Editing Alice B. Toklas (section)

==Early life==
Alice B. Toklas was born in [[San Francisco]] into a middle-class [[History of the Jews in Poland|Polish Jewish]] family.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Green |first=David B. |date=March 7, 2016 |orig-date=March 7, 2016 |title=This Day in Jewish History {{!}} 1967: Gertrude Stein's Lesbian Lover, Hash Brownie Publicist, Dies in Penury |url=https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2016-03-07/ty-article/1967-gertrude-steins-lover-dies-poor/0000017f-e6c7-da9b-a1ff-eeef006d0000 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221203200727/https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2016-03-07/ty-article/1967-gertrude-steins-lover-dies-poor/0000017f-e6c7-da9b-a1ff-eeef006d0000 |archive-date=December 3, 2022 |access-date=August 22, 2024 |website=Haaretz |language=English}}</ref> Her paternal grandfather was a rabbi,<ref>{{cite magazine | access-date = March 15, 2018 | magazine= The New Yorker | url = https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/11/13/strangers-in-paradise | title = Strangers in Paradise: How Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas got to Heaven | first= Janet| last= Malcolm}}</ref> whose son Feivel (usually known as Ferdinand) Toklas moved to San Francisco in 1863. In 1876, Ferdinand Toklas married Emma (Emelia) Levinsky and they had two children: Alice and her brother Clarence Ferdinand (1887–1924).

In 1890, the Toklas family moved to [[Seattle]], where her father was one half of Toklas, Singerman and Company, the city's leading [[dry goods]] store.

Toklas was educated in local schools, which included the Mount Rainier Seminary, and attended the [[University of Washington]] where she studied piano.

When her mother became ill, the family moved back to San Francisco. Her mother died in 1897, aged 41.