Fred Rosenbaum is an American author, historian and adult educator, specializing in the history of the Jewish community of the San Francisco Bay Area. Rosenbaum has been called a "superb storyteller". [1] He is a founder and the director of Lehrhaus Judaica in Berkeley, California, described as "the largest Jewish adult education center in the western United States". [2]
Rosenbaum grew up in Queens, New York in a family that was "marked by the Holocaust". His mother fled Poland and escaped to the United States. His father had earlier emigrated from Poland and became a sergeant in the United States Army, and fought in Europe during World War II. [3]
Rosenbaum earned a bachelor's degree at Washington University in St. Louis in 1968, and then studied the history of Nazi Germany as a Fulbright fellow in West Germany. He earned a master's degree in European history at the University of California Berkeley. [3]
Inspired by the life of Franz Rosenzweig, he left traditional academia in 1974 to cofound Lehrhaus Judaica, which was named after Rosenzweig's Freies Juedisches Lehrhaus, which was founded in 1920, and closed by the Nazis 18 years later. [3] Lehrhaus Judaica has been described as "a continuing-education program affiliated with Berkeley Hillel" [4] Rosenbaum was then a graduate student at the University of California Berkeley, and cofounded Lehrhaus Judaica with Seymour Fromer of the Judah L. Magnes Museum and Rabbi Steven Robbins of Berkeley Hillel. [5] Described as a "new program of Jewish adult education" in 1988, [2] in 1998, it was called "The grandparent of community adult learning institutions". [6]
Rosenbaum has expressed the opinion that anti-semitism was less of a factor affecting the Jews of Northern California than in most other areas of the world. "Perhaps most remarkable was the uncommon degree of acceptance, indeed respect, accorded San Francisco Jewry by the larger society". [7] Another group, the Asians (the Chinese in the 19th century, and the Japanese-Americans during World War II) bore the brunt of social ostracism in the region. He noted that "it was the Asians who were abused during these years of turmoil; they and not the Jews became the scapegoats". [8]
Rosenbaum's most recent book, Cosmopolitans: A Social and Cultural History of the Jews of the San Francisco Bay Area, a comprehensive history of the first 100 years of the Jewish community of the San Francisco Bay Area, has been widely reviewed. [9] [10] According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Rosenbaum "researched his subject over several decades." The reviewer of the book observed that "his dedication to the topic is evident in its encyclopedic scope". [1]
The Western Jewish History Center existed as part of the Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley, California, from 1967 to 2010. It is now the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, administered as part of the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, formerly known as the Judah L. Magnes Museum from 1961 until its reopening in 2012, is a museum of Jewish history, art, and culture in Berkeley, California. The museum, which was founded in 1961 by Seymour and Rebecca Fromer, is named for Jewish activist Rabbi Judah L. Magnes, a native of Oakland and co-founder of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life houses more than 30,000 Jewish artifacts and manuscripts, which is the third largest collection of its kind in the United States.
Judah Leon Magnes was a prominent Reform rabbi in both the United States and Mandatory Palestine. He is best remembered as a leader in the pacifist movement of the World War I period, his advocacy of a binational Jewish-Arab state in Palestine, and as one of the most widely recognized voices of 20th century American Reform Judaism. Magnes served as the first chancellor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1925), and later as its President (1935–1948).
Congregation Emanu-El of San Francisco, California is one of the two oldest Jewish congregations in California, and one of the largest Jewish congregations in the United States. A member of the Union for Reform Judaism, Congregation Emanu-El is a significant gathering place for the Bay Area Jewish community.
Rachel "Ray" Frank was a Jewish religious leader in the United States. Frank was an early figure in the acceptance of women rabbis and was reported as a prospective candidate for the first woman rabbi in the United States.
Moses Rischin (1925-2020) was an American historian, author, lecturer, editor, and emeritus professor of history at San Francisco State University. He coined the phrase new Mormon history in a 1969 article of the same name.
The 19th century saw Jews, like many other people, moving to the American West.
Temple Sinai is a Reform synagogue located at 2808 Summit Street in Oakland, California, United States. Founded in 1875, it is the oldest Jewish congregation in the East San Francisco Bay region.
Congregation Beth Israel Judea is a Reform synagogue located at 625 Brotherhood Way in San Francisco, California. It is the result of the merger of the Conservative Congregation Beth Israel and the Reform Temple Judea.
Joseph Asher (1921–1990) was an American rabbi born in Germany, known for his advocacy of reconciliation between the Jews and the Germans in the post-Holocaust era, and for his support for the civil rights movement in the United States. He was senior rabbi at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco for 19 years.
Ira Nowinski is a photographer. Nowinski earned a Master of Fine Art's degree from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1973. From the late 1970s through the early 1980s, Nowinski served as the official photographer of the San Francisco Opera. His photographs have been collected extensively by the University of California, Berkeley's Bancroft Library; Stanford University Libraries' Department of Special Collections; Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the National Museum of Photography, Bradford, England.
Rebecca Camhi Fromer was an American playwright, historian and poet. Fromer co-founded the Judah L. Magnes Museum of Berkeley, California, in 1961 with her husband, Seymour Fromer. The museum, which is now called the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life and became part of the University of California, Berkeley in 2010, houses more than 15,000 Judaica artifacts and manuscripts, the third largest collection of its kind in the United States.
Bernard Baruch Zakheim was a Warsaw-born San Francisco muralist, best known for his work on the Coit Tower murals.
Simon Koshland (1825–1896) was a Kingdom of Bavaria-born American businessman, and wool merchant. He is the patriarch of the Koshland and Haas family of San Francisco.
Alfred Henry Jacobs was an American architect. He designed theaters, hotels, residential, and religious buildings, primarily working in the San Francisco Bay Area. Three of the buildings he designed are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. He also worked as a watercolorist.
Lazarus Dinkelspiel (1824–1900) was an American businessman who founded L. Dinkelspiel & Co.
Aaron Fleishhacker was a Kingdom of Bavaria-born American businessman who founded paper box manufacturer, A. Fleishhacker & Co. He had been active during the Gold Rush with the formation of Comstock silver mines.
The history of the Jews in San Francisco began with the California Gold Rush in the second half of the 19th-century.
Saul White (1908–1983) was a Conservative rabbi best known for his moral conviction, personal warmth, and commitment to social justice. White was the first rabbi at Congregation Beth Sholom and served it for nearly half a century from 1934 to 1983.
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