San Francisco Jewish Pioneers

Jacob H. Rosewald: Jewish Conductor and Music Teacher of San Francisco

Jacob Rosewald Values Codes  I – H – E – L – P   Jacob Rosewald was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1841, to Bavarian Jewish immigrants, Judah and Bertha Rosewald. From childhood, Jacob displayed a passion for music. Despite his father’s staunch orthodoxy, Jacob was allowed to

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The Gumps: From Picture Frames to San Francisco’s Most Exclusive Store

The Gumps Family Values Codes  I – H – E – L -P   Solomon Gump Solomon Gump was born in 1833 in Heidelberg, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. His father was a textile manufacturer. Although the family was from Germany, research points to them being of Sephardic origin. In 1850,

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Flora Jacobi Arnstein: Educator, Poet, and Musician of San Francisco

Flora Jacobi Arnstein Values Codes I – E – L   Flora Jacobi was born in San Francisco in 1885 to a distinguished pioneer family. Her uncle, Max J. Brandenstein, established the MJB Coffee Company with his brothers Mannie, Charlie, and Eddie. (The company’s acronym was chosen to minimize

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Oscar Weil: Jewish Music Teacher, Composer, and Critic of San Francisco

Oscar Weil Values Codes  H – E – L – P   Oscar Weil was born to German-Jewish immigrant parents in Columbia County, New York, in 1839. At age eighteen, Weil left New York to pursue musical training at the Conservatory of Leipzig. Violin was his primary

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Cantors Alexander Weisler & Max Wolff of Congregation Emanu-El, San Francisco, 1864-1884

Cantor Alexander Weisler Values Codes H – E – L   Little has been preserved about the life of Cantor Alexander Weisler. He was a pupil of Cantor Salomon Sulzer, the “father of the modern cantorate” who taught at the Vienna Conservatory in the late 1840s. This suggests

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Julie Eichberg Rosewald: “Cantor Soprano” of Temple Emanu-El, San Francisco, 1884 – 1893

Julie Eichberg Rosewald Values Codes I – E – L – P   Julie Eichberg was born in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1847. Her father, Moritz Eichberg, was a cantor in the city and, along with his wife Eleanor, raised a musically talented family. Julie’s vocal abilities were

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