Gerstle Family
Unfinished History
All In The Family: The Gerstles
The failure of the revolutions of 1848 in Central and Western Europe to produce a change in the second class citizen status of Jews and the anti-Jewish policies of the Czar in Russia prompted many Jews to emigrate to the United States. Among that tide of immigrants was young Lewis Gerstle who came to this country in 1843, first settling in Louisville, Kentucky before arriving in California in 1850.