Vidaver (Henry and Falk) letters, 1873 and 1889

Henry Vidaver was a prominent nineteenth-century American rabbi with pulpits in Philadelphia, St. Louis, New York, and San Francisco. He served as rabbi at Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco from 1874 until his death in 1882. His younger brother, Falk Vidaver, also a rabbi, succeeded Henry at Sherith Israel and remained in that post until the arrival of Rabbi Jacob Nieto in 1893.

Consists of two letters, one from Henry Vidaver, then the rabbi of Temple B’nai Jeshurun, in New York City, to San Francisco’s Congregation Sherith Israel, dated 13 Jan. 1873, recommending his brother Falk Vidaver become the San Francisco congregation’s new rabbi (though Henry would ultimately take the post himself). The second letter is from Falk Vidaver to Congregation Sherith Israel, dated 15 June 1889, concerning the transfer of Henry Vidaver’s remains from the congregation’s cemetery to a new burial ground in San Mateo County.