In the 1840s and 1850s, thousands of Jews came to the United States from central Europe. Many of these were German Jews, and within thirty to forty years many had become enormously successful. They formed a close-knit, exclusive group that Stephen Birmingham documented in his bestselling book Our Crowd. Members included Meyer and Emanuel Lehman, the founders of Lehman Brothers; Marcus Goldman and Joseph Sachs, who started the investment firm Goldman Sachs; Lazarus Straus, who founded Macy’s, and others.
Many members of these New York-based German Jewish families married people from San Francisco-based German Jewish families. The marriages prompted business partnerships which extended across the United States and Europe.
In Hellman’s case, he married Esther Newgass, whose sister, Babette, was married to Meyer Lehman. Esther’s brother Benjamin Newgass lived in Britain and was involved in American railroads and various financial institutions in London. The three brothers-in-law invested in one another’s businesses. It was a time when American businesses relied heavily on European financing, so the network proved profitable.
San Francisco had its own elite Jewish society, one that was closed to anyone who was not born in the proper place in central Europe. These people all worshipped at Temple Emanu-el, lived near one another in Pacific Heights, joined the Concordia or Verein social clubs, and helped the unfortunate through the Emanu-el Sisterhood for Personal Service. They attended one another’s balls, 
dinners, and weddings. They had boxes at the opera. And most of them celebrated Christmas.
These families included the Walters, the Haases, the Brandensteins, the Gerstles, the Lilienthals, the Slosses, the Greenbaums, the Koshlands, the Sutros, and the Hellmans. Other families in the crowd were the Fleishhackers, the Dinkelspiels, the Zellerbachs, Daniel Meyer, and Eugene Meyer.
One example of the San Francisco-New York 
connections was in 1896. Babette and Meyer Lehman, then some of the wealthiest Jews in New York, threw a debutante ball for their nieces, Clara Hellman, the daughter of Isaias and Esther Hellman, and Cecile Newgass of London, the daughter of Benjamin and Sarah Newgass. The evening took place in the red and gold ballroom at Delmonico’s, the famed New York restaurant on Madison Square. Hellman’s son Marco took the train across the country to attend, and fell in love with one of the guests, Frances Jacobi. They married in 1898.