The Elite Directory for San Francisco and Oakland

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

Argonaut Publishing Company

San Francisco

1879

On pp. 81-89, the “Jewish Address List” provides the names of the 225 members of the Jewish community and their respective “reception days,” that is, when they were available to receive visitors, as was the custom of polite society. One also notes on pp. 193-196, “The Concordia,” the principal Jewish society of San Francisco with its “List of Members.” “In 1873, the society took possession of the present commodious rooms in the army building at the corner of Stockton and O’Farrell, fitted up at a cost of $30,000. The membership is entirely Jewish, and chiefly composed of wholesale merchants. The rooms have the usual appliances for comfort and pleasant entertainment. There is a reading-room, furnished with magazines and newspapers; a library, with books of reference; a billiard-room, dining-hall, etc. The rooms are only open evenings and Sundays. The entertainments are monthly or bi-monthly parties, at which are seen the élite (emphasis in original) of the Hebrew residents of the city.” The Elite Directory, p. 193. On p. 271, are listed San Francisco’s five synagogues