Jewish enterprise in the American West: Washington, 1853-1909

In 1853, Washington Territory became a separate political entity. Among its residents were several hundred Jewish entrepreneurs whose presence has generally been overlooked. Their low visibility can be partially explained by the total lack of Jewish institutions established during the first twenty-five years of their presence in Washington. Equally compelling is that their neighbors paid scant attention to their ethnicity. Yet the role of Washington's Jewish entrepreneurs was important. They were part of the critical mass that moved Washington's Jewish population from small, scattered settlements to communities. The founders of fraternal lodges, relief societies, and commercial organizations within the host culture, they also began to establish cemeteries, mutual benefit societies, and fraternal and religious institutions within the Jewish community.The paradigm of their commercial activities changed considerably over the six and a half decades of this study, but never focused entirely on mercantile enterprises. In the Pacific Northwest, Jewish entrepreneurs brokered cattle, grain, and timber; traded in fish and furs; purchased merchant vessels; shipped the region's exploitable resources south; and imported goods for the northern market. The range of businesses and the commercial and kinship networks that supported Jewish business patterns had both social and business implications. Early entrepreneurial activities favored young, single, adventurous males. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, a different model evolved, one that reflected changes in the entrepreneurs themselves and accommodated families, civic and social interactions and institutional development.Washington's Jewish entrepreneurs augmented business traditions and skills drawn from their European backgrounds with ideas encountered in the American commercial environment. During the 1880s, they utilized entrepreneurial skills to develop an infrastructure for the new state. Commercial success allowed them to establish roots. By the end of the decade, they had also begun to create families, build homes, and construct an infrastructure for Washington's first Jewish communities.This history focuses on the economic endeavors of a specific ethnic group, the role of that group in Washington's development, and the relevance of entrepreneurs to the Jewish community that emerged during this period. As such, it is both an American Jewish history and a history of the American West.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 1996.School code: 0250