The first known Jew said to have settled on British territory
in the Pacific Northwest was Adolph Friedman. A Latvian, at age 19 in 1840, he
embarked for America, and, after several stopovers, in 1845 he and his crew of
35 Scandinavian sailors reached the deep-water port of present-day Tacoma, then
part of the territory under jurisdiction of the Hudson's Bay Company.
Here Friedman became the first merchant, supplying goods to
pioneer fishermen. He took up a homestead in the American Lake district. The
U.S. government later built Fort Lewis army camp on this site. Friedman traveled
to Victoria, B.C., to marry a relative, Masha Stusser. He died in Tacoma in 1911
at age 90. Branches of the Friedman and Stusser families still reside in Tacoma
and Seattle and also Vancouver, B.C.
Another Jewish pioneer in the Tacoma area was Isaac Pincus,
who arrived in 1858. Pincus reached the United States from Poland in 1853. He
was a veteran of the Indian Wars and was to serve as County Coroner and Tacoma
City Councilman. In the 1880s, he was in the liquor business.
Pincus, the son of a timber merchant, and his sons settled in
Steilacoom and opened a store which grew to be the largest on Puget Sound.
Tacoma was not then on the map and Steilacoom, Washington state's oldest
community, was the busiest port in the area.
Pincus' father's business took him from Poland to Germany,
and, just a few weeks before the family had planned to emigrate to America, the
father took sick and died.
Isaac, a lad of 10 or 11, then left his European home and
took a sailing ship for New Orleans, where he remained a short time. Fascinated
by tales of Australian wealth, he bought a ticket on a sailing ship bound for
the isthmus of Panama. His plans changed along the way and, after crossing the
isthmus by land, he caught a vessel for San Francisco. He established residence
in Nevada, where he went into the mercantile business. A fire destroyed his
store.
With $500 in gold, all he and his partner had saved at Nevada
City, Pincus left in 1857 for the Fraser River in Canada, lured by the gold
craze. He grew disenchanted there. He grabbed a few pairs of boots to sell to
pay his expenses back to San Francisco when he left Victoria, B.C.
He landed in Steilacoom. After being interrogated by the
sheriff there, he sold him a pair of boots for $6, a 400% profit. He soon rented
a building, opened a store and, in time, had the biggest store on Puget Sound.
Nearly all the goods sold by Pincus and his partner from
Nevada City were brought from San Francisco. To save the cost of transportation,
the firm obtained its own boats. Its first ship, the Clara Light, was built in
Steilacoom and was later sold to be used for whaling in the Arctic. Two other
vessels, the Andrew Buck and The Melrose, were used in the Orient trade,
bringing lumber there and bringing cargo for San Francisco, Victoria and
Steilacoom. The last cargo of the Andrew Buck was a load of Chinese workers for
the Canadian Pacific railroad in the 1870s.
Tacoma soon became a competitor of Steilacoom and wooed
Pincus. Finally, General Sprague, Frank Clark and others induced Pincus with an
offer of the corner of 11th and Pacific for a price of $800, about $300 less
than actual value. A two-story building was erected that, 18 months later, was
sold for $12,000 in 1881. People told Pincus that, had he held onto that corner,
he would have been a millionaire.
Soon afterward, the partnership dissolved, and Pincus went
into the hop business. While Isaac spent most of his time at his ranch in Roy,
his twin sons, James and Harry, built the firm into one of the largest hop
businesses on the West Coast. A disastrous flood in 1910 ruined the business.
Pincus, who had gained acclaim as "one of the great hop
merchants in the world" and as a pioneer in Steilacoom and building the
first woolen mill on Chambers Creek, died in 1920.
In 1886, it was reported that the town of Tacoma, seat of
Pierce County, was "fast increasing in population and importance."
By 1888, the Jewish Messenger of New York reported
"Tacoma has 15 (Jewish) families." It was estimated that Seattle had
20 Jewish families and Olympia five.
And, by January 1891, news of Russian persecution of Jews
aroused Tacoma Jewry to establish its first general group, the Tacoma Relief
Society. Officers were Abraham Gross, president; D. Germanus, first vice
president; S.S. Loeb, second vice president; Isaac Pincus, treasurer; and board
members D.P. Lewis, M. Rosenbaum, Archie S. Ash, L. Wallerstein and S. Jacoby.
In spring 1892, Tacoma Jewry established Congregation Beth
Israel. Sol Jacoby was first president and David Germanus vice president. Other
founding officers: D. Magnus, secretary; Archie S. Ash, treasurer; and trustees
M. Moses, M. Cohn and William Wolf. A reform ritual was adopted and a goal of
$12,000 was set for a building fund. Six months later, it was reported that Ash
was the prime mover in establishment of the congregation.
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By July 1892, Congregation Beth Israel had 60 members (family
units) and had acquired two lots "centrally located and worth about
$3,200." The lots were purchased from the Tacoma Land Company, which
donated half the purchase price, and the congregation still had a balance of
$1,000 in its coffers. David Levin was credited with arranging the purchase of
the lots "at one-half their market value," which were located at the
corner of S. 10th and I Sts.
The congregational constitution and by-laws set dues at
"$12 annually or such larger amount as the board may determine."
In late summer 1892, Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, president of the
Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati, announced Tacoma Jewry had asked for
"an undergraduate from the College to officiate during the coming Holy
Days, and (we) will comply with their desire."
The rabbinical student Wise chose was Charles Fleischer, who
was then assisting in a Philadelphia congregation while attending HUC.
Fleischer's 3,000-mile journey from Pennsylvania to Washington state for his
High Holy Days post in Tacoma indeed was considered a newsworthy item. Fleischer,
born in Poland in 1871, was ordained by the HUC in 1893. Later on, he was known
for his radical reinterpretation of Judaism while serving as the spiritual
leader of Temple Israel of Boston (1894-1912).
Before High Holy Days 1892, Tacoma Jewry had a social club
and benevolent society. Samuel Posner was president, D. Germanus vice president,
Archie S. Ash treasurer and D. Magnus secretary. The organization was designed
to assist in charitable endeavors, and there were some complaints that San
Francisco was referring too many beggars to Tacoma and that "we have our
hands full...If the rush of applicants continues, we will be compelled to call
for outside assistance."
After High Holy Days 1892, the building plans took shape. A
fair was held in December by the ladies of the Temple Aid Society at the new
Olympic Theater, with the mayor of Tacoma opening the event. Society officers
were Miss Horence Donan, president; Mrs. Sol Jacoby, vice president; Mrs. M.
Ball, secretary; Mrs. A.J. Steinman, corresponding secretary; and Mrs. Charles
Reidenbach, treasurer.
At the fair, a price tag of $10,000 to build was announced,
with furniture to add to the tab. Contributions were received locally and from
the East Coast. The three-story building was completed in 1893 with
stained-glass memorial windows and the Ten Commandments over the doorway.
From time to time, noted rabbis from nearby cities were hired
to conduct services for the various holy days.
In the 1890s, the first Hebrew Benevolent Society was formed
and Home of Peace cemetery was purchased. Another early Jewish settler was
Latvian-born Samuel J. Friedman, who died at age 83 of injuries and
complications following an auto accident. He arrived in Tacoma in 1884 and
established a men's clothing store five years later. At the time of his death,
he was the last surviving member of Congregation Talmud Torah and last founding
member of the Tacoma B'nai B'rith chapter.
Another Jewish pioneer of importance was David Levin, who had
arrived in Tacoma in 1874, five years after he had reached America from Kolmar,
Germany at age 16. He was in the real estate field and was elected to the lower
house of the Washington state legislature in 1897.
Julius Friedman married Augusta Stusser in 1898. Julius was a
clothing merchant on Pacific Avenue for 45 years and a leader in Congregation
Talmud Torah. Their son, Dr. Abedeaux Friedman, a dentist, married Rose Rotman
at Tacoma's Winthrop Hotel.
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Other prominent Jewish pioneers included the four Gross
brothers, who had the "leading (business) house in this part of the
country;" Sol Jacoby, managing partner of the Prager brothers firm of
Portland, Ore., and San Francisco; and Mentheim Cohen, who operated two dry-good
stores.
A walking tour of downtown Tacoma, which highlights the
history of the Jewish merchants in Tacoma in the late 19th century, is available
here in PDF format (2,874k).
Congregation Beth Israel had both traditional and reform
elements in its membership. One report observed that the traditionalists were
among the heaviest donors. Out of concern for them, the congregation followed
"the conservative reform principle." By 1912, it was decided that hats
would no longer be worn at services and the Union Prayer Book was adopted.
In 1912, the will of Herman Klaber, a victim of the Titanic
disaster, provided $1,000 for installing memorial windows in the temple in honor
of his parents. He owned a large business block in Tacoma as well as a big hop
ranch at Klaber, Wash.
The Judith Montefiore Society was begun "to establish a
Sabbath school and for the furtherance of Jewish teachings." In 1920, the
name was changed to Temple Beth Israel Sisterhood, with meetings at the Harmony
Club. Mrs. William Wolf was president, Mrs. M. Moses vice president, Mrs.
Charles Richenbach treasurer and Mrs. M. Ball secretary.
Home Colony, a tiny commune established 13 miles west of
Tacoma on Joe's Bay off Carr Inlet of Puget Sound, mainly because no roads
linked the bay to civilization, was referred by government agents as a hotbed of
revolution and anarchy and by its residents as the place to search for a new and
daring lifestyle, including free love, coupled with self-government. There were
no laws, rules or regulations.
Each family was expected to build and maintain its own home,
without promises of future rewards. Members could obtain one or two acres by
paying the association the cost of the land plus a dollar for a membership
certificate; taxes were assessed against their tract.
It was composed of numerous ethnic groups, among them eastern
European Jews who had arrived in search of a better life. Coming from St. Louis,
they first stopped in San Francisco, then traveled by train to Tacoma and then,
by boat, to Home. Lithuanian Jacob Litowitz worked the land. Louis Haiman was a
barber and his brother, Joe, the first storekeeper.
Of the Jews who settled in Home Colony, many stayed for
several years, then left, not finding the utopia they sought. Many moved to
Tacoma or Seattle to make a living. There was no church or synagogue because
settlers didn't believe in religion.
World War I brought demands for conformity. Bridges and
highways were built, and nearby recreational real estate development brought
further changes. The association was dissolved in May 1921.
Articles of incorporation for Tacoma's Chevra Talmud Torah --
predecessor of Sinai Temple-- were signed Dec. 15, 1908 at the corner of S. 13th
and E Sts. by Philip B. Friedman, Samuel Friedman, Nathan Friedman, Max
Zuckerkorn, Joe Sussman, Charles Stusser., Julius Friedman, M. Jacobson, R.
Winkleman, Ike Moses and H. Stusser. The articles were "to further the
orthodox Hebrew religion in which under no circumstances will any man or boy be
allowed in the place of worship with head uncovered."
Elected officers were Philip B. Friedman, president; Max
Zuckerkorn, vice president; Samuel Friedman, secretary; Joe Sussman, treasurer;
and I. Moses, Nathan Friedman and Charles Stusser, trustees.
The property was purchased for $7,100 at 6 percent interest.
For a time, the rear of Stusser's clothing store served as a
daily place of worship. Later, a hotel room was used for this purpose.
By 1914, a church on Tacoma Avenue was purchased and the
congregation established at that location for eight years.
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Hortense Shafer, in 1992 the oldest living native Tacoma
member of Temple Beth El, recalled "my parents told me that my father would
wheel me down to the synagogue when they went to services on South Tacoma Ave.
From there, we went to the temple on S. 10th and I Sts., then to Sinai Temple. I
was confirmed on top of the Merrick Studio of Dance because they were doing some
building work at the temple at the time."
Temple Beth Israel hired Dr. Raphael Goldenstein of Pine
Bluff, Ark., as its new rabbi at the salary of $2,000 per year plus train fare
from Pine Bluff. The next year, on April 29, the rabbi's annual salary was
raised to $3,000. Contract conditions included that the rabbi was not to leave
the city without permission of trustees on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays or any
Jewish holidays when services were required; he shall read all names handed in
for memorial on the Day of Atonement; and he was granted a six-week vacation.
Rabbi Goldenstein resigned Aug. 16 after he was advised by the board to return
from Montana.
In 1924, Rabbi Montague N.A. Cohen was hired at a salary of
$2,400 a year. Rabbi Cohen was rehired the next three years at the same salary,
but no rabbi was hired in 1928, with Rabbi J.K. Levin of Los Angeles being
contracted to do High Holyday services. Rabbi Cohen remained on a part-time
basis in the 1930s, although Harold Davis led many services.
Temple Beth Israel-- built of Moorish design of brick and
tile construction at a cost of
$40,000-- was dedicated Sept. 18, 1923. The dedicatory address was delivered by
San Francisco Rabbi Herman Rosenwasser. Theo Feist was president of the
congregation. Plans were made to hold a bazaar and ways and means discussed how
money could be raised to pay off the indebtedness. The Sisterhood held dinners,
card parties and dances.
In February 1934, Temple Beth Israel minutes record:
"Our president pleaded most sincerely for our members to put forth every
effort to see that the temple is not closed as it is in grave
danger of being."
Foreclosure of the synagogue's mortgage became imminent. As
the payment deadline neared, $4,000 was immediately needed. Means of raising the
money appeared almost hopeless. But then a member of the congregation offered
$4,000 with instructions to use the money to pay off the debt.
Later on, in the 1942 celebration of the 50-year anniversary
of the first Jewish Congregation, Temple Beth Israel noted that it was
"lucky to have a Morris Kleiner. He has his business, and his success has
not been due to mere chance. But a dozen times a day, his telephone rings with
this request or that. There is a job to be done, and he does it-- quietly,
efficiently, diplomatically, down to the last detail. No job it too large, too
small, too distasteful. Whatever the cause, you will always find Morris Kleiner
among the hardest workers and most generous donors. His presidency of the
Federated Jewish Fund, Congregation Beth Israel and B'nai B'rith are but small
indications of his tireless effort in behalf of Jewish organizations."
As Tacoma and its Jewish congregation grew, there was need
for a larger temple. A site was purchased at the corner of N. 4th and J Street.
Meanwhile, the former temple was sold to the Church of the Latter Day Saints.
On April 15, 1924, Chevra Talmud Torah purchased land at S.
4th and I Sts. for $4,754 at 7 percent interest. Two years after that, Chevra
Talmud Torah added a bungalow.
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That led to plans in 1924 for architects to begin preliminary
sketches for a two-story synagogue at S. 4th and I Sts., not to exceed a total
cost of $25,000.
Talmud
Torah synagogue was dedicated as a house of Jewish worship in 1930. A few years
later, the name was changed to Sinai Temple. Under Rabbi Baruch Treiger, the
congregation joined the conservative movement in 1938.
Rabbi Treiger was very prominent in Jewish and secular
activities in Tacoma.
Rabbi
Treiger's first Friday night service marked the formal switch of Talmud Torah
congregation from an orthodox to a conservative house of worship. The only other
conservative congregation in Washington state at the time was Herzl in Seattle.
Rabbi Treiger's wife, Lena Farber, was a member of a pioneer
Tacoma Jewish family. She was a graduate social worker and she became an active
member of many women's organizations.
Rabbi Treiger immediately launched a three-month lecture
series which was held each year he lived in Tacoma. He brought prominent
educators, civic leaders and professors from the College of Puget Sound, Pacific
Lutheran College and the University of Washington to the lecture series held at
the temple. Many of the lectures brought standing-room-only crowds.
In the 1940s, Temple Beth Israel grew under leadership of
Rabbi Bernard Rosenberg.
During World War II, attempts were made to join Sinai Temple
and Temple Beth Israel, but merger efforts failed.
In 1960, after many meetings and during a time when Sinai
Temple was again without a spiritual leader, the two temples merged and Temple
Beth E1 was formed as a religious institution belonging to the Union of American
Hebrew Congregations. Only a few families, former members of Sinai Temple,
refused to affiliate with the new temple.
Rabbi Richard Rosenthal, who came to Temple Beth Israel in
1956, became the spiritual leader of the combined congregations. He was named
rabbi of the merged temples in 1960 and served Temple Beth E1 until his
retirement in 1997. Rabbi Rosenthal then served as rabbi emeritus until
his death in 1999. Rabbi Mark S. Glickman served as Temple Beth El 's
rabbi from 1997 until June 2004. Rabbi Glickman's
articles and
sermons are still available on this
website. Rabbi Bruce Kadden, Temple Beth El's
current rabbi, began his rabbinate at TBE in July 2004.
The Temple Beth Israel building, located at N. 4th & J
Sts., was sold to the Apostolic Faith
Church in 1964 and Sinai Temple, located at S. 4th & I Street. and now part
of the Tacoma General Hospital complex, was used for the combined congregation
until the new Temple Beth E1 building, located in Tacoma's growing west end at 5975
S. 12th St., was dedicated in May 1968. Vic Lyon and Jerry Spellman were
leaders in planning and fund-raising for the new temple. The building
contains a number of interesting architectural, spiritual, and symbolic
features.
Beginning in 1970, Tacoma's Jewish demographics changed
greatly. There was an influx of professional families, lawyers, doctors,
educators and persons providing various social services as opposed to the former
components of merchants.
The nearby Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base military
facilities figures prominently in the congregation's membership. Beginning with
World War I, soldiers and airmen settled into the community, married Tacomans or
were retirees who settled after leaving the armed forces.
Bev Buntain was the long-time secretary/receptionist for
Temple Beth El, retiring in 1993. Temple Beth El's first director of religious
education was Joan Garden, who served for 10 years before being succeeded by
Tovah Ahdut. Nancy Pullen succeeded Tovah Ahdut in 2000 until 2005.
In 1993, Temple Beth El was renovated. Over 19,000
square feet in new space was added for the growing congregation.
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-- Text by Stan Farber; research by Josephine Kleiner
Heiman, William M. Kramer, Gerald Meier, Stanley Sigel, Charles Pierce LeWarne
("Utopias on Puget Sound 1885-1915"), Mona Kleiner Secord, Lorraine
Sidell, Norton B. Stern ("The Beginnings of the Organized Jewish
Community of Tacoma") and Hannah Weinstein.
