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Building Bio An optimistic building for an optimistic ageGetting started  Congregation Sherith Israel outgrew its 1870 Gothic Revival-style synagogue on Post Street in the 1890s under the leadership of the charismatic Rabbi Jacob Nieto. The congregation bought the current site on California and Webster streets on September 8, 1902, and hired Ecole des Beaux Arts-trained architect Albert Pissis to draw up plans for the stately building, which were submitted and adopted in 1903. Ground was broken on October 8, 1903. The building was consecrated on September 24, 1905. While improvements have been made through the years, the sanctuary building has been preserved close to its original construction.Sherith Israel by the numbers The building, a fusion of Classical and Romanesque forms, cost $250,000 to build in 1904-1905. It stands 120 feet above California Street. The majestic dome is more than 60-feet wide at its outside diameter. The interior contains 20,000 square feet of space, 3,500 organ pipes, 1,400 seats, 1,109 decorative light bulbs, more than 89 ornamental leaded glass windows and 32 arched clear glass windows in the outer drum. Withstanding San Francisco’s great quakes During the 1906 earthquake, the building sustained modest damage and was quickly repaired. During the October 1989 Loma Prieta quake Sherith Israel was not damaged. Nonetheless, the State of California has mandated that buildings like ours must meet stringent seismic standards. The congregation is now pursuing an ambitious capital campaign to meet those standards and to retrofit our 20th-century gem for the 21st century and beyond.
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