New book explores diverse history of Washington state's Jewish settlers

In 1858, Isaac Pincus happened by Steilacoom, on his way to the booming West Coast metropolis of San Francisco. Impressed with the Washington town's excellent port and other commercial possibilities, Pincus stayed on.

He later recalled, "I thought Steilacoom was a pretty good place, and I anchored there." In time he married, raised a family, helped form Tacoma's Chamber of Commerce and became the largest hops dealer on the West Coast.

The same year Pincus settled in Steilacoom, the Bavarian emigrant David C. H. Rothschild came to Port Townsend. Soon he established a major shipping business and won the nickname "The Baron." His handsome family home, majestically situated on a bluff overlooking Admiralty Inlet, has been preserved and is now open to the public for tours, under the auspices of the Jefferson County Historical Society.

What set Pincus and Rothschild apart from the majority of pioneering entrepreneurs who sought, and won, their fortunes in the Puget Sound region more than a century ago?

Both were Jews. And though initially members of a tiny minority group here, they were linchpins in a community that grew, prospered and produced influential partners in the development of Washington state.

The history of Jews in this region is chronicled through words and images in the new book "Family of Strangers: Building a Jewish Community in Washington State" (University of Washington Press, $45) co-authored by Molly Cone, Howard Droker and Jacqueline Williams. Four years in the making, it draws from many sources, including oral histories, private papers and hundreds of other documents collected and preserved by the Washington State Jewish Historical Society (which co-sponsored the book) and the UW's Jewish Archives project.

More than a century of Jewish life in this region is considered in this survey, in the context of immigration and cultural trends in the United States at large. But the Pacific Northwest, the authors stress, has had its own distinctive experience — as suggested by the volume's title. For while they have always composed a relatively small portion of the state's population, Washington's first Jewish citizens were an unusually enterprising and diverse lot of "strangers" — more diverse, in terms of their cultural backgrounds, than in some states with larger concentrations of Jews.

Making their mark

They originally hailed from Germany, Bavaria, Poland, Russia, Greece and Turkey. They spoke English, Yiddish and the Sephardic language, Ladino.

Some were orthodox in their religious practices, others far less so. And while not very unified as a group, they quickly wove themselves into the largely gentile fabric of Washington's commercial and civic life — quickly making their marks in Olympia, Spokane, Tacoma, Walla Walla and Bellingham, as well as in Seattle.

Jewish businessmen were the first merchants in 19th-century Seattle to prosper from the Alaskan gold rush. "They were the big wholesalers and dealers in dry goods here," notes co-author Droker, a Seattle-bred historian and lawyer.

"Somehow Seattle convinced the world that you had to go through this city to get to the Yukon gold fields. And Jewish businesses had the provisions the prospectors needed to take up to Alaska. They also supplied agricultural and timber interests around the West with goods."

"Family of Strangers" offers a roll call of Jews who established themselves as key entrepreneurs and city fathers. They include Paul Singerman and Ferdinand Toklas (the father of the writer Alice B. Toklas) who, with another partner, opened Seattle's first department store, and installed the first electric lighting and telephone in a retail business.

Also featured are the highly successful Schwabacker brothers, early pioneers who in the 1860s established a warehouse in Walla Walla en route to the Colville gold fields, and became leading wholesalers and a major force in merchandising, grain processing and shipping in the state and beyond.

Jewish family and civic life, the role of women, and the creation of Jewish synagogues, charitable, cultural and social institutions are also covered in the book. History comes alive in such appealing photos as the portraits of smiling teenage girls in their modest swimming dresses, at a Luna Park picnic organized by Jewish groups in 1912, and of hardy young members of the Sephardic Young Men's Hebrew Association hiking in the Cascades around the same time.

'City-builders'

And there's an intriguing account of the rise and gradual breakup of Seattle's "old Jewish Neighborhood": an area located between 9th and 14th avenues, bordered by Yesler Way and Cherry Street. In that vibrant sector during the 1920s and '30s, one could shop for kosher meat and bagels, visit numerous synagogues, hear Yiddish and Ladino spoken and drop into a Sephardic cafe for Turkish coffee and a game of backgammon. The neighborhood changed after World War II, in the wake of shifting economics and an influx of African Americans to the area.

"Family of Strangers" also considers the climate of tolerance and mutual accommodation Jews enjoyed in Seattle in particular, where anti-Semitism, says Droker, "was never as virulent as on the East Coast, partly because Jews were city-builders here as they were in San Francisco."

There is some discussion, however, of the post-World War II struggle to fully integrate the Washington Athletic Club and other exclusive private clubs, and Jewish efforts to work with other minority religious and ethnic groups to combat discrimination in general.

Written in straightforward prose, and chock-full of names, dates and anecdotes, the book is more of a browser's volume than an absorbing piece of literature. But while it concentrates mostly on the past, it does bring up to date the current demographics for Jews in the state.

There are now an estimated 40,000 Jews in Washington, about 35,000 of whom reside in the greater Seattle area. Some 37 Jewish religious congregations are scattered across the state, along with Jewish day schools, community centers and other formal and informal organizations.

Compared to the demographics of New York or California the Jewish population here remains relatively small. But Droker points out, "I think Seattle especially has come a long way since World War II, especially in recent years.

"Our community is a lot bigger than it used to be, and this is no longer looked upon as a fairly isolated place without much of a Jewish presence."

"Family of Strangers" takes its place alongside previous UW Press volumes devoted to the history of Washington's African American, Asian American and Scandinavian communities.

Droker says he hopes Jews and non-Jews will view this addition to the series as "the story of one ethnic group, and how it contributed to the state and city but maintained their ethnic identity."

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com