The congregation was founded during the
California Gold Rush as a Jewish society called
Rhyim Ahovim (
transliterated from
Hebrew as "Loving Friends") by tradition in 1849 but documentably no later than 1850. Other sources say that the congregation was founded in 1851. The first building, on Miner Avenue, between El Dorado and Hunter, was completed on August 28, 1855. It was a simple, frame structure built on brick foundations of wood that had been shipped around the Horn, since no sawmill yet existed in Stockton. During the flood of 1861-62, the building flooded with of water, causing the congregation to move it to higher ground on Hunter Street. The
rabbi, since 1993, is Rabbi Jason M. Gwasdoff. ==See also==