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nothing in life was perfect. Somehow, with the ebb and flow of time, the family’s structure seemed to have changed.
    There was a watering-down of religious attitudes in the third generation and this pained Ephraim. Although they remained fervently Jewish, they tended to ignore the Sabbath and skip schul. Although they were among Temple Emanu-El’s founding fathers, some families never went, even on the high holy days. And this pained Ephraim. Yet they supported the Temple and paid their dues. Birth, marriage and death required a rabbi.
    In the twilight of his life, Ephraim thought about all he had gained and what he had really been able to give his
     
    children. He was a man of great self-introspection whc tried never to hide from the truth, even when it was painful. How honest had he been when he questioned himself that day so long ago? He had been sure that it was possible to be both spiritual and rich. For him, that had been true. But he had been motivated by different dreams from his grand children. He had burned with a desire to provide for his mother and father, to free his sisters and brothers. And even though he had failed in that he rejoiced in the fact that he had been able to give his children an easier life. Yet now he wondered if its very ease had not diluted the religious tradition. It seemed that Jews clung tenaciously to their faith only when they were confined to the ghetto.
    It was there that they reached the zenith of learning, but once the yoke was broken, and Jews were permitted to live in peace and freedom, they soon became spiritually careless. Some times when he watched Simon’s two children, a girl and a boy Simon had insisted on naming Ephraim despite the Jewish tradition against naming after the living, the old man wondered: would the new century mean an end to all the old values?
    Then a miracle occurred. Simon’s wife, already in her late thirties, unexpectedly became pregnant. Just before the turn of the century she had a little boy she insisted on naming Julian, after a hero she admired in a novel. The old Ephraim, now in his seventies, was fascinated with this child and Julian displayed an affection for Ephraim the other grandchildren had not. As the toddler grew into a solemn-eyed little boy, he would sit for hours listening to tales not just of the old man’s adventures coming to San Francisco, but to the stories of the Old Testament as well. Sitting in the sun, on the porch of the grand estate, Ephraim would close his eyes and pray that Julian would remember these times and that unlike his older brother and sister would not forget the old ways. It was late on a long summer evening that he had a thought which comforted him during his final years.
     
    Why did the Bible read, “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’? Why did it not simply say, ‘the God of Abraham’? The more he reflected upon it, the more he felt it was so stated because God must have meant something different to each one of those generations.
    Abraham’s struggle was not quite the same as his son Isaac’s, nor was Jacob’s quite the same as his father’s. One’s spiritual needs depended, it seemed, upon circumstances. And there was something else in which Ephraim could take great pride. He was giving his descendants more than riches. He was leaving them a legacy of freedom: freedom from fear, freedom from discrimination, freedom from tyranny. They could stand with their heads held high, and he thanked God for the great gift that was America.

Chapter Four
    It was a time to remember: the year 1936, when three hundred guests had gathered to attend a yearly picnic at the Hillsborough estate of Ephraim’s grandson, another Ephraim. The opulent surroundings were a far cry from the tent city where it had all begun. It was a day to rekindle old memories. Three generations were present, and the guests numbered the oldest and most distinguished of California’s Jewish pioneers. Although the party was limited to direct