The documents in the Emanu-El Congregation, San Francisco collection were donated to WJHC in 1967 by Marshall Kuhn and other Emanu-El congregants. Additional documents have been added over the years, including copies of The Scroll (a publication of the Emanu-El Religious School) through 1995. Also included in the collection are microfilm copies of documents still held by the congregation. Collection was reprocessed in 1999.

The Emanu-El Congregation claims the title of first Synagogue in San Francisco. The first Jewish services were held in San Francisco in 1849 and major holidays were celebrated in various locations. Money was first acquired to build a permanent site in 1851 but disagreements split the group and on April 8, 1851 two congregations were formed: Temple Emanu-El and Sherith Israel. Emanu-El, originally Orthodox in orientation was drawn towards the emerging Reform Movement, guided in part by a series of rabbis with impressive reform credentials. Over the years Emanu-El became a temple of San Francisco's Jewish elite, listing many of the top mercantile, banking, and political families on its membership rolls.

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