The Gilded Circle

The "Gilded Circle": interrelated clans linked by blood, marriage, and business.

In Gold Rush San Francisco, the most economically successful Jewish families formed their own clique - an exclusive Gilded Circle, forged of interrelated clans linked by blood, marriage, and business. This exclusive clan included the families of: Sloss, Gerstle Family Gerstle, Greenwald, Levi Strauss (Levi) Strauss, Stern, Seligman, Lilienthal, Steinhart, Fleishacker, Zellerbach, Brandentstein, Koshland. The Gilded Circle members had a strict code of behavior:

1. Make money.

2. Marry one's own kind (German Jewish)

3. Belong to Reform Temple Emanu-El or to no other congregation.

4. Acquire tastes of people of rank.

They built houses on same street and went to the same summer retreat. Large families staffed a minimum of six servants and entertained lavishly. Until the early 1900s guest lists were confined to the Gilded Circle, other socially acceptable Jews, and a smattering of affluent Gentiles. Young women who accepted more than occasional invitation to non-Jewish parties were roundly criticized.

To prepare them for a life of privilege, young received disciplined training. Nurses and governesses instructed them in proper manners. Tutors gave them art, music, French and German languages. Most boys were permitted attend public schools before sent east, to Harvard or Yale or nearby Stanford or University of California. The less studious rushed directly into business. Most girls attended private schools.

By early 20th century, when the third generation of San Francisco Jews were coming of age, the circle's code of behavior had solidified into a tradition to be conformed to or, frequently, rebelled against. Circle members had by then begun to mingle freely with non-Jews at social, cultural, and charitable events, and intermarriage was clearly on the rise.

--by Kate Shvetsky

Contributors to this page include:

Judah Magnus Museum - Publisher or Photographer

Shvetsky,Kate - Writer

Judah Magnus Museum - Publisher or Photographer

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