Western Jewish History Center

The Judah L. Magnes Museum's "'Western Jewish History Center" in Berkeley, California',established in 1967, contains a library and a large collection of archival material that documents and preserves the history and experiences of the Jewish community of the Western United States from the start of the California Gold Rush to the present. Although it has collected material relating to most of the thirteen western U.S., it has come to focus on the San Francisco Bay Area.

Resources and Materials

Its research library has more than 1,200 volumes, dozens of oral histories, a clipping/vertical file, and a large collection of 19th and 20th century Jewish newspapers from Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. Many of these are on rolls of microfilm.

Its primary source materials, consisting of more than 500 archival collections, include the papers and artifacts of Jewish families and individuals such as Judah L. Magnes; Adolph Sutro; David and Simon Lubin; Rosalie Meyer Stern; Julius Kahn; Florence Prag; Flora Arnstein; Ernest Bloch; Lloyd Dinkelspiel; Robert Levinson; Harris Weinstock; Ruth Carol Silver; Benjamin Swig; Rhoda and Richard Goldman; Alfred Henry Jacobs; members of the Haas, Koshland, Gerstle, Sloss, and Lilienthal families; and many others. Many of these take the form of family letters, diaries, photographs, and scrapbooks.

In addition, the Center’s archive also holds the papers and artifacts of important Jewish organizations such as synagogue congregations like San Francisco’s Emanu-El, Beth Israel-Judea, Sherith Israel, and Ohabai Shalome; Oakland's Congregation Sinai; Berkeley's Aquarian Minyan, and Lafayette's Isaiah. In addition, the Center has also collected the papers of many important Western rabbis (i.e. Voorsanger; Nieto; Asher; Kaplan; Fine; Fried; White; Magnin; Stern; Reichert; Goldstein; and others). Besides documenting the religious life of the city and the activities of a congregation and its congregants, these collections also can contain a wealth of genealogical information, often in the form of marriage and burial registers. Because the Center's holdings and collections have not been computerized or indexed, genealogical research that utilize these materials, of necessity, takes a long time. Those interested in doing genealogical research on Jewish individuals and families from the San Francisco Bay Area may first want to contact the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society to see that the subject/s of their interest has not been researched earlier.

The Center also holds the records of historic Jewish businesses and self-help societies like the Emanu-El Sisterhood for Personal Service; the San Francisco chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women; the records of the Mount Zion Hospital and Medical Center; the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco; the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, Marin County, and the Peninsula; the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay; B’nai B’rith District 4; the Northern California Division of the American Jewish Congress; the Jewish Arts Community of the Bay (J.A.C.O.B.); the Judah L. Magnes Museum; and the Commission for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries and Landmarks. These records often take the form of working documents, memoranda, and minutes from boards of directors; reports; official correspondence; and documentary photographs.

Texts that have used the Center's resources

Numerous published works have made use of the Western Jewish History Center’s resources:
* "Jewish Life in the American West" (2002) (ISBN 0-295-98275-6);
* Ava Kahn's "Jewish Voices of the California Gold Rush: a Documentary History, 1849-1880" (2002) (ISBN 0-8143-2859-8);
* Fred Rosenbaum’s "Visions of Reform: Congregation Emanu-El and the Jews of San Francisco, 1849-1999" (2000) (ISBN 0-943376-69-6);
* Robert Levinson’s "The Jews in the California Gold Rush" (1994) (ISBN 0-943376-62-9);
* Harriet and Fred Rochlin’s "Pioneer Jews: A New Life in the Far West" (1984) (ISBN 0-618-00196-4);
* Sue Morris’ "A Traveler’s Guide to Pioneer Jewish Cemeteries of the California Gold Rush" (1996) (ISBN 0-943376-63-7).

Center Information

The Western Jewish History Center is open by appointment only, every Monday-Friday (unless closed due to holiday), 11am-5pm. Although all of its collected materials are non-circulating, its collections are accessible to Museum and community members, bona-fide researchers of all age levels, and Museum staff. A Guide to the Center’s archival collections and oral histories was published in 1987 (ISBN 0-943376-35-1) and is available for purchase and many collections’ inventories to many of its collections can also be examined in person at the Center, mailed directly to researchers, or may be sent out as attachments to email. In addition, many descriptions of its collections may be searched for and examined on the World Wide Web via the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections at the Library of Congress. Inventories to some of its collections may also be examined on the web via the Online Archive of California.

The Center also displays some of its holdings in exhibitions held in and created by the Judah L. Magnes Museum and its staff and, on occasion, in other institutions. From time to time, the Judah L. Magnes Museum has had Case Study exhibitions, exhibitions created specifically to highight the holdings of the Center. To date, Case Study exhibitions have been about "Jewish Freemasons of the West"; "Alfred Henry Jacobs, Architect"; and the "Emanu-El Sisterhood for Personal Service."

External links

* [http://magnes.org/collections/wjhc.html Western Jewish History Center website]
* [http://www.magnes.org Judah L. Magnes Museum website]
* [http://www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/rlinsearch.html National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections search portal website]
* [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/institutions/ark:/13030/tf9s2014xv Holdings of the Western Jewish History Center at the Online Archive of California website]
* [http://www.jewishgen.org/sfbajgs/ San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society website]