-1922-
September 20, 1922—1) Adolph Levi, "Our Growth," The Jewish Community News, page 6: ...About 1862, a few men residing in Old Town (now North San Diego) started a congregation called Adath Jeshurn. The leading spirits of that congregation were Marcus Schiller, J.S. Mannasse, Louis Rose, Rudolph Schiller and I. J. Asheim, all men whom it was my privilege to know. Services were held principally on the holidays at one ofthe residences, very often at the home of Marcus Schiller, who was president of the congregation. In 1869, when our city (downtown San Diego) was laid out and people began to come here, the congregation also was moved to the new city which was rapidly growing up. About the year 1886, the name of the congregation was changed to the one it now bears, Beth Israel....
2) L.A. Blochman, "The Congregation As I Knew It," The Jewish Community News, p. 7: Through the dim and hazy past stand forth fond memories that sometimes make us wish that we were young once more, and wonder if all of our vaunted progress is real, or even desirable. As we ponder on the days gone by, when San Diego was only a large village, and we reflect on Judaism as we then knew it, our feelings are commingled with pleasures and regrets. When we think of the leaders of the Jewish community of those days, forever past, all of them gone to the great beyond, all of them who worked untiringly and unselfishly for the good of Jewry, none of them asking or expecting gain or pay, all of them working for the benefit of all. Those were the days of real Judaism. Those were the days when all of the Jews of San Diego were united by a bond that made them one great family. The sorrows and joys of anyone of them were shared by all. There were no orthodox, and no reform, no clans or sets, no Zionists, no cliques, no mutual admiration bunch, not even a Rabbi, but all were Jews, all were friends, everyone was ready and willing to help the other. Harmony prevailed and joy and contentment reigned—Oh that those happy days might return once more. Those Purim parties where we danced the good old waltzes and polkas and after the dancing came the eats, and such eats! The platters piled up with turkey and duck and chicken, and those salads, and the home-made cakes that everyone vied with the other to see who could make the best. Yes, those good old souls are gone, and their children, sad to think about, scattered and some even worshipping other gods. When memories come to them of the happy days of old, we wonder if some time regrets do not linger near. Then the holidays and the fast days. When the Jews of the town gathered together in some hall, and Joe Mannasse furnished his Torah and Marcus Schiller and Luis Mendelson read the prayers and A. Blochman, Simon Levi, Rudolph Schiller and others assisted, and year after year all of the Jews met together, some times in one hall and some times in another. Then came the "boom" and the village grew into a town and we dreamt of a Temple of our own. As usual the Jewish women came to the front, and held a great fair. The Gentiles as well as the Jews came forward with donations of funds and goods and the banks and wholesalers were solicited and made the building of uur present Temple a possibility. That was thirty-five years ago and a few, a very few, of those original workers still belong to our congregation. And then through the efforts of my Mother, a Jewish Sunday School was started. Then a Rabbi was secured, and the Congregation progressed. Afterwards came hard times, alternated by good times, and the ups and downs of the community were reflected in the congregation. One Rabbi succeeded another. Some times we had none. Our membership was drifting and transient, but the few old faithful and old reliables kept the organization together, and now as we look back at the annual Jewish Charity Ball, which was one of the Social events of the City and how it was waited for by Jew and Gentile alike, and compare it with our present day affairs, we are prone to ask, Have we Jews progressed? With all our petty jealousies, conceit and bickerings, with our differences and separations, is the Judaism of San Diego the City, equal to the Judaism of San Diego the village?
-1951-
October 26, 1951—"Miss Cecilia Schiller Laid To Rest," Southwestern Jewish Press, page 4: Miss Cecilia Schiller, 86, member of a pioneer San Diego family, died Oct. 22nd in her home, 115 Redwood St., after a brief illness. She was born in Old San Diego. Miss Schiller's father, the later Marcus Schiller, was an early day merchant here and member of the firm Mannassee (sic, Mannasse) & Schiller, which developed a subdivision by that name in the southwestern part of the city, also property on Point Loma and Roseville. Her mother was the late Rebecca Barnert Schiller, who came from San Francisco as a bride in 1860. The family moved to New San Diego from Old Town in 1873 and for many years the home was at Front and A Streets. Miss Schiller's survivors are two sisters, Miss Bertha Schiller, with whom she resided, and Mrs. Hattie Landis, of San Diego; two brothers, Leo M. Schiller, local diamond broker, and Nathan Schiller, of San Francisco; nieces and nephews. Miss Schiller was a member of Temple Beth Israel and its women's auxiliary, member and a former director many years of the San Diego Women's Club, and life member of San Diego Historical Society.
-1952-
February 22, 1952—Myron Lustig, "The History of the San Diego Jewish Community, Part II," Southwestern Jewish Press, pages 1, 2.
-1974-
Summer 1974—Schwartz, Henry, "The Uneasy Alliance: Jewish-Anglo Relations in San Diego 1850-1860," The Journal of San Diego History 20:3 (Summer 1974) http://sandiegohistory.org/journal/74summer/alliance.htm
-2005-
2005—Visit to his gravesite at Home of Peace Cemetery on Imperial Avenue west of Interstate 805 in San Diego.
