“This is the story of a daughter’s search for her ancestors while also being an account of her discoveries about this large enterprising immigrant Jewish family (milliners, jewelers, general store merchants) that helped to build the Seattle we know today. Karen I. Treiger enriches her pages by setting family members in the historical context of time and place (from Eastern Europe to Seattle and Portland). Her concern to learn from her forebears’ difficulties and tragedies as well as from their business and personal successes and happiness make her family history an engaging and meaningful read.“
Priscilla Long, author of Fire and Stone: Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going
“Karen Treiger has woven a rich Pacific Northwest tapestry of family memories-recalled, researched and reimagined. Writing this book leaves her mark on history and becomes a vital link between the past and the future. We all have roots, and her story will lead you to wonder about your own.“
Steve Steinberg, author of award-winning books on baseball history
“In this captivating relatable memoir, Treiger honors her father’s memory through her deep research and vivid portraits of five ancestral families. As she describes their lives, she offers a unique and panoramic view of early Seattle and the growth of its Jewish community. Her voice as an explorer is what distinguishes these stories. She is wonderfully determined: She dives into archives, bikes to sites of past family businesses, and knocks on doors of houses where relatives lived. Her discoveries lead her to vulnerable and insightful inner work. As she looks through the window of past generations, she also sees a mirror –to view deeper truths and urgent questions about her own life. Readers of this memorable book will be moved to consider the lessons of the past in the way that she did.”
Barbara Mackoff, author The Inner Work of Leaders and Growing a Girl.
“It’s a rare combination when a thorough and thoughtful researcher is also a gifted writer. Karen Treiger expertly melds these two skills to create a compelling narrative, telling the story of the Pacific Northwest through the meticulously researched and lovingly rendered stories of her own family history. We are taken deep into the past of many well-known landmarks as this quintessential American success story plays out across the various members of Treiger’s family. A fantastic read!”
David Naggar
“Although I knew several individuals from Karen’s five families, my focus is on her father, Irwin. Irwin and I were classmates at Seattle’s Garfield High School where I worked on the school newspaper, The Messenger, with Irwin as Editor. We later crossed paths at the Seattle Symphony; at the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair (founded in part by my father when he was on the Seattle City Council and where I managed an exhibit for the imminent New York World’s Fair 1964-1965); and Bogel and Gates where my boss, a senior member of that eminent law firm, later became president of MacMillan-Bloedel, Canada’s largest forest products company, with me as Assistant to the President. Author Karen notes in her Preface that her father was a source of “dry wit . . .laughter. . . and a “moral compass.” I cite those same qualities as Irwin Treiger grew and moved through legal, promotional, fund-raising, department store experience and other roles in the Pacific Northwest. At Garfield, he eagerly but quietly moved into writing, editing and committee roles, while I was immersed in athletic and political activity. Irwin’s and my high school years emerged from separate backgrounds, despite the fact we were both “Central Area” kids: I was raised in Denny-Blaine, with its over-whelming views of Lake Washington and Mt. Rainier; attended Sunday School at Epiphany Parish (Episcopalian), and scrambled across the playground at hilltop Madrona Grade School; Irwin attended Washington Middle School, several blocks from Thrifty’s, his family’s hardware and 10 Cent store near the trolley lines that aimed downtown. While I was swimming and biking among the hills of Denny-Blaine, Irwin was writing poetry and becoming acquainted with Seattle characters, such as a chimney sweep and his stovepipe hat, corn cob pipe and summer shorts, and attending Bikur Cholim Synagogue. Irwin’s Ukrainian ancestors found opportunity by boarding old ships, first to New York, then on rattling Canadian railcars across the continent to Vancouver, B.C. The Rochesters also crossed the Atlantic Ocean, first settling on the rich land of Northern Neck Virginia, then boarding the rails to Portland and Seattle. Clarion calls for both families were celebrations in a raw, new land: Portland, Oregon’s 1905 Lewis & Clark’s Centennial and the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific (AYP), a “world’s fair” in Seattle. Irwin’s family, starting as peddlars and fishmongers, entered schools and colleges such asReed (Portland, OR), Portland Hebrew School and the University of Washington (Seattle, WA). Originally named Yisroel Aryeh, Irwin was born on September 10, 1934, the first night of Rosh Hashanah in the Jewish New Year. Irwin’s life, a bundle of ancestors, education and travel, exemplifies the brusque new cities of the Pacific Northwest, with their surrounding peaks, great and small rivers and the hundreds of deep ports for products to the world. Irwin Treiger, my high school classmate, took advantage of it all. And this grand setting allowed two boys, born in 1934, to attend school, laugh out loud and raise families within the same neighborhood.”
Junius Rochester, Historian; Author of eight books.
“Karen Treiger’s breezy history of five branches of her family gives vivid insight into the building of Seattle and its Jewish history from the 1870s to the mid twentieth century. Treiger herself is a character, tracing her explorations and research and providing a how-to illustration for doing family history. The stories, both extraordinary and mundane, are told with an eye on the context of the times and places. This is no narrowly focused picture of one family’s experiences, rather it is well worth reading for anyone interested in the bigger picture of Seattle’s development.”
Howard Droker, Co-Author of Family of Strangers: Building Jewish Communities in Washington State
“My cousin Karen Treiger has researched and written a wonderful history of our shared and extended family. I am moved as she shares the stories and challenges facing the wave of immigration in the 19th and early 20th centuries – a story so central to the American Dream. It is the story of hard-working immigrants seeking the opportunity for a better life in the new world; of overcoming obstacles, physical as well as societal, and leveraging their cultural strengths to succeed.
Not every story has a happy ending. Still, Karen highlights the accomplishments our ancestors provided to the city of Seattle. Each generation left the world better than they found it and instilled an amazing work ethic and desire to excel in their children – extending to the current sixth generation.
An anecdote here, or a quote there, brings forth a flood of memories and emotion. On behalf of descendants across America, thank you for bringing forth this book.“
Steven Goldfarb, President, Alvin Goldfarb Jewelers and 5th generation descendant of Paul and Jenny Singerman