Rachel “Ray” Frank is thought to be the first woman to preach to a Jewish congregation in the United States. She gave a sermon during High Holidays 1890 in Spokane, Wash., earning her the nickname “Girl Rabbi of the Golden West.”
Frank, who was born in San Francisco to Polish immigrants and taught at the First Hebrew Congregation of Oakland (now known as Temple Sinai Oakland), is one of several Northern California personalities, both historical and present day, featured in “Jews of the Wild West.”
The documentary, which runs 83 minutes, will air on KQEH (KQED Plus) at 9 p.m. Tuesday, April 25. It is also available to rent on iTunes and Amazon Prime Video.
“Ray Frank had this opportunity in the Wild West … because things were not as established, because roots were not laid down, because things were still starting up. And out of necessity, she was the one who could do it,” Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin of Temple Sinai says in the film. “Ray Frank’s work changed how people understand possibilities, how people understand who can teach Torah.”
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, thousands of Jewish immigrants who initially arrived at ports in New York, New Orleans and Galveston, Texas, headed West in search of economic opportunities and adventure. By 1912, approximately 100,000 had put down roots from Colorado to California. They encountered relatively little antisemitism, according to the film.
“Jews of the Wild West,” directed by Amanda Kinsey, includes vignettes about several prominent Jewish figures of the era. Levi Strauss and the Latvian-born Jewish tailor Jacob Davis, who collaborated to make blue jeans, are the focus of one segment. In another, a former governor of Acoma Pueblo, an Indigenous community in New Mexico, relates the story of Solomon Bibo. A Jewish trader born in Prussia, Bibo married an Acoma woman and became the first non-Native governor of the tribe in 1888. He eventually moved to San Francisco with his family and is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Colma. (The decimation of the Indigenous population through genocide and epidemics is mentioned in an intertitle, but the role Jews played in displacing Native Americans is glossed over.)
Another Northern California local who appears in the film is “Jewish cowboy” Scott Gerber, a rancher and folk music singer who lives in Petaluma. His great-grandfather immigrated from Ukraine, and his grandparents moved to Sonoma County in the early 1900s and became chicken farmers. Gerber sings a Yiddish work song for the camera.
“I’ve always loved it,” he said about Yiddish music in an interview with J. in 2000. “It’s always been such a part of me and the culture I was raised in.”
“Jews in the Wild West” premiered at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival in 2022. Kinsey, the director, said in a statement that she made the film because she wanted to tell a positive immigration story.
“From cowboys to trailblazers, Jewish pioneers left a lasting legacy of resilience, entrepreneurship and community in the American West,” she said. “Unfortunately, these stories are too often marginalized and few people are familiar with the outstanding contributions of these gutsy immigrants.”