold and indifferent Jewry of the city. They came to the conclusion that only through Yiddish Theater would it be possible to reach their hearts and plant a longing for the Yiddish word." ''<br />
<br />
--from a 1929 pamphlet on the Yiddish folk school<br />
<br />
The Eastern European Jews that arrived in San Francisco during the early part of first half of the 20th century found an assimilated "Americanized" Jewish community. In an attempt to infuse their lives with a sense of authentic Jewish culture, young Eastern European Jewish immigrants organized the Jewish Folk Shule (school) in 1922. The school became the central hub of Yiddish culture in the city featuring a literary dramatic club, a socialist workman's circle (Arbeiter Ring), Zionist gatherings, classes for adults, literary and musical evenings, and lectures.<br />
<br />
School member Philip Bibiel writes of the organization in 1929, "...through friendship and conviction (the school) converts the assimilated, almost gentile, contemptuous San Francisco, into a city where Yiddish is blossoming, a place where Yiddish receives "recognition." The Jewish San Francisco will become for the western part of America, in the future, what New York is for the eastern part now."<br />
<br />
''--Dina Kraft''<br />
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Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Kraft, Dina - Writer ''<br />
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[[Levi Strauss |Prev. Document]] [[Gerstle Family |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Levi_Strauss&diff=5594Levi Strauss2008-02-29T07:38:30Z<p>Topher: </p>
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<div>[[Image:jewishsf$levi-strauss-portrait.jpg]]<br />
<br />
Levi Strauss, founder of the Levi's Company.<br />
<br />
The inventor of the "quintessential American garment" was born Loeb Strauss in Buttenheim, Bavaria 1829, the son of a dry goods peddler. By 1848 he had arrived in Kentucky and was learning dry goods trade. He arrived on the heels of the gold rush in 1853 to San Francisco. He opened his first store with his brother-in-law in a small building on California Street. By 1866 his headquarters took up both 14-16 Battery St. The man who insisted all his employees call him Levi was active in business and cultural life of San Francisco. He supported the Jewish Community and belonged to Temple Emanu-el.<br />
<br />
Like most Jews who arrived in San Francisco, Levi Strauss sought his fortune in commerce, not gold. Strauss, in business with his brothers in New York, exemplified the typical Jewish merchant dependent on credit and supply from friends and family based in the east coast.<br />
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It is not known how he came up with idea of creating sturdy work pants from canvas but the pants quickly became popular as he took jeans on the road as peddler traveling throughout small gold country towns. One version of the jeans brainchild recalls Levi pushing a cart of denim for tents through the muddy San Francisco street. According to the story, a miner informed Levi that it was not tents, but sturdy pants that were in demand. In a flash, Levi brought the miner and a swath of denim to a local tailor and ... the rest is history.<br />
<br />
However, it was in 1872 that Levi received a letter which changed the company's history. Nevada tailor Jacob Davis started placing metal rivets at the points of strain on pants with cloth he bought from Levi Strauss and Co. He wrote Levi with the invention and suggested they patent the process together. The demand for these "waist overalls' became overwhelming.<br />
<br />
In 1890, the lot number 501 first appeared on the denim overalls, and Levi and his nephews incorporated the company.<br />
<br />
Levi was a charter member and treasurer of the San Francisco Board of trade since 1877. He contributed to Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum and Home, the Eureka Benevolent Society and the Hebrew Board of Relief. In 1897 he provided for 28 scholarships to UC-Berkeley.<br />
<br />
[[BASTA YA! April 1970 Letters from the Boss--Cartas del Dueño 1960s Conditions]]<br />
<br />
[[LEVI's, Too?!?]]<br />
<br />
[[LEVI'S: Blue Jean Kings Levi's Co.]]<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Levi's and Company - Publisher or Photographer ''<br />
<br />
Fracchia, Charles A. - Writer<br />
<br />
[[Temple Emmanu-el 1990s |Prev. Document]] [[Yiddish Culture in San Francisco |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Yiddish_Culture_in_San_Francisco&diff=5590Yiddish Culture in San Francisco2008-02-26T09:42:03Z<p>Topher: fixed links</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:jewishsf$bassya.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Yiddish actress Bassya, poet, author, secretary, and actress, from Bessarabia. Arrived in San Francisco in 1921.'''<br />
<br />
''"Once again in a rainy winter evening, a few young men sitting around over a hot glass of tea were thinking ways to reawaken the cold and indifferent Jewry of the city. They came to the conclusion that only through Yiddish Theater would it be possible to reach their hearts and plant a longing for the Yiddish word." ''<br />
<br />
--from a 1929 pamphlet on the Yiddish folk school<br />
<br />
The Eastern European Jews that arrived in San Francisco during the early part of first half of the 20th century found an assimilated "Americanized" Jewish community. In an attempt to infuse their lives with a sense of authentic Jewish culture, young Eastern European Jewish immigrants organized the Jewish Folk Shule (school) in 1922. The school became the central hub of Yiddish culture in the city featuring a literary dramatic club, a socialist workman's circle (Arbeiter Ring), Zionist gatherings, classes for adults, literary and musical evenings, and lectures.<br />
<br />
School member Philip Bibiel writes of the organization in 1929, "...through friendship and conviction (the school) converts the assimilated, almost gentile, contemptuous San Francisco, into a city where Yiddish is blossoming, a place where Yiddish receives "recognition." The Jewish San Francisco will become for the western part of America, in the future, what New York is for the eastern part now."<br />
<br />
''--Dina Kraft''<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Kraft,Dina - Writer ''<br />
<br />
[[Levi Strauss |Prev. Document]] [[Gerstle Family |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Levi_Strauss&diff=5589Levi Strauss2008-02-26T09:41:19Z<p>Topher: fixed links</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:jewishsf$levi-strauss-portrait.jpg]]<br />
<br />
Levi Strauss, founder of the Levi's Company.<br />
<br />
The inventor of the "quintessential American garment" was born Loeb Strauss in Buttenheim, Bavaria 1829, the son of a dry goods peddler. By 1848 he had arrived in Kentucky and was learning dry goods trade. He arrived on the heels of the gold rush in 1853 to San Francisco. He opened his first store with his brother-in-law in a small building on California Street. By 1866 his headquarters took up both 14-16 Battery St. The man who insisted all his employees call him Levi was active in business and cultural life of San Francisco. He supported the Jewish Community and belonged to Temple Emanu-el.<br />
<br />
Like most Jews who arrived in San Francisco, Levi Strauss sought his fortune in commerce, not gold. Strauss, in business with his brothers in New York exemplified the typical Jewish merchant dependent on credit and supply from friends and family based in the east coast.<br />
<br />
It is not known how he came up with idea of creating sturdy work pants from canvas but the pants quickly became popular as he took jeans on the road as peddler travelling throughout small gold country towns. One version of the jeans brainchild recalls Levi pushing a cart of denim for tents through the muddy San Francisco street. According to the story, a miner informed Levi that it was not tents, but sturdy pants that were in demand. In a flash, Levi brought the miner and a swath of denim to a local tailor and ... the rest is history.<br />
<br />
However, it was in 1872 that Levi received a letter which changed the company's history. Nevada tailor Jacob Davis started placing metal rivets at the points of strain on pants with cloth he bought from Levi Strauss and Co. He wrote Levi with the invention and suggested they patent the process together. The demand for these "waist overalls' became overwhelming.<br />
<br />
In 1890, the lot number 501 first appeared on the denim overalls, and Levi and his nephews incorporated the company.<br />
<br />
Levi was a charter member and treasurer of the San Francisco Board of trade since 1877. He contributed to Pacific Hebrew orphan asylum and home, the Eureka Benevolent Society and the Hebrew Board of Relief. In 1897 he provided for 28 scholarships to UC-Berkeley.<br />
<br />
[[BASTA YA! April 1970 Letters from the Boss--Cartas del Dueño 1960s Conditions]]<br />
<br />
[[LEVI's, Too?!? 1990s Protest]]<br />
<br />
[[LEVI'S: Blue Jean Kings Levi's Co.]]<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Levi's and Company - Publisher or Photographer ''<br />
<br />
Fracchia,Charles,A. - Writer<br />
<br />
[[Temple Emmanu-el 1990s |Prev. Document]] [[Yiddish Culture in San Francisco |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Temple_Emanu-El_of_SF&diff=5587Temple Emanu-El of SF2008-02-26T09:38:08Z<p>Topher: fixed links</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:jewishsf$union-square-1891.jpg]]<br />
<br />
''' View north across Union Square 1891.'''<br />
<br />
Temple Emmanu-el was the wealthier of two original Jewish congregations, representing the German-born Jews in early San Francisco.<br />
<br />
On Rosh Hashana of 1849 the young merchant Lewis Abraham Franklin's storage tent on Jackson Street became the site of the first Jewish service held in San Francisco. However, the first synagogue would not be established for five more years.<br />
<br />
A rift between those of German and Polish background marked a breakdown within the small Jewish community. The establishment of two separate synagogues in 1854 - Emmanu-el for the German Jews, and Sherith Israel helped solidify the division that would last well into the 20th century. The German Jews brought to America their European cultural bias against Eastern European Jews as inferior and considered themselves the "aristocrats of the emigres."<br />
<br />
The Temple Emmanu-el congregation of 260 mostly German Jews soon moved into a newly built large and elegant synagogue on 450 Sutter St. in 1864. Dr. Julius Eckman, an active pro-Union supporter during the Civil War and ironically a Polish Jew, was the first rabbi to preside over the elite congregation.<br />
<br />
[[Image:jewishsf$old-temple-emmanu-el.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''The old Temple Emmanu-el on Sutter near Powell Street (destroyed in the 1906 earthquake). '''<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''San Francisco Public Library,San Francisco,CA - Publisher or Photographer ''<br />
<br />
Gaar Collection,San Francisco,CA - Publisher or Photographer<br />
<br />
Shvetsky,Kate - Writer<br />
<br />
[[S Bachman Letters | Prev. Document]] [[Temple Emmanu-el 1990s |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=S_Bachman_Letters&diff=5586S Bachman Letters2008-02-26T09:35:09Z<p>Topher: fixed links</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:jewishsf$market-street-from-ferry-1880s.jpg]]<br />
<br />
Looking up Market Street from the Ferry Building; late 19th century<br />
<br />
LETTERS FROM SOLOMAN BACHMAN, 1854-1864<br />
<br />
'''to relatives in Newburyport, MA about business '''<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''San Francisco Public Library,San Francisco,CA - Publisher or Photographer ''<br />
<br />
[[Zellerbach |Prev. Document]] [[Temple Emmanu-el of SF | Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=San_Francisco_Jewish_Elite:_America%27s_Leading_Anti-Zionists&diff=5583San Francisco Jewish Elite: America's Leading Anti-Zionists2008-02-26T09:24:47Z<p>Topher: </p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:jewishsf$holocaust-memorial.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Holocaust Memorial by sculptor George Segal at the Palace of Legion of Honor in NW corner of San Francisco.'''<br />
<br />
The 1940s was a tumultuous decade for the Jewish community in San Francisco. A bitter debate ensued over and the merits of statehood for Jews - a debate about the nature of Judaism and the Jewish people. A group of wealthy, influential German families who'd descended from pioneers and who were now members of the city's Classical Reform "cathedral synagogue," Temple Emanu-El, led the anti-Zionist camp.<br />
<br />
The central figure in this group against the formation of Israel was the rabbi of Temple Emanu-El -- Irving Reichert. His goal was to integrate Jews into American society: "Judaism is a religion, and a religion only." To him, "Zionism was a retreat from the highway of Jewish destiny and achievement in America to the dead end street of medieval ghettoims. One wonders what the Gentile world makes of all this Zionism. It is notorious that anti-Semites, when other arguments fail, sometimes succeed in prejudicing even friendly Christians against the Jew by quoting this type of nationalistic propaganda to convict us out of our own mouths for being a nationality embedded within a nation. Too dangerous a parallel between the insistence of Zionist spokesmen upon nationality and race and blood, and sinister pronouncement by Fascist leaders in European dictatorships. We may live to regret it."<br />
<br />
When the national conference of American Rabbis in 1942 passed a resolution supporting the creation of a Jewish army, Reichert and ninety-one other dissenting rabbis vowed to hold their own gathering. The "goy nineties," as the Zionists called them, after countering with a pronouncement that "dual citizenship in America is more than we can accept," formed the American Council for Judaism (ACJ), an organization of Reform rabbis and laypersons dedicated to combating Jewish nationalism. They tended to be elderly men who had begun their careers in the early part of the century, ministering to large, wealthy temples dominated by Germans. Lay leadership came almost exclusively from the board of director for Temple Emanu-El, including:<br />
<br />
Daniel [[Koshland]], one of the owners of [[Levi Strauss]] Company, JD and Harold [[Zellerbach]], among the leading manufactures of paper in America, Mrs. [[IW Hellman]], widow of one of the West's leading bankers, as well as other prominent attorneys, insurance executives, and real estate developers.<br />
<br />
By early 1944 the San Francisco ACJ had over 100 members, employed a part-time secretary and opened a new office on Market Street. In 1945 membership peaked 1150 and 1400, one third of ACJ's national enrollment. The San Francisco chapter produced enough revenue to send the hard-pressed main office about twenty thousand dollars annually in mid-1940s, nearly 30 percent of the national operating budget. Each member of the Board personally solicited a hundred members and sent out packets of information on the council's aims to 3,000 others.<br />
<br />
The ACJ struck a responsive chord among the members of SF Jewish elite, who in the midst of World War II joined the council almost to a man. Not only had anti-Zionism been an important component of Classical Reform Judaism for three generations, but it had been expounded in the Pulpit of Temple Emanu-El with special vigor by one of the giants of the American rabbinate, Jacob Voorsanger. Drawing on ancient texts, he argued that "our holy land, our promised land" is not "Turk-ridden" Palestine, but rather golden California with "its hills and dales."<br />
<br />
It was not that the pioneer families were insensitive to the harrowing cries of Nazi-occupied Europe, but rather they interpreted Hitlerism as an aberration and believed in the integration of Jews into the host country as the natural order of things. Just as Voorsanger in 1900 predicted that the Jewish question would be solved with the overthrow of the Czar and establishment of democratic government in his place, so Reichert argued in 1944 that Jewish life would one day be resurrected in Germany. Unprecedented freedom, toleration, and prosperity in San Francisco had rendered the leaders idealistic about the fate of European Jewry.<br />
<br />
There was little organized opposition to the ACJ until the end of the decade. The local Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) felt it had little to gain from an all-out public feud with the city's most prestigious Jewish leaders. When, immediately following World War II their great moment of opportunity arrived, the Zionists held rallies, disseminated literature, and took much pride in the fact that donations to the Jewish National Welfare Fund, much of which went to Palestine, doubled in the year 1946 alone to almost one and one-half million dollars.<br />
<br />
In mid 1948 Reichert became the full-time Executive Director of ACJ's Western Region. A dynamic speaker and powerful writer, he joined the ACJ's professional staff at the most critical moment in the organization's history - the creation of the State of Israel. Daily newspapers brought home stories of heroism exhibited in War of Independence, and waves of emotion associated with the dramatic absorption of hundreds of thousands of new immigrants, many of them Holocaust survivors, swept the country.<br />
<br />
For almost four years following independence, Reichert fought vigorously to hold the organization intact. Now that Ben Gurion had won a beachhead in Palestine, it was imperative to prevent him from "Zionizing" the American Jew, that is, raising money for the Jewish state, propagating the Hebrew language and notions of Jewish peoplehood, and encouraging aliyah (trips to the holy land). "Zionism uses the site of Israel to subvert our American view of Judaism and herd us into a new ghetto."<br />
<br />
With an ambitious advertising campaign in the ''San Francisco Jewish Community Bulletin'' in fall 1949, Reichert designed hard-hitting verbal and visual messages, showing a Boy Scout playing a bugle in front of an American flag. The embattled editorial committee of the ''Bulletin'' had to postpone publication of a number of the ads.<br />
<br />
After Israel's creation, membership in the ACJ slipped dramatically, and one-half the members refused to renew, including Haas, Koshland, and Dinkelspiel, unpersuaded by a letter predicting that the Jewish state would soon "drift into the Russian orbit." A number of younger leaders, such as Frank Sloss (son of Hattie Sloss), left and turned attention to United Jewish Appeal (UJA) and became active in their annual fund-raising campaign. Reichert's successor at Emanu-El had Labor Zionist sentiments, and attacked ACJ's ideology from the pulpit and soon thereafter convinced the Religious School Committee to adopt new textbooks that gave proper attention to Israel. By 1949 the Board had to confront the fact that the Council had virtually no members under the age of 30.<br />
<br />
However, still working toward the ACJ's stated goal of resisting Zionist penetration of American Jewish community, Reichert claimed, "The bulk of funds raised by UJA passes to Israel in a manner defeating final accountability. The ends to which the funds are put include governmental purposes of the State of Israel, political purposes in the US and Israel, and indoctrination of American Jews in Zionist philosophy." The national ACJ voted to adopt a proposal calling on US Dept. of Justice to investigate the UJA.<br />
<br />
They also attacked Israel in the arena of Middle Eastern politics. After being received in five Arab countries in 1955 they wrote glowing treatment of Jews in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, and even Iran. A visit to Jerusalem convinced them that "to be a Jew here in Israel is to share a nationalism that has ugly overtones of racism and exclusivism." They labeled Israel the aggressor of June 1967 war, assisted several Arab diplomats in preparing speeches they delivered on the conflict before the UN. In a speech in 1949 Reichert drew thinly veiled comparisons between the Hitler Youth and Zionist programs aimed at college students, declaring Jewish nationalism "a totalitarian movement with "its tentacles in all our personal lives."<br />
<br />
In 1969 the American Council for Judaism had 117 names, and by the decade of 70s, ACJ ceased to exist. Nearly all old families would come to accept Zionism and regret their affiliation. Today Temple Emanu-El, as well as every other major temple in San Francisco, whole-heartedly supports a State for Jews.<br />
<br />
''--by Kate Shvetsky, 1997''<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Carlsson,Chris - Photographer-Artist ''<br />
<br />
Shvetsky,Kate - Writer<br />
<br />
Judah Magnus Museum - Publisher or Photographer<br />
<br />
[[Jewish Life in SF menu |Prev. Document]] [[Ohabai Shalome |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=San_Francisco_Jewish_Elite:_America%27s_Leading_Anti-Zionists&diff=5582San Francisco Jewish Elite: America's Leading Anti-Zionists2008-02-26T09:20:20Z<p>Topher: </p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:jewishsf$holocaust-memorial.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Holocaust Memorial by sculptor George Segal at the Palace of Legion of Honor in NW corner of San Francisco.'''<br />
<br />
The 1940s was a tumultuous decade for the Jewish community in San Francisco. A bitter debate ensued over and the merits of statehood for Jews - a debate about the nature of Judaism and the Jewish people. A group of wealthy, influential German families who'd descended from pioneers and who were now members of the city's Classical Reform "cathedral synagogue," Temple Emanu-El, led the anti-Zionist camp.<br />
<br />
The central figure in this group against the formation of Israel was the rabbi of Temple Emanu-El -- Irving Reichert. His goal was to integrate Jews into American society: "Judaism is a religion, and a religion only." To him, "Zionism was a retreat from the highway of Jewish destiny and achievement in America to the dead end street of medieval ghettoims. One wonders what the Gentile world makes of all this Zionism. It is notorious that anti-Semites, when other arguments fail, sometimes succeed in prejudicing even friendly Christians against the Jew by quoting this type of nationalistic propaganda to convict us out of our own mouths for being a nationality embedded within a nation. Too dangerous a parallel between the insistence of Zionist spokesmen upon nationality and race and blood, and sinister pronouncement by Fascist leaders in European dictatorships. We may live to regret it."<br />
<br />
When the national conference of American Rabbis in 1942 passed a resolution supporting the creation of a Jewish army, Reichert and ninety-one other dissenting rabbis vowed to hold their own gathering. The "goy nineties," as the Zionists called them, after countering with a pronouncement that "dual citizenship in America is more than we can accept," formed the American Council for Judaism (ACJ), an organization of Reform rabbis and laypersons dedicated to combating Jewish nationalism. They tended to be elderly men who had begun their careers in the early part of the century, ministering to large, wealthy temples dominated by Germans. Lay leadership came almost exclusively from the board of director for Temple Emanu-El, including:<br />
<br />
Daniel Kohsland, one of the owners of [[Levi Strauss]] Company, JD and Harold [[Zellerbach]], among the leading manufactures of paper in America, Mrs. [[IW Hellman]], widow of one of the West's leading bankers, as well as other prominent attorneys, insurance executives, and real estate developers.<br />
<br />
By early 1944 the San Francisco ACJ had over 100 members, employed a part-time secretary and opened a new office on Market Street. In 1945 membership peaked 1150 and 1400, one third of ACJ's national enrollment. The San Francisco chapter produced enough revenue to send the hard-pressed main office about twenty thousand dollars annually in mid-1940s, nearly 30 percent of the national operating budget. Each member of the Board personally solicited a hundred members and sent out packets of information on the council's aims to 3,000 others.<br />
<br />
The ACJ struck a responsive chord among the members of SF Jewish elite, who in the midst of World War II joined the council almost to a man. Not only had anti-Zionism been an important component of Classical Reform Judaism for three generations, but it had been expounded in the Pulpit of Temple Emanu-El with special vigor by one of the giants of the American rabbinate, Jacob Voorsanger. Drawing on ancient texts, he argued that "our holy land, our promised land" is not "Turk-ridden" Palestine, but rather golden California with "its hills and dales."<br />
<br />
It was not that the pioneer families were insensitive to the harrowing cries of Nazi-occupied Europe, but rather they interpreted Hitlerism as an aberration and believed in the integration of Jews into the host country as the natural order of things. Just as Voorsanger in 1900 predicted that the Jewish question would be solved with the overthrow of the Czar and establishment of democratic government in his place, so Reichert argued in 1944 that Jewish life would one day be resurrected in Germany. Unprecedented freedom, toleration, and prosperity in San Francisco had rendered the leaders idealistic about the fate of European Jewry.<br />
<br />
There was little organized opposition to the ACJ until the end of the decade. The local Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) felt it had little to gain from an all-out public feud with the city's most prestigious Jewish leaders. When, immediately following World War II their great moment of opportunity arrived, the Zionists held rallies, disseminated literature, and took much pride in the fact that donations to the Jewish National Welfare Fund, much of which went to Palestine, doubled in the year 1946 alone to almost one and one-half million dollars.<br />
<br />
In mid 1948 Reichert became the full-time Executive Director of ACJ's Western Region. A dynamic speaker and powerful writer, he joined the ACJ's professional staff at the most critical moment in the organization's history - the creation of the State of Israel. Daily newspapers brought home stories of heroism exhibited in War of Independence, and waves of emotion associated with the dramatic absorption of hundreds of thousands of new immigrants, many of them Holocaust survivors, swept the country.<br />
<br />
For almost four years following independence, Reichert fought vigorously to hold the organization intact. Now that Ben Gurion had won a beachhead in Palestine, it was imperative to prevent him from "Zionizing" the American Jew, that is, raising money for the Jewish state, propagating the Hebrew language and notions of Jewish peoplehood, and encouraging aliyah (trips to the holy land). "Zionism uses the site of Israel to subvert our American view of Judaism and herd us into a new ghetto."<br />
<br />
With an ambitious advertising campaign in the ''San Francisco Jewish Community Bulletin'' in fall 1949, Reichert designed hard-hitting verbal and visual messages, showing a Boy Scout playing a bugle in front of an American flag. The embattled editorial committee of the ''Bulletin'' had to postpone publication of a number of the ads.<br />
<br />
After Israel's creation, membership in the ACJ slipped dramatically, and one-half the members refused to renew, including Haas, Koshland, and Dinkelspiel, unpersuaded by a letter predicting that the Jewish state would soon "drift into the Russian orbit." A number of younger leaders, such as Frank Sloss (son of Hattie Sloss), left and turned attention to United Jewish Appeal (UJA) and became active in their annual fund-raising campaign. Reichert's successor at Emanu-El had Labor Zionist sentiments, and attacked ACJ's ideology from the pulpit and soon thereafter convinced the Religious School Committee to adopt new textbooks that gave proper attention to Israel. By 1949 the Board had to confront the fact that the Council had virtually no members under the age of 30.<br />
<br />
However, still working toward the ACJ's stated goal of resisting Zionist penetration of American Jewish community, Reichert claimed, "The bulk of funds raised by UJA passes to Israel in a manner defeating final accountability. The ends to which the funds are put include governmental purposes of the State of Israel, political purposes in the US and Israel, and indoctrination of American Jews in Zionist philosophy." The national ACJ voted to adopt a proposal calling on US Dept. of Justice to investigate the UJA.<br />
<br />
They also attacked Israel in the arena of Middle Eastern politics. After being received in five Arab countries in 1955 they wrote glowing treatment of Jews in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, and even Iran. A visit to Jerusalem convinced them that "to be a Jew here in Israel is to share a nationalism that has ugly overtones of racism and exclusivism." They labeled Israel the aggressor of June 1967 war, assisted several Arab diplomats in preparing speeches they delivered on the conflict before the UN. In a speech in 1949 Reichert drew thinly veiled comparisons between the Hitler Youth and Zionist programs aimed at college students, declaring Jewish nationalism "a totalitarian movement with "its tentacles in all our personal lives."<br />
<br />
In 1969 the American Council for Judaism had 117 names, and by the decade of 70s, ACJ ceased to exist. Nearly all old families would come to accept Zionism and regret their affiliation. Today Temple Emanu-El, as well as every other major temple in San Francisco, whole-heartedly supports a State for Jews.<br />
<br />
''--by Kate Shvetsky, 1997''<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Carlsson,Chris - Photographer-Artist ''<br />
<br />
Shvetsky,Kate - Writer<br />
<br />
Judah Magnus Museum - Publisher or Photographer<br />
<br />
[[Jewish Life in SF menu |Prev. Document]] [[Ohabai Shalome |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=San_Francisco_Jewish_Elite:_America%27s_Leading_Anti-Zionists&diff=5581San Francisco Jewish Elite: America's Leading Anti-Zionists2008-02-26T09:16:20Z<p>Topher: fixed links; made some grammatical corrections in the writing</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:jewishsf$holocaust-memorial.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Holocaust Memorial by sculptor George Segal at the Palace of Legion of Honor in NW corner of San Francisco.'''<br />
<br />
The 1940s was a tumultuous decade for the Jewish community in San Francisco. A bitter debate ensued over and the merits of statehood for Jews - a debate about the nature of Judaism and the Jewish people. A group of wealthy, influential German families who'd descended from pioneers and who were now members of the city's Classical Reform "cathedral synagogue," Temple Emanu-El, led the anti-Zionist camp.<br />
<br />
The central figure in this group against the formation of Israel was the rabbi of Temple Emanu-El -- Irving Reichert. His goal was to integrate Jews into American society: "Judaism is a religion, and a religion only." To him, "Zionism was a retreat from the highway of Jewish destiny and achievement in America to the dead end street of medieval ghettoims. One wonders what the Gentile world makes of all this Zionism. It is notorious that anti-Semites, when other arguments fail, sometimes succeed in prejudicing even friendly Christians against the Jew by quoting this type of nationalistic propaganda to convict us out of our own mouths for being a nationality embedded within a nation. Too dangerous a parallel between the insistence of Zionist spokesmen upon nationality and race and blood, and sinister pronouncement by Fascist leaders in European dictatorships. We may live to regret it."<br />
<br />
When the national conference of American Rabbis in 1942 passed a resolution supporting the creation of a Jewish army, Reichert and ninety-one other dissenting rabbis vowed to hold their own gathering. The "goy nineties," as the Zionists called them, after countering with a pronouncement that "dual citizenship in America is more than we can accept," formed the American Council for Judaism (ACJ), an organization of Reform rabbis and laypersons dedicated to combating Jewish nationalism. They tended to be elderly men who had begun their careers in the early part of the century, ministering to large, wealthy temples dominated by Germans. Lay leadership came almost exclusively from the board of director for Temple Emanu-El, including:<br />
<br />
Daniel Kohsland, one of the owners of [[Levi Strauss Company]], JD and Harold [[Zellerbach]], among the leading manufactures of paper in America, Mrs. IW Hellman, widow of one of the West's leading bankers, as well as other prominent attorneys, insurance executives, and real estate developers.<br />
<br />
By early 1944 the San Francisco ACJ had over 100 members, employed a part-time secretary and opened a new office on Market Street. In 1945 membership peaked 1150 and 1400, one third of ACJ's national enrollment. The San Francisco chapter produced enough revenue to send the hard-pressed main office about twenty thousand dollars annually in mid-1940s, nearly 30 percent of the national operating budget. Each member of the Board personally solicited a hundred members and sent out packets of information on the council's aims to 3,000 others.<br />
<br />
The ACJ struck a responsive chord among the members of SF Jewish elite, who in the midst of World War II joined the council almost to a man. Not only had anti-Zionism been an important component of Classical Reform Judaism for three generations, but it had been expounded in the Pulpit of Temple Emanu-El with special vigor by one of the giants of the American rabbinate, [[Jacob Voorsanger]]. Drawing on ancient texts, he argued that "our holy land, our promised land" is not "Turk-ridden" Palestine, but rather golden California with "its hills and dales."<br />
<br />
It was not that the pioneer families were insensitive to the harrowing cries of Nazi-occupied Europe, but rather they interpreted Hitlerism as an aberration and believed in the integration of Jews into the host country as the natural order of things. Just as Voorsanger in 1900 predicted that the Jewish question would be solved with the overthrow of the Czar and establishment of democratic government in his place, so Reichert argued in 1944 that Jewish life would one day be resurrected in Germany. Unprecedented freedom, toleration, and prosperity in San Francisco had rendered the leaders idealistic about the fate of European Jewry.<br />
<br />
There was little organized opposition to the ACJ until the end of the decade. The local Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) felt it had little to gain from an all-out public feud with the city's most prestigious Jewish leaders. When, immediately following World War II their great moment of opportunity arrived, the Zionists held rallies, disseminated literature, and took much pride in the fact that donations to the Jewish National Welfare Fund, much of which went to Palestine, doubled in the year 1946 alone to almost one and one-half million dollars.<br />
<br />
In mid 1948 Reichert became the full-time Executive Director of ACJ's Western Region. A dynamic speaker and powerful writer, he joined the ACJ's professional staff at the most critical moment in the organization's history - the creation of the State of Israel. Daily newspapers brought home stories of heroism exhibited in War of Independence, and waves of emotion associated with the dramatic absorption of hundreds of thousands of new immigrants, many of them Holocaust survivors, swept the country.<br />
<br />
For almost four years following independence, Reichert fought vigorously to hold the organization intact. Now that Ben Gurion had won a beachhead in Palestine, it was imperative to prevent him from "Zionizing" the American Jew, that is, raising money for the Jewish state, propagating the Hebrew language and notions of Jewish peoplehood, and encouraging aliyah (trips to the holy land). "Zionism uses the site of Israel to subvert our American view of Judaism and herd us into a new ghetto."<br />
<br />
With an ambitious advertising campaign in the ''San Francisco Jewish Community Bulletin'' in fall 1949, Reichert designed hard-hitting verbal and visual messages, showing a Boy Scout playing a bugle in front of an American flag. The embattled editorial committee of the ''Bulletin'' had to postpone publication of a number of the ads.<br />
<br />
After Israel's creation, membership in the ACJ slipped dramatically, and one-half the members refused to renew, including Haas, Koshland, and Dinkelspiel, unpersuaded by a letter predicting that the Jewish state would soon "drift into the Russian orbit." A number of younger leaders, such as Frank Sloss (son of Hattie Sloss), left and turned attention to United Jewish Appeal (UJA) and became active in their annual fund-raising campaign. Reichert's successor at Emanu-El had Labor Zionist sentiments, and attacked ACJ's ideology from the pulpit and soon thereafter convinced the Religious School Committee to adopt new textbooks that gave proper attention to Israel. By 1949 the Board had to confront the fact that the Council had virtually no members under the age of 30.<br />
<br />
However, still working toward the ACJ's stated goal of resisting Zionist penetration of American Jewish community, Reichert claimed, "The bulk of funds raised by UJA passes to Israel in a manner defeating final accountability. The ends to which the funds are put include governmental purposes of the State of Israel, political purposes in the US and Israel, and indoctrination of American Jews in Zionist philosophy." The national ACJ voted to adopt a proposal calling on US Dept. of Justice to investigate the UJA.<br />
<br />
They also attacked Israel in the arena of Middle Eastern politics. After being received in five Arab countries in 1955 they wrote glowing treatment of Jews in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, and even Iran. A visit to Jerusalem convinced them that "to be a Jew here in Israel is to share a nationalism that has ugly overtones of racism and exclusivism." They labeled Israel the aggressor of June 1967 war, assisted several Arab diplomats in preparing speeches they delivered on the conflict before the UN. In a speech in 1949 Reichert drew thinly veiled comparisons between the Hitler Youth and Zionist programs aimed at college students, declaring Jewish nationalism "a totalitarian movement with "its tentacles in all our personal lives."<br />
<br />
In 1969 the American Council for Judaism had 117 names, and by the decade of 70s, ACJ ceased to exist. Nearly all old families would come to accept Zionism and regret their affiliation. Today Temple Emanu-El, as well as every other major temple in San Francisco, whole-heartedly supports a State for Jews.<br />
<br />
''--by Kate Shvetsky, 1997''<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Carlsson,Chris - Photographer-Artist ''<br />
<br />
Shvetsky,Kate - Writer<br />
<br />
Judah Magnus Museum - Publisher or Photographer<br />
<br />
[[Jewish Life in SF menu |Prev. Document]] [[Ohabai Shalome |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Germans_vs._Poles&diff=5579Germans vs. Poles2008-02-26T08:50:08Z<p>Topher: fixed links</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:jewishsf$sigmund-danielewicz.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Sigmund Danielewicz, Polish radical, early member of the 1st International.'''<br />
<br />
From the very beginning there was a thick social barrier between the educated, upper-class, Reform German Jews and the less-educated, working-class, more Orthodox Eastern European Jews. This schism existed in every immigrant Jewish community across America, but in San Francisco the early German Jews for years successfully excluded Eastern Europeans from even settling.<br />
<br />
Elite, Reform, German, Temple Emanu-el's first rabbi Jacob Voorsanger preached exclusion from the pulpit: "We don't want the Eastern European Jews here. Go back!" His fear was that South of Market would turn into a ghetto like the Lower East Side, and that (like New York at the time) a large influx of Eastern European Jews would mean a rise in anti-Semitism. His hope was that keeping the Jewish community overwhelmingly economically successful, educated, and assimilated (German) would mean greater societal acceptance, and less Leftist Jews rocking the boat. Rabbi Voorsanger went so far as to try to strike a deal with Mexico to settle Eastern European Jews in Baja. Later, he bought a bunch of chicken feed and sent the Eastern European Jews to Petaluma: anything to keep them out of San Francisco.<br />
<br />
In the Eastern and Midwest United States, the degree of continuity with the Jewish Old World life is still discernible. For example, a New York knish peddler and street musician of the 1980s had their brothers both in the Warsaw of the 1930's and the Lower East Side of the 1890s. Cleveland in the 1930s contained a Jewry almost as variegated as that of Poland at the time, with every shade of political activism, from ultra-Orthodox and Orthodox Zionism to vigorous rivalries on the far-left. However, in the West Eastern European Jews came later, and were primarily second and third generation Americans, divorced from the Jewish culture of the immigrant generation and well acculturated into the American mainstream. The San Francisco Jewish community was marked by far less diversity than was to be found in the East where Eastern Europeans developed the culture of Yiddishket and its supporting institutional network. For example, the established Yiddish theater, which catered to the tastes and tradition of the Jews of New York for a full theatrical season, was represented by road companies in the West where audiences were too small to sustain anything longer than brief appearances.<br />
<br />
Compared to the East or Midwest, Jewish San Francisco did not have strong socialist, Zionist or Orthodox movements. The exception is the Fillmore in the early part of this century where socialist, labor, Zionist and Orthodox institutions and organizations linked them with their Lower East Side counterparts. Also, during the Great Depression, San Francisco Jews were (along with the Eastern Jews) disproportionately represented in the Communist party. Sigismund Danielewicz battled as a Socialist labor organizer and founded the Sailors' Union before he was ousted for his outspoken defense of Chinese civil rights.<br />
<br />
Overall, because of the relatively few numbers of Eastern Europeans who often brought with them revolutionary ideas, a strong Jewish Left never grew in San Francisco. Strikingly different to the anarchist, socialist, labor organizers of the Lower East Side, the elite, assimilated German Jews of San Francisco tended to be conservative and fall on the side of capital and management. A strong progressive Jewish presence was not felt in San Francisco until the student and women's movements of the 1960s.<br />
<br />
''--Kate Shvetsky ''<br />
<br />
'''Resources: '''<br />
<br />
Fred Rosenbaum Lecture<br />
<br />
Marc Lee Raphael, ''Beyond New York: The Challenge of Local History ''<br />
<br />
John Livingston, ''Jews of the American West ''<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Bancroft Library,Berkeley,CA - Publisher or Photographer ''<br />
<br />
Shvetsky, Kate - Writer<br />
<br />
[[Ohabai Shalome| Prev. Document]] [[Koshland Mansion| Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Koshland_Mansion&diff=5578Koshland Mansion2008-02-26T08:44:08Z<p>Topher: fixed links</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:jewishsf$the-koshland-mansion.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''The Koshland Mansion in Pacific Heights, built on blue jeans!'''<br />
<br />
''''''<br />
<br />
== The Koshland Mansion in Pacific Heights -- built on blue jeans profits. Photograph of the mansion. ==<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Carlsson,Chris - Photographer-Artist ''<br />
<br />
[[Germans vs. Poles |Prev. Document]] [[19th c. Anti-Semitism? |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=19th_c._Anti-Semitism%3F&diff=557719th c. Anti-Semitism?2008-02-26T08:12:16Z<p>Topher: fixed links</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:jewishsf$jews-menaced-by-cowboy.jpg]]<br />
<br />
Jews menaced by a Cowboy in this 19th century anti-semitic drawing.<br />
<br />
By 1849 hundreds of Jews had arrived in California and were laboring in goldfields and supply centers. Some were native-born and naturalized American Jews, others came directly from Europe. While some advanced more than others, all were part of the long, slow march out of ghettos of western and central Europe and shtetles of eastern Europe. Many bore the imprint of centuries of European oppression: pogroms, expulsions, segregations, exploitative taxes, barred occupations. Then, just as they were seeking more than Europe would grant them (many were involved with the failed European revolutions of 1848), burgeoning America in need of commercial skills threw open its doors. In San Francisco a number of the pioneer Jewish merchants became successful beyond their wildest dreams.<br />
<br />
On the one hand, the same xenophobic eyes that saw "hideously tattooed New Zealanders, and short, thick, clumsy Japanese" also noted "a particularly remarked number of thick-lipped, hook-nosed, ox-eyed, cunning, oily Jews." In general, however, anti-Semitism in San Francisco was rare. Jewish pioneer merchants were welcomed far more equitably than their counterparts in the East; Jews were elected to public office at every level in the West, and were accepted into elite circles in San Francisco while their counterparts were being excluded in New York. Others distinguished themselves in business, amassing fortunes in clothing, banking and utilities, real estate and insurance, overseas commerce and paper products, tobacco and produce. In later generations the philanthropic institutions that sprung from the fortunes of these first families-- Fleishacker, Haas, Koshland, Stern, Steinhard, Dinkelspiel, Zellerbach and others-- made their names well-known among all Northern California. By the end of the 19th century the Jews of San Francisco were freer and more successful than Jews anywhere else in the world.<br />
<br />
Why such acceptance and success?<br />
<br />
San Francisco's unstructured and totally new society served to unite diverse newcomers in bonds of fraternity and solidarity with ease and liberality not matched elsewhere in the country. Jews' frequent role as public officeholders reflects the easy acceptance of able and energetic first-comers in an unstructured region. However, San Francisco as a whole was far from democratic. Chinese, Japanese, native Indians, Hispanics, were certainly not received in the way European immigrants were. Racial intolerance was a defining feature of early San Francisco.<br />
<br />
Compared to the majority of eastern European Jews that settled in rest of the country, Jewish San Franciscans were predominantly from Germany. Because German culture was held in high esteem in the United States, these Jews' cultural antecedents and traditions contributed to their reputation in communities that valued cultural activity. German scholarship and art held enormous prestige, German was the standard modern foreign language in schools. Compared to Italians or Irish immigrants in Boston, German Jewish immigrants had cultural capital. They routinely joined societies devoted to German culture. In 1860 the president of the local German society was a Jew. German Jews followed other German-speakers who already had made their language and customs familiar fixtures of the American scene. And in the Reformed version that German-speaking immigrants favored, Judaism was comprehensible to 19th century American Protestants whereas Buddhism was not. Jewish success can also be attributed to the fact that many Jews arrived with precisely those skills that were most in demand in the newly developing capitalist markets of San Francisco. One fifth of all immigrant Jewish breadwinners of 1899-1914 had been in commerce in the old country, compared to less than 1/20 of all immigrants. Merchants, whether Jew or Gentile, were essential in the unstructured towns and cities if local economies were to flourish. The remoteness of San Francisco along with the affluence and cosmopolitan backgrounds of much of its population meant retail customers favored goods that came from distant manufactures and suppliers. This kind of commerce was peculiarly well matched to the skills and resources of Jewish immigrants.<br />
<br />
Esteem and success followed as peddlers became resident merchants, and general stores became department stores. With San Francisco's relative lack of civil and social constraints, most Jews used their German cultural capital and their distinctly appropriate skills to quickly advance. From the beginning, Jews were central to the formation of a cosmopolitan San Francisco. Jews were not perceived as intruders or outsiders and anti-semitism was rare.<br />
<br />
''--Kate Shvetsky ''<br />
<br />
'''Resources: '''<br />
<br />
Harriet and Fred Rochlin "Pioneer Jews: A New Life in the Far West" Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, c. 1984<br />
<br />
Earl Pomeroy "On Becoming a Westerner: Immigrants and Other Migrants" in Moses Rishcin and John Livingston "Jews of the American West" Wayne State University Press, Detroit, c. 1991<br />
<br />
Fred Rosenbaum lecture<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Bancroft Library,Berkeley,CA - Publisher or Photographer ''<br />
<br />
Shvetsky,Kate - Writer<br />
<br />
[[Koshland Mansion| Prev. Document]] [[Jewish Artists and Writers |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Jewish_Artists_and_Writers&diff=5576Jewish Artists and Writers2008-02-23T04:02:13Z<p>Topher: fixed links</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:jewishsf$gertrude-stein.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Gertrude Stein'''<br />
<br />
''''''<br />
<br />
== Photographs of famous Jewish San Franciscans, Gertrude Stein and David Belasco. ==<br />
<br />
[[Image:jewishsf$david-belasco.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''David Belasco?'''<br />
<br />
[[19th c. Anti-Semitism? | Prev. Document]] [[The Gilded Circle | Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Gilded_Circle&diff=5575The Gilded Circle2008-02-23T03:55:07Z<p>Topher: </p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:jewishsf$gilded-circle-photograph.jpg]]<br />
<br />
''The "Gilded Circle": interrelated clans linked by blood, marriage, and business.''<br />
<br />
In Gold Rush San Francisco, the most economically successful Jewish families formed their own clique - an exclusive Gilded Circle, forged of interrelated clans linked by blood, marriage, and business. This exclusive clan included the families Sloss, [[Gerstle Family]], Greenwald, [[Levi Strauss]], Stern, Seligman, Lilienthal, Steinhart, Fleishacker, Zellerbach, Brandentstein, Koshland. The Gilded Circle members had a strict code of behavior:<br />
<br />
1. Make money<br />
<br />
2. Marry one's own kind (German Jewish)<br />
<br />
3. Belong to Reform Temple Emanu-El or to no other congregation<br />
<br />
4. Acquire tastes of people of rank<br />
<br />
They built houses on the same street and went to the same summer retreat. Large families staffed a minimum of six servants and entertained lavishly. Until the early 1900s, guest lists were confined to the Gilded Circle, other socially acceptable Jews, and a smattering of affluent gentiles. Young women who accepted more than the occasional invitation to non-Jewish parties were roundly criticized.<br />
<br />
To prepare them for a life of privilege, young women received disciplined training. Nurses and governesses instructed them in proper manners. Tutors gave them art, music, French and German languages. Most boys were permitted to attend public schools before sent east to Harvard or Yale or, alternatively, kept closer to home while attending Stanford or the University of California. The less studious rushed directly into business. Most girls attended private schools.<br />
<br />
By the early 20th century, when the third generation of San Francisco Jews were coming of age, the circle's code of behavior had solidified into a tradition to be conformed to or, frequently, rebelled against. Circle members had by then begun to mingle freely with non-Jews at social, cultural, and charitable events, and intermarriage was clearly on the rise.<br />
<br />
--''by Kate Shvetsky''<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Judah Magnus Museum - Publisher or Photographer ''<br />
<br />
Shvetsky, Kate - Writer<br />
<br />
Judah Magnus Museum - Publisher or Photographer<br />
<br />
[[Jewish Artists and Writers |Prev. Document]] [[Frontier Jewish Women: Eluding Convention |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Gilded_Circle&diff=5574The Gilded Circle2008-02-23T03:54:20Z<p>Topher: </p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:jewishsf$gilded-circle-photograph.jpg]]<br />
<br />
''The "Gilded Circle": interrelated clans linked by blood, marriage, and business.''<br />
<br />
In Gold Rush San Francisco, the most economically successful Jewish families formed their own clique - an exclusive Gilded Circle, forged of interrelated clans linked by blood, marriage, and business. This exclusive clan included the families Sloss, [[Gerstle Family Gerstle]], Greenwald, [[Levi Strauss]], Stern, Seligman, Lilienthal, Steinhart, Fleishacker, Zellerbach, Brandentstein, Koshland. The Gilded Circle members had a strict code of behavior:<br />
<br />
1. Make money<br />
<br />
2. Marry one's own kind (German Jewish)<br />
<br />
3. Belong to Reform Temple Emanu-El or to no other congregation<br />
<br />
4. Acquire tastes of people of rank<br />
<br />
They built houses on the same street and went to the same summer retreat. Large families staffed a minimum of six servants and entertained lavishly. Until the early 1900s, guest lists were confined to the Gilded Circle, other socially acceptable Jews, and a smattering of affluent gentiles. Young women who accepted more than the occasional invitation to non-Jewish parties were roundly criticized.<br />
<br />
To prepare them for a life of privilege, young women received disciplined training. Nurses and governesses instructed them in proper manners. Tutors gave them art, music, French and German languages. Most boys were permitted to attend public schools before sent east to Harvard or Yale or, alternatively, kept closer to home while attending Stanford or the University of California. The less studious rushed directly into business. Most girls attended private schools.<br />
<br />
By the early 20th century, when the third generation of San Francisco Jews were coming of age, the circle's code of behavior had solidified into a tradition to be conformed to or, frequently, rebelled against. Circle members had by then begun to mingle freely with non-Jews at social, cultural, and charitable events, and intermarriage was clearly on the rise.<br />
<br />
--''by Kate Shvetsky''<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Judah Magnus Museum - Publisher or Photographer ''<br />
<br />
Shvetsky, Kate - Writer<br />
<br />
Judah Magnus Museum - Publisher or Photographer<br />
<br />
[[Jewish Artists and Writers |Prev. Document]] [[Frontier Jewish Women: Eluding Convention |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Gilded_Circle&diff=5573The Gilded Circle2008-02-23T03:53:34Z<p>Topher: fixed links; made some grammatical corrections in the writing</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:jewishsf$gilded-circle-photograph.jpg]]<br />
<br />
''The "Gilded Circle": interrelated clans linked by blood, marriage, and business.''<br />
<br />
In Gold Rush San Francisco, the most economically successful Jewish families formed their own clique - an exclusive Gilded Circle, forged of interrelated clans linked by blood, marriage, and business. This exclusive clan included the families Sloss, [[Gerstle Family Gerstle]], Greenwald, [[Levi Strauss (Levi) Strauss]], Stern, Seligman, Lilienthal, Steinhart, Fleishacker, Zellerbach, Brandentstein, Koshland. The Gilded Circle members had a strict code of behavior:<br />
<br />
1. Make money<br />
<br />
2. Marry one's own kind (German Jewish)<br />
<br />
3. Belong to Reform Temple Emanu-El or to no other congregation<br />
<br />
4. Acquire tastes of people of rank<br />
<br />
They built houses on the same street and went to the same summer retreat. Large families staffed a minimum of six servants and entertained lavishly. Until the early 1900s, guest lists were confined to the Gilded Circle, other socially acceptable Jews, and a smattering of affluent gentiles. Young women who accepted more than the occasional invitation to non-Jewish parties were roundly criticized.<br />
<br />
To prepare them for a life of privilege, young women received disciplined training. Nurses and governesses instructed them in proper manners. Tutors gave them art, music, French and German languages. Most boys were permitted to attend public schools before sent east to Harvard or Yale or, alternatively, kept closer to home while attending Stanford or the University of California. The less studious rushed directly into business. Most girls attended private schools.<br />
<br />
By the early 20th century, when the third generation of San Francisco Jews were coming of age, the circle's code of behavior had solidified into a tradition to be conformed to or, frequently, rebelled against. Circle members had by then begun to mingle freely with non-Jews at social, cultural, and charitable events, and intermarriage was clearly on the rise.<br />
<br />
--''by Kate Shvetsky''<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Judah Magnus Museum - Publisher or Photographer ''<br />
<br />
Shvetsky, Kate - Writer<br />
<br />
Judah Magnus Museum - Publisher or Photographer<br />
<br />
[[Jewish Artists and Writers |Prev. Document]] [[Frontier Jewish Women: Eluding Convention |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Frontier_Jewish_Women:_Eluding_Convention&diff=5572Frontier Jewish Women: Eluding Convention2008-02-23T03:43:51Z<p>Topher: </p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:jewishsf$emmigration-poster.jpg]]<br />
<br />
''Poster calling for people to emigrate to California.''<br />
<br />
Finding their new homelands receptive to women of talent and ambition, a number of Jewish pioneer women gloried in western life. Occasionally boldly and rebelliously, more often shyly, slowly, nearly accidentally, these early Jewish women eluded the conventional "separate spheres" and developed strong identities independent of their husbands. The relative fluidity of western society meant many Jewish women found they were freer to do as they pleased in their nascent settlements where everyone was a newcomer and no rigid social structure had yet taken hold.<br />
<br />
Sometimes independence meant opening a store. To others, like Hannah Marks Solomons, new found freedom meant breaking the engagement to man her family had chosen and vowing to choose her own mate according to her own standards. A child of Polish parents, Hannah's family emigrated to America 1835 to New Bedford, MA. Orphaned, she grew up in the home of an Orthodox uncle in Philadelphia. As soon as she was able, she found work in a store and made plans to leave. When a lonely western suitor sent her passage money to California in 1853, she hastily accepted. However, after meeting the betrothed, she refused to go through with marriage. Her family back East was outraged. Only her brother came to her defense, saying "that cattle matching project is not exactly consistent with spirit of American education in the 1850s." Her mind made up, she went to work as a schoolteacher, and later found her own man.<br />
<br />
Second generation Jewish women in the West received from their pioneering mothers a legacy of confidence, self-reliance, independence, and pride in achievement. Lacking trails to blaze or towns to build, some of these women became ground breakers in new roles and occupations from which women had traditionally been barred. Adele Solomons Jaffa, Hannah Solomons's daughter, became a psychiatrist. Hannah Solomon's other daughter, Selina, was a writer, practicing astrologer, and an ardent campaigner for women's suffrage. Selina's childhood friend Jessica Peixotto, daughter of prominent San Francisco Sephardic family received a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1900--the second woman to do so--and four years later became a teacher of social economics there. By WWI Jewish daughters of the frontier were moving from home and hearth into radically untraditional realms.<br />
<br />
''by Kate Shvetsky ''<br />
<br />
Source: Harriet and Fred Rochlin "Pioneer Jews: A New Life in the Far West" c. 1984 Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Shvetsky, Kate - Writer ''<br />
<br />
[[The Gilded Circle |Prev. Document]] [[Toby Rosenthal |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Frontier_Jewish_Women:_Eluding_Convention&diff=5571Frontier Jewish Women: Eluding Convention2008-02-23T03:43:08Z<p>Topher: </p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:jewishsf$emmigration-poster.jpg]]<br />
<br />
""Poster calling for people to emigrate to California.""<br />
<br />
Finding their new homelands receptive to women of talent and ambition, a number of Jewish pioneer women gloried in western life. Occasionally boldly and rebelliously, more often shyly, slowly, nearly accidentally, these early Jewish women eluded the conventional "separate spheres" and developed strong identities independent of their husbands. The relative fluidity of western society meant many Jewish women found they were freer to do as they pleased in their nascent settlements where everyone was a newcomer and no rigid social structure had yet taken hold.<br />
<br />
Sometimes independence meant opening a store. To others, like Hannah Marks Solomons, new found freedom meant breaking the engagement to man her family had chosen and vowing to choose her own mate according to her own standards. A child of Polish parents, Hannah's family emigrated to America 1835 to New Bedford, MA. Orphaned, she grew up in the home of an Orthodox uncle in Philadelphia. As soon as she was able, she found work in a store and made plans to leave. When a lonely western suitor sent her passage money to California in 1853, she hastily accepted. However, after meeting the betrothed, she refused to go through with marriage. Her family back East was outraged. Only her brother came to her defense, saying "that cattle matching project is not exactly consistent with spirit of American education in the 1850s." Her mind made up, she went to work as a schoolteacher, and later found her own man.<br />
<br />
Second generation Jewish women in the West received from their pioneering mothers a legacy of confidence, self-reliance, independence, and pride in achievement. Lacking trails to blaze or towns to build, some of these women became ground breakers in new roles and occupations from which women had traditionally been barred. Adele Solomons Jaffa, Hannah Solomons's daughter, became a psychiatrist. Hannah Solomon's other daughter, Selina, was a writer, practicing astrologer, and an ardent campaigner for women's suffrage. Selina's childhood friend Jessica Peixotto, daughter of prominent San Francisco Sephardic family received a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1900--the second woman to do so--and four years later became a teacher of social economics there. By WWI Jewish daughters of the frontier were moving from home and hearth into radically untraditional realms.<br />
<br />
''by Kate Shvetsky ''<br />
<br />
Source: Harriet and Fred Rochlin "Pioneer Jews: A New Life in the Far West" c. 1984 Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Shvetsky, Kate - Writer ''<br />
<br />
[[The Gilded Circle |Prev. Document]] [[Toby Rosenthal |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Frontier_Jewish_Women:_Eluding_Convention&diff=5570Frontier Jewish Women: Eluding Convention2008-02-23T03:42:20Z<p>Topher: </p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:jewishsf$emmigration-poster.jpg]]<br />
<br />
Poster calling for people to emigrate to California.<br />
<br />
Finding their new homelands receptive to women of talent and ambition, a number of Jewish pioneer women gloried in western life. Occasionally boldly and rebelliously, more often shyly, slowly, nearly accidentally, these early Jewish women eluded the conventional "separate spheres" and developed strong identities independent of their husbands. The relative fluidity of western society meant many Jewish women found they were freer to do as they pleased in their nascent settlements where everyone was a newcomer and no rigid social structure had yet taken hold.<br />
<br />
Sometimes independence meant opening a store. To others, like Hannah Marks Solomons, new found freedom meant breaking the engagement to man her family had chosen and vowing to choose her own mate according to her own standards. A child of Polish parents, Hannah's family emigrated to America 1835 to New Bedford, MA. Orphaned, she grew up in the home of an Orthodox uncle in Philadelphia. As soon as she was able, she found work in a store and made plans to leave. When a lonely western suitor sent her passage money to California in 1853, she hastily accepted. However, after meeting the betrothed, she refused to go through with marriage. Her family back East was outraged. Only her brother came to her defense, saying "that cattle matching project is not exactly consistent with spirit of American education in the 1850s." Her mind made up, she went to work as a schoolteacher, and later found her own man.<br />
<br />
Second generation Jewish women in the West received from their pioneering mothers a legacy of confidence, self-reliance, independence, and pride in achievement. Lacking trails to blaze or towns to build, some of these women became ground breakers in new roles and occupations from which women had traditionally been barred. Adele Solomons Jaffa, Hannah Solomons's daughter, became a psychiatrist. Hannah Solomon's other daughter, Selina, was a writer, practicing astrologer, and an ardent campaigner for women's suffrage. Selina's childhood friend Jessica Peixotto, daughter of prominent San Francisco Sephardic family received a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1900--the second woman to do so--and four years later became a teacher of social economics there. By WWI Jewish daughters of the frontier were moving from home and hearth into radically untraditional realms.<br />
<br />
''by Kate Shvetsky ''<br />
<br />
Source: Harriet and Fred Rochlin "Pioneer Jews: A New Life in the Far West" c. 1984 Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Shvetsky, Kate - Writer ''<br />
<br />
[[The Gilded Circle |Prev. Document]] [[Toby Rosenthal |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Frontier_Jewish_Women:_Eluding_Convention&diff=5569Frontier Jewish Women: Eluding Convention2008-02-23T03:41:57Z<p>Topher: fixed links</p>
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<div>[[Image:jewishsf$emmigration-poster.jpg]]<br />
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Poster calling for people to emigrate to California.<br />
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Finding their new homelands receptive to women of talent and ambition, a number of Jewish pioneer women gloried in western life. Occasionally boldly and rebelliously, more often shyly, slowly, nearly accidentally, these early Jewish women eluded the conventional "separate spheres" and developed strong identities independent of their husbands. The relative fluidity of western society meant many Jewish women found they were freer to do as they pleased in their nascent settlements where everyone was a newcomer and no rigid social structure had yet taken hold.<br />
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Sometimes independence meant opening a store. To others, like Hannah Marks Solomons, new found freedom meant breaking the engagement to man her family had chosen and vowing to choose her own mate according to her own standards. A child of Polish parents, Hannah's family emigrated to America 1835 to New Bedford, MA. Orphaned, she grew up in the home of an Orthodox uncle in Philadelphia. As soon as she was able, she found work in a store and made plans to leave. When a lonely western suitor sent her passage money to California in 1853, she hastily accepted. However, after meeting the betrothed, she refused to go through with marriage. Her family back East was outraged. Only her brother came to her defense, saying "that cattle matching project is not exactly consistent with spirit of American education in the 1850s." Her mind made up, she went to work as a schoolteacher, and later found her own man.<br />
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Second generation Jewish women in the West received from their pioneering mothers a legacy of confidence, self-reliance, independence, and pride in achievement. Lacking trails to blaze or towns to build, some of these women became ground breakers in new roles and occupations from which women had traditionally been barred. Adele Solomons Jaffa, Hannah Solomons's daughter, became a psychiatrist. Hannah Solomon's other daughter, Selina, was a writer, practicing astrologer, and an ardent campaigner for women's suffrage. Selina's childhood friend Jessica Peixotto, daughter of prominent San Francisco Sephardic family received a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1900--the second woman to do so--and four years later became a teacher of social economics there. By WWI Jewish daughters of the frontier were moving from home and hearth into radically untraditional realms.<br />
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''by Kate Shvetsky ''<br />
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Source: Harriet and Fred Rochlin "Pioneer Jews: A New Life in the Far West" c. 1984 Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston<br />
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Contributors to this page include:<br />
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''Shvetsky,Kate - Writer ''<br />
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[[The Gilded Circle |Prev. Document]] [[Toby Rosenthal |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Toby_Rosenthal&diff=5568Toby Rosenthal2008-02-23T03:30:40Z<p>Topher: fixed link; added birth and death dates, which I got from http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/rosenthal_toby.html</p>
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<div>== Photograph of San Francisco Jewish painter, Toby Rosenthal, and a poster for one of his exhibitions. ==<br />
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[[Image:jewishsf$toby-rosenthal-portrait.jpg]]<br />
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'''Toby Rosenthal (1848-1917), painter'''<br />
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[[Image:jewishsf$rosenthal-poster.jpg]]<br />
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A poster advertising a Toby Rosenthal show in 1884.<br />
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[[Frontier Jewish Women: Eluding Convention | Prev. Document]] [[Zellerbach |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Zellerbach&diff=5567Zellerbach2008-02-23T03:27:07Z<p>Topher: /* Origins of the Zellerbach Paper Company. Photograph of one of the company's horse drawn carriages. */</p>
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<div>== Origins of the Zellerbach Paper Company. Photograph of one of the company's horse drawn carriages. ==<br />
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[[Image:jewishsf$zellerbach-wagon.jpg]]<br />
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'''Origins of Zellerbach Paper Co.'''<br />
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Anthony Zellerbach (b.Germany 1832 -1911) founded the Zellerbach Paper Company in 1870.<br />
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== Origins of the Zellerbach Paper Company. Photograph of one of the company's horse drawn carriages. ==<br />
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[[Toby Rosenthal |Prev. Document]] [[S Bachman Letters |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Zellerbach&diff=5566Zellerbach2008-02-23T03:22:26Z<p>Topher: </p>
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<div><br />
== Origins of the Zellerbach Paper Company. Photograph of one of the company's horse drawn carriages. ==<br />
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[[Image:jewishsf$zellerbach-wagon.jpg]]<br />
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'''Origins of Zellerbach Paper Co.'''<br />
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Anthony Zellerbach founded the Zellerbach Paper Company in 1870.<br />
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== Origins of the Zellerbach Paper Company. Photograph of one of the company's horse drawn carriages. ==<br />
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[[Toby Rosenthal |Prev. Document]] [[S Bachman Letters |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Toby_Rosenthal&diff=5565Toby Rosenthal2008-02-23T03:15:15Z<p>Topher: </p>
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<div>== Photograph of San Francisco Jewish painter, Toby Rosenthal, and a poster for one of his exhibitions. ==<br />
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[[Image:jewishsf$toby-rosenthal-portrait.jpg]]<br />
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'''Toby Rosenthal, painter'''<br />
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''''''<br />
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[[Image:jewishsf$rosenthal-poster.jpg]]<br />
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A poster advertising a Toby Rosenthal show in 1884.<br />
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[[Frontier Jewish Women: Eluding Convention | Prev. Document]] [[Zellerbach |Next Document]]</div>Topherhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Zellerbach&diff=5564Zellerbach2008-02-23T03:13:10Z<p>Topher: </p>
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<div>[[Image:jewishsf$zellerbach-wagon.jpg]]<br />
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'''Origins of Zellerbach Paper Co.'''<br />
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''''''<br />
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== Origins of the Zellerbach Paper Company. Photograph of one of the company's horse drawn carriages. ==<br />
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[[Toby Rosenthal |Prev. Document]] [[S Bachman Letters |Next Document]]</div>Topher