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Historical Article
Miss Ray Frank
From "Women in Religious Ministry"
S.T. Willis, Godey's magazine, September, 1897. pp. 292-293.
"Miss Ray Frank, the noted Jewess preacher, is perhaps one of the greatest teachers among the daughters of Israel. She was born of liberal-minded Orthodox Jewish parents, in California, her childhood home being in the heart of the Sierra Nevadas, and later in the State of Nevada. Being brought up when theological prejudice was unknown Miss Frank was anxious to learn the cause and meaning of prejudice against the Jew as recorded in history, and with this purpose she took up the home study of the history and literature of her people. In Nevada she taught in the public schools and at night conducted four classes for the miners, and frequently contributed to the press of the Pacific Coast and of the East.
Moving to Oakland, she had long coveted opportunities of studying the social and religious sides of both the Jewish and non-Jewish elements of that city, meantime teaching and writing. At this time she was teaching a class in the Sabbath-school of one of the principal Jewish congregations, and upon the resignation of the rabbi she was elected superintendent of the school, when she introduced many welcome reforms in the methods and manners of the synagogue. At this point she was sent by a number of papers to "write up" the "boom towns" of the Northwest and also to interview several Indian chiefs prominent in the uprisings of a few years before. While at Spokane she addressed the Jews of that city on "the Atonement." The idea of a woman preaching to the Jews attracted a crowd large enough to fill the opera house and resulted in organizing a permanent Jewish congregation—and this was the first instance of a woman preaching to the Jews, and that too on the most sacred day of the Jewish calendar. This created a great interest in her work, the press giving her the title "a modern Deborah." It was her purpose at this time to give her life to the cause of her kinsmen according to the flesh, especially by defending them in literature. To equip herself the more thoroughly for this work she took a special course in philosophy in the University of California, and was the first woman to take the course in the Theological College in Cincinnati. Afterward she lectured East and West on many topics, delivering a strong address at the Congress of Religions in Chicago, which by request, was repeated in Trinity Congregational Church in that city. She enjoys the kindly sympathy of almost her entire people and is universally liked by Christians as well. She says, "Where once I saw the Jew now I see the whole brotherhood of man—I am to-day as ever the most deeply interested in making plain the mission of the Jew.""
Moving to Oakland, she had long coveted opportunities of studying the social and religious sides of both the Jewish and non-Jewish elements of that city, meantime teaching and writing. At this time she was teaching a class in the Sabbath-school of one of the principal Jewish congregations, and upon the resignation of the rabbi she was elected superintendent of the school, when she introduced many welcome reforms in the methods and manners of the synagogue. At this point she was sent by a number of papers to "write up" the "boom towns" of the Northwest and also to interview several Indian chiefs prominent in the uprisings of a few years before. While at Spokane she addressed the Jews of that city on "the Atonement." The idea of a woman preaching to the Jews attracted a crowd large enough to fill the opera house and resulted in organizing a permanent Jewish congregation—and this was the first instance of a woman preaching to the Jews, and that too on the most sacred day of the Jewish calendar. This created a great interest in her work, the press giving her the title "a modern Deborah." It was her purpose at this time to give her life to the cause of her kinsmen according to the flesh, especially by defending them in literature. To equip herself the more thoroughly for this work she took a special course in philosophy in the University of California, and was the first woman to take the course in the Theological College in Cincinnati. Afterward she lectured East and West on many topics, delivering a strong address at the Congress of Religions in Chicago, which by request, was repeated in Trinity Congregational Church in that city. She enjoys the kindly sympathy of almost her entire people and is universally liked by Christians as well. She says, "Where once I saw the Jew now I see the whole brotherhood of man—I am to-day as ever the most deeply interested in making plain the mission of the Jew.""
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In a seaport town in the late 19th-century Pacific Northwest, a group of friends find themselves drawn together —by chance, by love, and by the marvelous changes their world is undergoing. In the process, they learn that the family we choose can be just as important as the ones we're born into. Join their adventures in
The Tales of Chetzemoka
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