Washington State Jewish Pioneers

Arthur Rothstein Washington Photograph

Arthur Rothstein Washington Photograph   Arthur Rothstein made some of the most significant documentary photographs ever taken of rural and small-town America. These images were created during his years traveling throughout the nation on assignment for the US Farm Security Administration, one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New

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Roster of Early Jewish Washington Officeholders

Roster of Early Jewish Washington Officeholders   Mayors   Mitchell Harris (1862-1928), two terms, Olympia, 1909-1911.   Simon Dreifus (1872-1954), four terms, Colfax 1931-1938.   State legislators   David Levin (1852-1919), two terms, representative, 1897-1899, 1905-1907.   Harry Rosenhaupt (1868-1938), two terms, representative, 1899-1902 and two terms, senator,

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Samuel Kreidel: Winner of Ten Elections in Ellensburg, Washington

Samuel Kreidel Values Codes: I – E – L   Samuel Kreidel (1855-1922) was born in Krakow, Poland (then part of the Russian Empire) and came to America by the 1870’s, settling in Santa Barbara, California.   He relocated in 1879 to Ellensburg, a small central Washington

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Port Townsend: Washington’s Undiscovered Early Jewish Electoral Hotspot

Port Townsend   Port Townsend was a quiet town on the northeast tip of the Olympic Peninsula with a population of 910 in 1880 and 4,181 in 1910. The town never gained recognition as a Jewish center but its three elected or acting mayors are the most

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Port Townsend: Washington’s Undiscovered Early Jewish Electoral Hotspot

Port Townsend   Port Townsend was a quiet town on the northeast tip of the Olympic Peninsula with a population of 910 in 1880 and 4,181 in 1910. The town never gained recognition as a Jewish center but its three elected or acting mayors are the most

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Bailey Gatzert: Washington’s First Jewish Mayor

Bailey Gatzert Values Codes I – E – L    Bailey Gatzert (1829-93) left Germany for Natchez, Mississippi, in 1849 and, four years later, went to the West Coast to sell groceries, clothing, and equipment to miners. He opened a grocery and general store in Nevada City,

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