Joseph Newmark

Joseph Newmark was born in 1799 in Neumark, West Prussia.[1] He received a classical Jewish education, including rabbinical training and certification as a schochet, a ritual slaughterer. He married for the first time at age 19, and had two children with his first wife. After his wife died at a young age, he and his two children emigrated to the United States in 1820.[2][3]

He first settled in New York City in 1823.[1] Two years later, in 1825, he was a co-founder of B'nai Jeshurun, a synagogue on the island of Manhattan.[1]

He moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1840, where he served as the president of a synagogue until 1845.[1][3]

He moved to San Francisco in 1852 where he briefly partnered with Joseph Brandenstein and established a dry goods store before moving to Los Angeles in September 1854.[3] He established Congregation B'nai B'rith, the oldest synagogue in Los Angeles now known as the Wilshire Boulevard Temple,[1] which began as an Orthodox synagogue.[4] He is credited with having performed the first Jewish wedding in California, and officiated as rabbi for his daughters' weddings.[2] In 1862, he persuaded rabbi Abram Wolf Edelman to move to Los Angeles and become its first rabbi.[5] After Newmark's death, the synagogue would become Reform, leading to Edelman's retirement.[1]

Later in life, Newmark became an ordained rabbi in his own right.[3]

He was married to Rosa Levy Newmark in 1835.[1] They had six children together: Matilda Newmark Kremer (married to Maurice Kremer), Myer J. Newmark, Sarah Newmark (married to her cousin Harris Newmark), Caroline Newmark Lazard (married to Solomon Lazard), Edward Newmark, and Harriet Newmark Meyer (married to Marc Eugene Meyer).[1][2] Another nephew was Joseph P. Newmark.

He died in 1881 in Los Angeles, California.[3]