Seattle native, Karen Treiger’s second book “Standing on the Crack: The Legacy of Five Jewish Families from Seattle’s Gilded Age” and companion exhibit dive into the rich history of five families (including her own) who shaped Seattle’s early years, its retail culture, and Seattle’s Gilded Age from 1874 and 1913.
As Seattle grew from a small ramshackle town with dirt roads to a bustling metropolis with the Space Needle as our symbol and beacon of progress, these families transformed Seattle’s Jewish community and shaped Seattle’s retail culture.
Treiger tells Seattle’s history through the eyes of Jewish merchants who settled in the Pacific Northwest with hopes and dreams for themselves and their children. “Standing on the Crack” is full of tales, both funny and tragic, about ancestors that she knew and those she didn’t.
January 11, 2026: Book Talk + Exhibit Opening
January 6 – February 28: Companion Exhibit on display during regular business hours (no registration required)
Part of the Chew on This! Speaker Series
Book sales + signing.
In partnership with Jewish Book Council
ABOUT: After retiring from her law practice in 2015, Karen Treiger dedicated herself to researching and writing her family histories. After three years, she published her first book, “My Soul is Filled with Joy: A Holocaust Story” about the harrowing story of her in-laws, Sam and Esther Goldberg. For her second book, she decided explore her own family’s history and the immigrants who came here after WWII. Treiger was born in Seattle and educated at Barnard College and New York University Law School. She serves on the Seattle Holocaust Center for Humanity’s Speakers Bureau and served on the University of Washington Advisory Council for the Extension Writing Program. Her perspectives have been shared in the Forward, the Jewish Press, and the Washington State Pioneer Association Newsletter.
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