Showing 1 - 20 of 38 results

Alhadeff, Morris (1914-1994)

Morris "Morrie" Alhadeff, a Seattle native, was General Manager and Chairman of the Board of the Longacres racetrack in Renton. Strong supporters of civil rights, Alhadeff and his wife Joan Gottstein Alhadeff (whose father, Joseph Gottstein (1891-1971), founded Longacres) were great patrons of Northwest art and collected equine-themed prints and paintings. Prior to his work at Longacres, Alhadeff was employed by several radio stations using the radio name Jerry Morris. Alhadeff served the Seattle community on numerous boards of directors throughout his life.
File 7348: Full Text >

American Jewish Committee, Seattle Regional Office

The Greater Seattle Chapter of the American Jewish Committee (now called the American Jewish Committee (AJC) Seattle Regional Office) was formed in January 1946. The organization was an affiliate of the national organization established in New York in 1906 following a wave of Russian pogroms. In 1946, just after World War II and the disastrous holocaust in which millions of Jews were killed, waves of Jewish immigrants were pouring into America. The national organization took on the mission of safeguarding the rights and freedoms of Jews worldwide.
File 666: Full Text >

Benaroya, Jack Albert (1921-2012)

Jack Benaroya was a real-estate developer, civic leader, and philanthropist. He was a pioneer in the development and packaging of industrial parks in the Pacific Northwest and sold his holdings in 1984 for $315 million, then considered the largest real-estate transaction in Pacific Northwest history. Jack Benaroya and his wife, Becky, have been major benefactors for the Pacific Northwest's cultural, educational, and medical superstructure. Most notably, the Benaroyas in 1993 provided the $15 million seed money to help launch the Seattle Symphony's much-lauded performance hall in downtown Seattle, now called Benaroya Hall. They also have supported the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, as well as other Seattle hospitals and area arts organizations. Benaroya's contributions to the Pacific Northwest earned him a range of awards, for his entrepreneurship, his service, and his philanthropy. The Seattle-King County Association of Realtors named Benaroya its "First Citizen" for 1998. Jack Benaroya died on Friday, May 11, 2012.
File 7419: Full Text >

Bikur Cholim-Machzikay Hadath (Seattle)

Chevra Bikur Cholim, (Society for visiting the sick) incorporated in Seattle in 1891 with the purpose of caring for the sick and providing proper burial. It evolved into a religious congregation and in 1991 celebrated its centennial.
File 299: Full Text >

Bridge, Herbert "Herb" Marvin (b. 1925)

Herbert M. "Herb" Bridge has lived a full, well-traveled life as a successful businessman, a naval officer in two wars, and a Seattle civic leader and philanthropist whose boundless energies earned him the nickname, "Mr. Downtown." Bridge joined the U.S. Navy shortly after the U.S. entered World War II, and during a 41-year career in the Navy and Naval Reserve, rose to the rank of rear admiral. He and his brother, Robert, took over their father's Seattle jewelry store, Ben Bridge, and from it developed a chain of more than 70 stores, from Minnesota to Hawaii. The civic and philanthropic efforts of Bridge and his wife, Shirley (Selesnick) Bridge (1922-2008), have earned them many awards from local and national groups. The Seattle-King County Association of Realtors named Herb Bridge First Citizen for 2001.
File 7307: Full Text >

Broderick, Henry (1880-1975)

Henry Broderick was a highly respected Seattle civic leader and the longtime president of the city's largest real estate firm. From the time he arrived in town in 1901 until his death seven decades later, Broderick was involved in almost every important aspect of Seattle civic life, boosting, chairing, contributing financially, and most importantly observing and recording what he saw, foibles and all. For his extensive and unique contribution to the fabric of life in Seattle, the Seattle-King County Association of Realtors named Henry Broderick First Citizen of 1952.
File 7701: Full Text >

Buxbaum, Edith (1902-1982), Psychoanalyst

The Viennese-born psychoanalyst Edith Buxbaum, author of Your Child Makes Sense (1949) and Troubled Children in a Troubled World (1970), arrived in Seattle on January 1, 1947. She was a leading psychoanalyst here for more than 30 years and was a principal founder of the Seattle Psychoanalytic Institute (later renamed Seattle Institute of Psychoanalysis [SIP]). She served as its Child Analysis Division Head and as Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Washington. Her devotion to children, her desire to improve the quality of their lives and, thus, better the world, by emphasizing the child's individuality and creativity -- with more listening, less discipline, a nuclear family with the mother preferably at home -- informed her philosophy and practice.
File 3674: Full Text >

Congregation Ezra Bessaroth

In 1909, the Seattle organization that developed into the Congregation Ezra Bessaroth, comes into existence. This is the organization of Koupa Ozer Dalim Anshe Rhodes, fund for the aid of the poor people in Rhodes by Sephardic Jews (of Spanish origin) from Rhodes. In 1914, it incorporated and in 1917 held High Holiday services in its own synagogue, the first Sephardic building constructed in Seattle. In the late 1990s, the synagogue continues to preserve its Sephardic character in worship and tradition.
File 125: Full Text >

Congregation Machzikay Hadath

Congregation Machzikay Hadath (Jewish) was incorporated on March 11, 1930. Machzikay Hadath was founded to be more strictly orthodox than any congregation in the city. On October 7, 1979, Machzikay Hadath approved a merger with Bikur Cholim.
File 669: Full Text >

Eckstein, Nathan (1873-1945)

Nathan Eckstein was a prominent Seattle citizen who came to the region after being in the grocery business for 10 years in New York. He married Mina Schwabacher in 1902 and served as vice president and then chief executive officer of Schwabachers and Co., one of the oldest business houses in Seattle. He was a member of the Seattle School Board (1913-1920), chairman of the Washington State Tax Commission (1921-1922), Campaign Chairman for the Seattle Community Fund which was the forerunner of United Way (1924, 1925), and a member of the commission to revise the City Charter (1925). On acceptance of the 1926 "Seattle's Most Useful Citizen" award, Nathan Eckstein stated "To be a useful citizen is more than a duty, it is a high privilege." Nathan Eckstein Junior High is named after him.
File 1644: Full Text >

Furth, Jacob (1840-1914)

Jacob Furth played a pivotal role in the development of Seattle's public transportation and electric power infrastructure, and he was the founder of Seattle National Bank. As the agent for the utilities firm Stone and Furth, he consolidated the city's random independent streetcar lines into Seattle Electric. He was a member of Seattle's first synagogue, Ohaveth Sholum, and Temple de Hirsch.
File 87: Full Text >

Galland, Caroline Rosenberg Kline (1841-1907)

Caroline Rosenberg Kline Galland, an early and important Seattle philanthropist, devoted her life to serving the community. Her will bequeathed funds for a home for the Jewish aged and for other charities, including a tuberculosis hospital. The Caroline Kline Galland Center has served the Jewish aged for more than 80 Years.
File 544: Full Text >

Gatzert, Bailey (1829-1893)

In 1875, Bailey Gatzert became the first and to date (2005) only Jewish mayor of Seattle. Gatzert was partner and general manager of Schwabacher and Co., one of Seattle's earliest hardware and general mercantile stores, later to become the start of wholesale trade in Seattle. He was involved in many business and civic ventures critical to the establishment of early Seattle commerce and infrastructure. He was married to Babette (Schwabacher) Gatzert.
File 86: Full Text >

Haas, Saul (1896-1972)

Saul Haas left the New York ghetto for the Pacific Northwest with ambitious dreams that he realized more than most in a full, occasionally controversial life as a journalist, political activist, and pioneering broadcaster. The founder of KIRO radio and a power in Washington Democratic politics, Haas was complex and contradictory, self-educated and variously described as brilliant, irascible, compassionate, and a benevolent despot -- or sometimes not so benevolent. Haas managed two successful campaigns for U. S. Senator Homer T. Bone (1883-1970), and spent 18 months in the senator's office before returning to Seattle as Collector of Customs, a post he held from 1933 until 1945. Haas and Bone together mentored another up-and-coming politician -- Warren G. Magnuson (1905-1989). While building KIRO into a powerful station, he remained immersed in politics, serving as state director of the Democratic National Campaign Committee. Haas saw great promise in public television as an educational tool and in 1968 was appointed to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's first board of directors. He had a lifelong empathy for the underprivileged and formed the Saul and Dayee G. Haas Foundation to aid needy students.
File 5632: Full Text >

Hadassah, Seattle Chapter

Hadassah, a Jewish women's organization, was founded with the goals of fostering Zionist ideals in America through education and to begin public health nursing and nurses' training in Palestine. Gisell Herzog of Montreal, on a visit to Seattle, founded the Seattle chapter of Hadassah in April 1923.
File 972: Full Text >

Hebrew Free Loan Association

The Hebrew Education and Free Loan Association, incorporated in 1914, had the purpose of providing interest-free loans to Seattle's needy. The initial membership of the organization was 60, with dues at 50 cents per month. Membership grew to 125 in the organization's first year. In 1979 the organization's name changed to Hebrew Free Loan Association.
File 668: Full Text >

Hebrew Ladies Free Loan Society

The Hebrew Ladies Free Loan Society grew out of a whist (card game) and sewing club established in 1909 by women from Bikur Cholim synagague. Bikur Cholim's rabbi refused to accept the women's offer of "gambling money" from the club's treasury, so the women formed a loan society to give free loans to needy Jews. Today the Hebrew Ladies Free Loan Society is administered by the Jewish Family Service.
File 974: Full Text >

Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation (Seattle)

Seattle's Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation, originally called Herzl's congregation, was named after Theodore Herzl (1860-1904), founder of the World Zionist Organization. It incorporated on September 16, 1906. Until 1970, the congregation was located in Seattle's Central Area. Originally an Orthodox Sephardic synagogue, Herzl voted to modernize in 1929, joining the middle of Judaism's three major branches -- Orthodox, Conservative, and Reformed. In the late 1960s, the congregation decided to move to Mercer Island, in Lake Washington, and to merge with the Ner Tamid Conservative congregation. In the early twenty-first century, Herzl-Ner Tamid is the largest and oldest Conservative congregation in Seattle, and conducts traditional services with modern adaptations.
File 112: Full Text >

Israel, Samuel (1899-1994)

Sam Israel was the largest private owner of properties in downtown Seattle and in Pioneer Square, a slum landlord credited with preserving much of Seattle's architectural heritage because of what has been termed his benign neglect. In addition to the 40 properties he owned in Seattle, 14 of which were in Pioneer Square, he had acquired land in Seattle neighborhoods, on Mercer Island, and thousands of acres in Grant, Snohomish, Whatcom, Jefferson, Kitsap, and Grays Harbor counties.
File 9307: Full Text >

Jewish Community of Spokane

The first Jewish synagogue in the state opened in Spokane in 1892, but the city's Jewish history began even before the little village of Spokane Falls existed. In 1879, Indians told Simon Berg, the first known Jewish resident, that he was not the first "egg-eater" they had met. Apparently, other Jewish traders observing the kosher dietary rules had visited before. Berg built a store in tiny Spokane Falls in 1879 and by 1885 he had been joined by at least a dozen other Jewish merchants. The town's first Jewish services were held in a private home in 1885. In 1890, the Jewish community met to organize a Reform congregation, called Congregation Emanu-El. On September 14, 1892, they dedicated their synagogue, Temple Emanu-El, the first in the state by four days, since Seattle's Ohaveth Sholum opened within a week. Jewish merchants and financiers played a key role in the development of Spokane during its early decades. A second congregation, the Orthodox Keneseth Israel congregation was formed in 1901. Both congregations thrived until they merged in 1966 and built a new, modern temple, the Temple Beth Shalom. It remains the center of Spokane's Jewish community today. The city's Jewish population has remained steady through the decade, yet is estimated at less than 1 percent of the metropolitan area's population.
File 8640: Full Text >

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