here<\/a>. In this post, I compare and contrast
\nthe relationship between Ashkenazim and Sephardim in Seattle and San Francisco.<\/p>\nSeattle:<\/p>\n
When Calvo and Policar
\n(the first two Sephardim in Seattle) first encountered the Orthodox Ashkenazi
\nJews living in the city, they weren\u2019t exactly welcomed with open arms. These
\nobservant Jews didn\u2019t believe that Policar and Calvo were \u201creal Jews\u201d because
\nthey spoke Greek instead of Yiddish (Adatto, 56), and their names didn\u2019t \u201csound
\nJewish\u201d (Angel, 553). Because they felt ostracized by the Jewish community,
\nCalvo and Policar spent a lot of time with Greek non-Jews living in Seattle
\n(Adatto, 58). Fortunately, the rabbi of Bikur Holim, an Orthodox synagogue,
\nconvinced the Orthodox Ashkenazim that the Sephardim were just as observant as
\nthey were. The Ashkenazim accepted Calvo and Policar as members of the Jewish
\npeople.<\/p>\n
The Seattle Sephardic
\ncommunity kept growing as Calvo and Policar brought family members over, and
\nthese family members spread the word about the opportunities available in
\nSeattle (Adatto, 60). In 1904, the first Rhodesli Sephardic immigrant came to
\nSeattle (FitzMorris, 29). As the number of Sephardim in Seattle grew, their
\nties to the overall Jewish community of Seattle grew. Many Sephardim prayed at
\nBikur Holim. They felt somewhat connected to the Orthodox Ashkenazim because
\nthey, like the Sephardim, upheld high religious standards (Adatto, 116).
\nHowever, the perception was that their cultures were just too different to mix
\ntogether, so the Sephardim and Orthodox Ashkenazim remained fairly separate.
\nFor example, intermarriage between the two groups was highly rare (Adatto,
\n117).<\/p>\n
Despite its rocky
\nnature, the beginning of the relationship between Orthodox Sephardim and
\nOrthodox Ashkenazim was still stronger than the beginning of the relationship
\nbetween Sephardim and Reform Ashkenazim. The Sephardim distrusted the Reform
\nAshkenazim because they believed that the Reform Ashkenazim were not following
\nenough of the Jewish traditions. Fortunately, Aubrey Levy from the Reform
\nTemple de Hirsch helped to change this negative view of Reform Judaism by
\nforming a friendship with the Sephardic Jews. As a lawyer, he helped Sephardim
\nwith legal work, free of charge. For example, in 1914, he assisted them with
\nthe legal logistics in the purchase of the (previously Ashkenazi-owned) Bikur
\nHolim synagogue (Adatto, 118-119). Levy was highly regarded by the Sephardim.
\nBy association, his synagogue became highly regarded as well. In fact, many
\nSephardic children got their Jewish education at the Hebrew School of Temple de
\nHirsch. However, even after many years, there was still very little
\nintermarriage. The Sephardim still did not feel like a part of Ashkenazi
\nculture.<\/p>\n
San Francisco:<\/p>\n
There was a temporary
\nSephardic congregation in the early 1850s (Zerin, 30). The congregation was
\ncalled Shaar Hashamayim. It was so temporary that it never even had a building
\nbecause the congregation stopped meeting only a few months after its creation
\n(Zerin, 47). This is likely because the construction of new buildings for two
\nAshkenazi-run synagogues, Temple Emanu-El and Temple Sherith- Israel, was
\nunderway. Since the Sephardim and Ashkenazim in San Francisco were united,
\n(especially in comparison to these sects in other West Coast cities) the
\nSephardim didn\u2019t want to divide it by having their own synagogue. Also, some
\nmembers of the Sephardic congregation had been leaders in the other synagogues,
\nbecause they were so prominent and respected by the Ashkenazim (Stern and
\nKramer, 47).<\/p>\n
Sephardim from San
\nFrancisco are sometimes difficult to identify because intermarriage with
\nAshkenazim and even non-Jews was common (Stern and Kramer, 45). This practice
\nshowed a stark difference between the Jews of San Francisco and in other West
\nCoast cities. In the other cities, intermarriage between pretty much anyone
\nthat was not a Jew from your home country was frowned upon.<\/p>\n
Bibliography:<\/p>\n
Adatto, Albert. Sephardim
\nand the Seattle Sephardic Community.<\/i> Seattle: U of Washington, 1939. Print.<\/p>\n
Angel, Marc D., Hasson,
\nAron, Kramer, William M., Maimon, Isaac, Samuels, Beth, Sidell, Loraine, Stern,
\nNorton B. Sephardic Jews in the West Coast States : An Anthology<\/i>. 1st
\ned. Los Angeles: Published for the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles by the
\nWestern States Jewish History Association, 1996. Print. Western States Jewish
\nHistory ; v. 28, No. 1-3.<\/p>\n
Stern, Stephen. The
\nSephardic Jewish Community of Los Angeles<\/i>. New York: Arno, 1980. Print.
\nFolklore of the World (New York).<\/p>\n
Zerin,
\nEdward. Jewish San Francisco<\/i>. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2006. Print.
\nImages of America<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Leora Singer, Former Research Intern This is my second blog post in a series of three posts in which I discuss the theme of Sephardim in the West Coast in the 19th-20th century. You can see my first post here. In this post, I compare and contrast the relationship between Ashkenazim and Sephardim in Seattle and San Francisco. Seattle: When Calvo and Policar…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[75,151,171,172,170,169,168],"class_list":["post-1271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-post","tag-american-jewish-historical-society","tag-american-sephardi-federation","tag-interns","tag-leora-singer","tag-sephardic-jews","tag-sephardim","tag-west-coast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}