A new book that describes the history and contributions of Solano County’s Jewish community originally was conceived as a cookbook with stories served on the side.

Rachel Raskin-Zrihen, who came up with that idea, then learned that some of her acquaintances had worked with Arcadia Publishing to write a book about the Jews of Napa.

“It was at their book signing that the seeds for this book were planted,” said Shoshana Deutscher-Nurik, who collaborated with Raskin-Zrihen and Rachel Rae Moncharsh-Lessem on “Jewish Community of Solano,” a new volume in Arcadia’s “Images of America” series.

“A friend tried to contact Arcadia for us and finally Rachel Zrihen reached them,” Deutscher-Nurik said.

The trio met with others before starting their research and writing.

“We divided up Solano County and set off on a two-year journey,” she said.

“We reached out to local museums, historical societies and locals within the community. Most people we asked were happy to help.”

Some potential contributors hesitated, or asked to remain anonymous.

“At first the path was difficult as we looked through photographs and newspaper articles looking for Jewish names,” Deutscher-Nurik said.

Once the names were found, the three had to determine whether the people actually were Jewish. “So we had to tie them to Jewish activities or cemeteries,” she said.

They got help from multiple sources. Some, such as the Bancroft Library, were able to provide only minimal aid. But others gave the women more substantial assistance, particularly Jim Kern, director of the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum, Beverly Phelan at the Benicia Historical Museum, and the archives at Congregation B’nai Israel.

The book notes that Solano County’s Jewish history begins early in Vallejo. Sol Levy came from Germany to join an uncle living in Vallejo about 30 years after Ole Johnson built what has been identified as the first home in that South Solano County city. Levy changed his name to Levee and opened Vallejo’s first department store when he was just 23.

Jews accompanied Christopher Columbus and were living in the American colonies by 1654, the women wrote in their book’s introduction. President George Washington recognized Jewish contributions to the fight for independence when the country’s first Jewish temple, Touro Synagogue, opened in 1790 in Newport, R.I.

That osteopathic medical school on the site of the former Naval General Hospital follows the Jewish tradition of repairing the world, “tikkun olam,” by tutoring elementary school pupils and operating free health clinics.

The family for whom the house of worship was named is the same for which Touro University, which has a campus on Vallejo’s Mare Island, is named, the book states.

The 1800s saw more Jews move to the United States, settling primarily in New York, Chicago and Cleveland, though many also came to Los Angeles and San Francisco, which had a large German Jewish population that included Levi Strauss, whose dry goods business became more famous for producing riveted denim work pants known worldwide as blue jeans and “Levis.”

The California Gold Rush attracted more Jews to Northern California, and not all who stayed remained in larger cities.

“They left their mark on the buildings they constructed, creating successful businesses and rising to prominence within the Jewish community,” the three women wrote.

Some kept their faith secret, which made it harder for the women to develop the pictorial history book. But the trio persevered.

“In my opinion, I don’t think people pay so much attention to people’s backgrounds except when there is a controversy,” Deutscher-Nurik said. “I think this book will be an eye-opener.”

Though many may not be familiar with the contributions Jews have made to Solano County, “I don’t think the larger community is entirely to blame, because many Jews, with good historical reason, are afraid to make waves and tend to keep a low profile so as not to draw undesired attention to themselves,” Raskin-Zrihen said.

“Therefore, many in the non-Jewish community remain largely clueless, and the Jewish community (remains) largely invisible.”

A long and colorful history

The book begins with the arrival of Moses Blum and his brothers in Vacaville in 1849. Blum married Bertha Kishland and opened a downtown store, and later started a shipping business.

With the arrival of the railroad in 1868, Blum was elected as a director of the Vaca Valley Railroad Company, and by 1884 he was Vacaville’s mayor.

Other pioneers were Kaskill “King” Casper, who rescued a power company and switched Vallejo from gas lamps to electric lights. After his death, he was buried in Colma alongside Strauss and the noted lawman and gambler Wyatt Earp and his Jewish wife, Josephine.

Raphael Pizante, who had sold cigarettes to miners to earn the fare from the Greek city of Rhodes and then washed dishes to cover his travels to Vallejo, where he, too, opened a store, was instrumental in the founding of Solano County’s only synagogue, Congregation B’nai Israel.

Benicia’s Jewish members of the military had their own services at the Arsenal Post Hospital, where services for other faiths also were conducted.

Vallejo’s first woman police officer was Jewish, the book says. Rose Rachel Milestein left Romania after her grandparents were killed in the pogroms. She patrolled the city’s waterfront alone on foot.

During World War II, Milestein also was a fitter’s helper at Mare Island; she worked more than 40 years with the Salvation Army, and also knitted 500 socks for American soldiers.

Jews helped shape Solano County’s look, too, erecting the first grain elevator west of the Missouri River and the elegant Starr Mansion in Vallejo.

A former YMCA until bought by Harry Handlery in 1928, Casa de Vallejo became a 165-room hotel and a night spot where top bands played, the start of what would become California’s largest family-owned hotel chain. He’s also credited with designing the glass elevator. Handlery and his family also provided more than 100 acres in Vallejo for the Solano County Fairgrounds.

Kullman, Salz and Company bought the Benicia Tannery, along with two horses and their harnesses, vats, liquors, extracts, oils, tools and other machinery, and made Benicia a major West Coast tanning city.

Another Jewish resident in Solano County is Ken Zadwick, a rocket scientist who founded the Mare Island Historical Park Foundation to start and maintain Vallejo’s Mare Island Museum. Zadwick is also credited with developing the first Coca-Cola can.

Benicia Herald contributor Ellen Blaufarb had many assignments during her 27 years with the Benicia Unified School District, from resource specialist and counselor on up to school principal, the book notes.

Another contributor to The Herald is award-winning investigative writer and book author Francesca Biller, of Jewish and Japanese heritage.

Solano County residents who are members of the Jewish community also have been active in local and state politics, the three authors noted.

Among them is Marilyn Citron O’Rourke, who moved to Benicia from Sacramento. She started her political career as a member of the Benicia Unified School District Board of Trustees, and followed that by being only the third woman elected to the City Council.

When O’Rourke was elected mayor, she was the first woman in Benicia to win that office.

During her two terms, she helped establish the North Bay Aqueduct, get the IT Corporation Panoche Facility Class One landfill cleaned, started an art task force, and oversaw the opening of the new public library building in 1991, where an art gallery now bears her name.

In a move that proved controversial, O’Rourke also declined in 1990 to sign a proclamation during the Year of the Bible, questioning its constitutionality and whether it violated the separation of church and state.

Questions about whether similar recognition of other holy books have not arisen. Deutscher-Nurik noted, “There has never been a Year of the Torah.”

Also involved in Solano County politics is Councilmember Alan Schwartzman, who with his business partner, Mitchell Chernock, operates a financial mortgage and real estate company.

For a time, one Benicia couple served on two of the city’s advisory panels. Larry Grossman recently resigned as the chairperson of the city Finance Committee, and his wife, Susan Cohen-Grossman, is a member of Benicia’s Planning Commission. Both have a history of public service.

At the state level, Sen. Lois Krepliak Wolk has the highest public service position of anyone from the Solano County Jewish community. First elected to the state Senate in 2008, she became Benicia’s representative in that legislative body when districts were redrawn after the 2010 U.S. Census.

Among the artists represented in the book are Jeff Trager, a member of the Blues Hall of Fame who has ties with Tom Jones, Gene Simmons, Joni Mitchell, Tina Turner, Carlos Santana and the Moody Blues; Jim Weiss, of Greathall Productions; DJ “Mix Master Mike Schwartz, who contributed to the all-Jewish Beastie Boys; Kathy Ertemann, a founding member of Arts Benicia; Nikki Basch Davis, the plein air artist; and Alexandra, Isaac and Shoshana Deutscher-Nurik.

Deutscher-Nurik, along with Alisa Danyeur and Heather Campbell and working through the Benicia-Solano Jewish Women’s Network, began a local annual menorah lighting in 1989, welcoming residents of all faiths to hear the Chanukah story and receive a dreidel. The event has been named the Meghan Campbell Menorah Lighting since 2010, honoring Campbell’s daughter, who died at 26.

The county’s Jewish community has been involved in community efforts for some time, from participating in Relay for Life to battle cancer to celebrating National AIDS Day and Vallejo’s revived Unity Day to reduce youth violence. Congregation B’nai Israel helped found a local branch of Common Grounds, a new chapter of a 14-year-old national civic organization formed to address community concerns. The book notes the county’s Jewish community’s military contributions, as well.

An education for Gentiles

Reading the book gives non-Jews a look at significant ceremonies of the ancient faith of Abraham and Moses. Illustrated with pictures from Congregation B’nai Israel showing Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the carrying of the Torah called Simchat Torah, a Bar Mitzvah, a wedding, and Chanukah, as well as secular celebrations such as the western New Year’s Eve.

The authors acknowledged that prejudice against Jews still remains, and some potential contributors told the three women they still worried about a backlash, including from the Ku Klux Klan.
Rather than conceal that aspect of being Jewish, the three women said they “chose to present Solano County’s Jews, warts and all.”

The book chronicles the unsolved murder of Dr. Ira Polonsky at his home; the on and off troubles of Council member and pool hall owner Sol Rose, who made a citizen’s arrest of a Benicia police chief; the time Benicia’s Jewish students were forced to attend a 1990 religious Christian assembly, but the school district four years later ignored the Jewish calendar and scheduled the first day of school on Rosh Hashanah; the lack of recognition of Jewish contributions among those from other communities at Unity Plaza near Vallejo City Hall; and the ransacking and suspicious fire at the county’s sole synagogue, as well as vandalism and arson to other Jewish-owned businesses.

Deutscher-Nurik said some of the hate comes from historic times, from the Inquisition and pogroms to the Holocaust and the present-day destruction of synagogues in Europe, and because people have ignored the positive contributions of Jews, such as the Israeli doctors who are at the forefront in the battle against the Ebola virus.

She said current local attitudes toward Jews vary. Some blame Jews for changing the city’s wording about holidays, or preferring a neutral greeting to “Merry Christmas.”

“There are those that support Israel and its plight and those that are against it because of its plight,” she said. “Unfortunately, I think people often take a stand without the research or knowledge of the complete situation. Most hate in the world comes from either ignorance or hate irrationally being passed down from generation to generation.”

Ironically, she said, many of the Jewish families in Solano County are in mixed marriages and are more assimilated into the community rather than active in any structured religious congregations.

Speaking about the scheduling, Deutscher-Nurik said secular calendars more frequently list main Jewish holidays, and some mark the holidays’ start the previous night. She said school districts are given 10-year Jewish calendars, “but often forget to refer to them.”

But many people still are unaware of those significant dates, and she said Benicia isn’t alone in inadvertent scheduling during the holidays.

“Some organizations have been asked specifically to be careful to check the Jewish calendar,” she said. “Arts Benicia is thoughtful when it comes to scheduling the art auction, and tries to avoid the two weekends involved Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.”

The book has 127 pages, but could have been longer: Deutscher-Nurik said she and her co-authors “gathered so much information — far more than we expected.” From that, they had to choose 200 photographs and condense their information. “It was very limiting when some had amazing stories to tell,” she said.

The authors are hoping their book will shed more light on how Jews have been part of Solano County since its beginning.

Raskin-Zrihen said, “There is so much the world has the Jewish people to thank for — starting, perhaps, with Christianity and Islam, which grew out of it, the concept of human rights and so much more.”

She said all the contributions would be too numerous to list, but added that they include the arts, medicine and many scientific discoveries.

“In order to appreciate something or someone, you need to know about it or them,” Deutscher-Nurik said. “Our book shows we are in every facet of the community, from teachers, administrators and school board members to all areas in medicine and law to the arts, to real estate to being activists.

“As a people and as parents, we are and have been involved in most community activities.”

She recognized that many are familiar with Solano County’s strong Portuguese Catholic connections.

But, she said, “I feel we are a multi-ethnic quilt, hopefully welcoming to all backgrounds.

“We hope the public will see that there have been Jewish people in Solano County, known or unknown, from a very early time.

“We hope they see all the accomplishments in the community. We hope this book will give courage to the Jews who remain hidden to be comfortable to celebrate their culture and backgrounds in the greater community.”

The book’s release, with authors’ signings, started early this week at the Vallejo Naval and History Museum.

Benicia’s release and autograph signings will be at 4:30 p.m. Sunday at Bookshop Benicia, 631 First St.

Another celebration will be at 12:30 p.m. Nov. 16 at the Hadassah Tea and Chabad at 1144 Vintage Court, Vacaville, with reservations requested by emailing Shosh1@aol.com, and at Congregation B’nai Israel, 1256 Nebraska St., Vallejo, at 12:30 p.m. Nov. 23.

Books also can be ordered from the authors as well as from the publishers, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.