A member of the Union for Reform Judaism, Congregation Emanu-El is a significant gathering place for the Bay Area Jewish community.

During the Gold Rush in 1849, a small group of Jews held the first High Holy Days services in a tent in San Francisco; it was the first Jewish service on the West Coast of the United States.

[2] This group of traders and merchants founded Congregation Emanu-El sometime in 1850, and its charter was issued in April, 1851.

[2] As the Reform Movement in Judaism spread in the United States during the early twentieth century, the synagogue became affiliated with this framework.

In 1884 Julie Rosewald became America's first female cantor when she began serving in Emanu-El, although she was not ordained.