The Western Jewish History Center, Vertical Files contain the office reference and research files of the Center and document its efforts to provide guidance and assistance in the study of western Jewish Americana.

The Western Jewish History (WJHC), Newsletter Collection consists primarily of newsletters related to various Jewish congregations, temples, lodges, and community groups located in the western region of the United States. The materials also include directories, brochures, dedication books, program event fliers, and anniversary booklets.

The "San Francisco Jews: Old Traditions on a New Frontier" was a special traveling exhibition prepared, in 1976, by the Western Jewish History Center. It was created in commemoration of the United States' bicentennial, and it was developed with the assistance of the American Issues Forum and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The collection consists of photographs and supporting information utilized in the exhibition, as well as additional biographical material received after the exhibition. Subjects of the exhibition include: David Belasco, Sol Bloom, Mortimer and Herbert Fleishhacker, Rube Goldberg, Isaias Hellman, Joshua ("Emperor") Norton, Abraham Ruef, Gertrude Stein, Joseph Strauss, Philo Jacoby, Anne Bremer, Joseph Choynski, and Jessica Peixotto.

Jeanne E. Abrams “has written a sweeping, challenging, and provocative history of Jewish women in the American West . . . a pathbreaking work.”* The image of the West looms large in the American imagination. Yet the history of American Jewry and particularly of American Jewish women—has been heavily weighted toward the East. Jewish Women Pioneering the Frontier Trailrectifies this omission as the first full book to trace the history and contributions of Jewish women in the American West. In many ways, the Jewish experience in the West was distinct. Given the still-forming social landscape, beginning with the 1848 Gold Rush, Jews were able to integrate more fully into local communities than they had in the East. Jewish women in the West took advantage of the unsettled nature of the region to “open new doors” for themselves in the public sphere in ways often not yet possible elsewhere in the country. Women were crucial to the survival of early communities, making distinct contributions not only in shaping Jewish communal life but outside the Jewish community as well. Western Jewish women's level of involvement at the vanguard of social welfare and progressive reform, commerce, politics, and higher education and the professions is striking given their relatively small numbers. This engaging work—full of stories from the memoirs and records of Jewish pioneer women—illuminates the pivotal role they played in settling America's Western frontier. “Fast and engrossing. As a piece of scholarly writing it should be required reading in any course on the American West that seeks to broaden the definition of what it means to be a Westerner.” —*Colorado Book Review Center

Puts aside many stereotypes and examines the less-told story of the migration of Jews to Californiaand the West from the mid-19th century to the 1920's