News article about Rosa Siner donating funds for synagogue’s cornerstone, The Ogden Standard, August 23, 1921. [Click image to enlarge.]

Newspaper ad of Utah Trunk Factory, business owned by Abraham Siner from 1917 to 1922, The Ogden Standard, Fri., June 15, 1917. [Click image to enlarge.]

Newspaper article about Abraham Siner’s first wife, Rebecca, leaving him and running away with one of his employees, Charles Lewis, December 13, 1911. [Click image to enlarge.]

Newspaper advertisement for Abraham Siner’s Trunk Factory, The Ogden Standard-Examiner, Sun., Dec. 19, 1920. [Click image to enlarge.]

Abraham Siner, born in Warsaw, Russia, in 1886, and his wife, Rosa, played a big role in establishing the synagogue for Congregation Brith Sholem at its current location on Grant Avenue.[1] Abraham was part of the building committee, and both were prominent members of the Jewish community. Abraham arrived in Ogden, Utah, in the first few years of the twentieth century. Like his fellow congregation members Joseph Kraines and David Kreines, Abraham started out as a junk dealer, holding his business at 179 Twenty-Fifth Street.[2] In 1917 Abraham ventured into another business and opened Utah Trunk Factory at 241-45 Twenty-Fifth Street. This store specialized in selling leather goods such as trunks and suitcases. As Abraham was busy running his business and moving things along to complete the construction of the synagogue in Ogden with other fellow Jews, Abraham unexpectedly died on January 6, 1919. He left behind his wife, Rosa, who was pregnant with their first child. As mentioned earlier, Abraham secured the location for the synagogue on Grant Avenue before his sudden death in 1919. His wife, Rosa, provided the funds for the synagogue’s cornerstone in honor of her late husband.[3]

Abraham had a previous marriage before meeting Rosa. In the fall of 1911, Abraham encountered a dreadful experience with his first wife, Rebecca. Abraham and Rebecca, also from Warsaw, Russia, married in South Wales in 1901 and both moved to the United States shortly after. While Abraham was running his junk business, Rebecca had an affair with one of his employees. Abraham sent out a distress call for his missing wife and found out that his employee, Charles Lewis, and his wife fled the United States and eloped in Russia. Abraham was furious about his wife’s action and filed for divorce, which was settled in April 1912. The article “Siner Says His Wife is a Sinner” to the left provides more details.

Rosa had her son on October 1, 1919, and named him after his father, Abraham. He moved with his mom and three half-brothers to San Diego, where he attended San Diego High School. In the early 1940s, Abraham was drafted into the army during World War II and left the army as a sergeant. He decided to venture into real estate and became a very well-known real estate agent in San Diego and the surrounding areas. He married his wife, Helen, in 1941 and had two daughters, Sue and Jane. Abraham was a natural athlete, hence his nickname “Babe” after baseball legend Babe Ruth. He passed away on October 9, 2000, due to heart problems. Abraham and his family were a part of Congregation Beth Israel in San Diego.[4]