Bailey Gatzert Some information in this article or section has not been verified and may not be reliable . Please check for any inaccuracies , and modify and cite sources as needed . Bailey Gatzert was the eighth mayor of Seattle , Washington , serving from 1875 to 1876 . He was the first Jewish mayor of Seattle , narrowly missing being the first Jewish mayor of a major American city ( Moses Bloom became mayor of Iowa City , Iowa in 1873 ) , and has been the only Jewish mayor of Seattle to date . Gatzert was born in 1829 in Hesse Darmstadt , Germany , and emigrated to Natchez , Mississippi in 1849 , coming west four years later . He married Babette Schwabacher in San Francisco in 1862 , and in 1869 opened a Seattle branch of Schwabacher Brothers and Company , a hardware and general store he managed as partners with his brothers-in-law Abraham , Louis , and Sigmund Schwabacher . In addition to being mayor , Gatzert was a charter member of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce , served on the Seattle City Council , was president of Puget Sound National Bank and Peoples Savings Bank , and founded Washington 's first synagogue , Ohaveth Shalom , which opened in 1892 . Gatzert died in 1893 .  This article about a Washington politician is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . Categories : Wikipedia articles needing factual verification | Washington politician stubs | Year of birth missing | 1893 deaths | Mayors of Seattle | German-born United States political figures Gatzert 