Congregation Emanu-El of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

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 Emanuel-El is a significant gathering place for the Bay Area Jewish community.

History

During the Gold Rush in 1849, a small group of Jews held the first

High Holy Days The High Holidays also known as the High Holy Days, or Days of Awe in Judaism, more properly known as the Yamim Noraim ( he, יָמִים נוֹרָאִים, ''Yāmīm Nōrāʾīm''; "Days of Awe") #strictly, the holidays of Rosh HaShanah ("Jew ...

services on the west coast of the United States in San Francisco. This group of traders and merchants founded Congregation Emanu-El sometime in 1850, and its charter was issued in April, 1851. The 16 signatories were mostly

German Jews The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

from

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. In 1884

Julie Rosewald Julie Rosewald (1847–1906), called “Cantor Soprano” by her congregation, was America's first unofficial (due to the fact that she was female and not ordained) cantor, serving San Francisco's Temple Emanu-El from 1884 until 1893. Biography ...

became America's first female

cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. In formal Jewish worship, a cantor is a person who sings solo verses or passages to which the choir or congregation responds. In Judaism, a cantor sings and lead ...

when she began serving in Emanu-El, although she was not ordained. She served as a cantor there until 1893. As the

Reform Movement A reform movement or reformism is a type of social movement that aims to bring a social or also a political system closer to the community's ideal. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary mo ...

in Judaism spread in the United States during the early twentieth century, the synagogue became affiliated with this framework. Among its major programs today, the synagogue includes worship, youth and adult education programs, and also a major emphasis on social justice.

Clergy

Notable members

References

Pews at Temple Emmanuel in San Francisco

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Emanu-El (San Francisco, California) Synagogues in San Francisco Reform synagogues in California Religious organizations established in 1851 1851 establishments in California German-American culture in California German-Jewish culture in the United States Synagogues completed in 1926 1920s architecture in the United States 1926 establishments in California Arthur Brown Jr. buildings Byzantine Revival synagogues Byzantine Revival architecture in California Mediterranean Revival architecture in California Synagogue buildings with domes

History

Clergy

Notable members

References

Further reading

External links