Max Barchichat recounts his life from Casablanca, Morocco, to California, USA

BARSHISHAT, BAR SHESHAT, BAR SHESHET, BARSHESHAT, BARSHISHAT, BEN SHESHAT

Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name derives from a personal characteristic or nickname. The family name Bar Shishat, which is recorded in North Africa, is derived from the Hebrew word Shisha, which means "six". The Aramaic prefix Bar (just like the Hebrew prefix Ben) means "son of".

Literally the name means "son of" six, and it is assumed that refers to the six days of themaking of the world, and the six days of the week. The Arabic equivalent is Bu Seta, a name carried by both Jews and Muslims in Morocco. Sheshet and Sheshat was first carried by the Amoraim ("Jewish scholars") in the 3rd/4th centuries, as a male personal name. In the 20th century, Bar Shishat is found as a Jewish family name only in southern Morocco, in the region of Safi, Mogador, and Marrakesh. The name (and variants) is recorded as a Jewish family name in the following cases: in the 10th century, Yehuda Ben Sheshat was a rabbi and linguist in Cordova, follower of the poet and linguist Dunash Ben Labrat; Shaltiel Bar Sheshat was a witness in a property purchase made by Ramon Berenguer IV, in Tarrasa, Spain, on December 13, 1158; Rabbi Gedaliah (Cirilo) Bar Sheshat is mentioned among the signatories of an admission of a loan, in the Jewish community of Pamplona, Spain, in 1325; the famous Rabbi Isaac Bar Sheshat Barfat (Ribash) was born 1326 in Barcelona, Spain, died 1408 in Algiers; Mordechai Bar Sheshat, blind from birth, was born in Marrakech, Morocco, was a rabbi in Fez, Morocco, and died 1901; Meir Barsheshat was a postmaster in Tangiers, Morocco, in1965; Rabbi Meir Barsheshat from Safi, Morocco, was a Zionist merchant, founder of the 'Ahavat Zion' association in Safi in 1903.

Paris

Capital of France

In 582, the date of the first documentary evidence of the presence of Jews in Paris, there was already a community with a synagogue. In 614 or 615, the sixth council of Paris decided that Jews who held public office, and their families, must convert to Christianity. From the 12th century on there was a Jewish quarter. According to one of the sources of Joseph ha- Kohen's Emek ha-Bakha, Paris Jews owned about half the land in Paris and the vicinity. They employed many Christian servants and the objects they took in pledge included even church vessels.

Far more portentous was the blood libel which arose against the Jews of Blois in 1171. In 1182, Jews were expelled. The crown confiscated the houses of the Jews as well as the synagogue and the king gave 24 of them to the drapers of Paris and 18 to the furriers. When the Jews were permitted to return to the kingdom of France in 1198 they settled in Paris, in and around the present rue Ferdinand Duval, which became the Jewish quarter once again in the modern era.

The famous disputation on the Talmud was held in Paris in 1240. The Jewish delegation was led by Jehiel b. Joseph of Paris. After the condemnation of the Talmud, 24 cart-loads of Jewish books were burned in public in the Place de Greve, now the Place de l'Hotel de Ville. A Jewish moneylender called Jonathan was accused of desecrating the host in 1290. It is said that this was the main cause of the expulsion of 1306.

Tax rolls of the Jews of Paris of 1292 and 1296 give a good picture of their economic and social status. One striking fact is that a great many of them originated from the provinces. In spite of the prohibition on the settlement of Jews expelled from England, a number of recent arrivals from that country are listed. As in many other places, the profession of physician figures most prominently among the professions noted. The majority of the rest of the Jews engaged in moneylending and commerce. During the same period the composition of the Jewish community, which numbered at least 100 heads of families, changed to a large extent through migration and the number also declined to a marked degree. One of the most illustrious Jewish scholars of medieval France, Judah b. Isaac, known as Sir Leon of Paris, headed the yeshiva of Paris in the early years of the 13th century. He was succeeded by Jehiel b. Joseph, the Jewish leader at the 1240 disputation. After the wholesale destruction of
Jewish books on this occasion until the expulsion of 1306, the yeshivah of Paris produced no more scholars of note.

In 1315, a small number of Jews returned and were expelled again in 1322. The new community was formed in Paris in 1359. Although the Jews were under the protection of the provost of Paris, this was to no avail against the murderous attacks and looting in 1380 and 1382 perpetrated by a populace in revolt against the tax burden. King Charles VI relieved the Jews of responsibility for the valuable pledges which had been stolen from them on this occasion and granted them other financial concessions, but the community was unable to recover. In 1394, the community was struck by the Denis de Machaut affair. Machaut, a Jewish convert to Christianity, had disappeared and the Jews were accused of having murdered him or, at the very least, of having imprisoned him until he agreed to return to Judaism. Seven Jewish notables were condemned to death, but their sentence was commuted to a heavy fine allied to imprisonment until Machaut reappeared. This affair was a prelude to the "definitive" expulsion of the Jews from France in 1394.

From the beginning of the 18th century the Jews of Metz applied to the authorities for permission to enter Paris on their business pursuits; gradually the periods of their stay in the capital increased and were prolonged. At the same time, the city saw the arrival of Jews from Bordeaux (the "Portuguese") and from Avignon. From 1721 to 1772 a police inspector was given special charge over the Jews.
After the discontinuation of the office, the trustee of the Jews from 1777 was Jacob Rodrigues Pereire, a Jew from Bordeaux, who had charge over a group of Spanish and Portuguese Jews, while the German Jews (from Metz, Alsace, and Loraine) were led by Moses Eliezer Liefman Calmer, and those from Avignon by Israel Salom. The German Jews lived in the poor quarters of Saint-Martin and Saint-Denis, and those from Bordeaux, Bayonne, and Avignon inhabited the more luxurious quarters of Saint Germaine and Saint André.

Large numbers of the Jews eked out a miserable living in peddling. The more well-to-do were moneylenders, military purveyors and traders in jewels. There were also some craftsmen among them. Inns preparing kosher food existed from 1721; these also served as prayer rooms. The first publicly acknowledged synagogue was opened in rue de Brisemiche in 1788. The number of Jews of Paris just before the revolution was probably no greater than 500. On Aug. 26, 1789 they presented the constituent assembly with a petition asking for the rights of citizens. Full citizenship rights were granted to the Spanish, Portuguese, and Avignon Jews on Jan. 28, 1790.

After the freedom of movement brought about by emancipation, a large influx of Jews arrived in Paris, numbering 2,908 in 1809. When the Jewish population of Paris had reached between 6,000 and 7,000 persons, the Consistory began to build the first great synagogue. The Consistory established its first primary school in 1819.

The 30,000 or so Jews who lived in Paris in 1869 constituted about 40% of the Jewish population of France. The great majority originated from Metz, Alsace, Lorraine, and Germany, and there were already a few hundreds from Poland. Apart from a very few wealthy capitalists, the great majority of the Jews belonged to the middle economic level. The liberal professions also attracted numerous Jews; the community included an increasing number of professors, lawyers, and physicians. After 1881 the Jewish population increased with the influx of refugees from Poland, Russia, and the Slav provinces of Austria and Romania. At the same time, there was a marked increase in the anti-Semitic movement. The Dreyfus affair, from 1894, split the intellectuals of Paris into "Dreyfusards" and "anti-Dreyfusards" who frequently clashed on the streets, especially in the Latin Quarter. With the law separating church and state in 1905, the Jewish consistories lost their official status, becoming no more than private religious associations. The growing numbers of Jewish immigrants to Paris resented the heavy hand of a Consistory, which was largely under the control of Jews from Alsace and Lorraine, now a minority group. These immigrants formed the greater part of the 13,000 "foreign" Jews who enlisted in World War 1. Especially after 1918, Jews began to arrive from north Africa, Turkey, and the Balkans, and in greatly increased numbers from eastern Europe. Thus in 1939 there were around 150,000 Jews in Paris (over half the total in France). The Jews lived all over the city but there were large concentrations of them in the north and east. More than 150 landmanschaften composed of immigrants from eastern Europe and many charitable societies united large numbers of Jews, while at this period the Paris Consistory (which retained the name with its changed function) had no more than 6,000 members.

Only one of the 19th-century Jewish primary schools was still in existence in 1939, but a few years earlier the system of Jewish education which was strictly private in nature acquired a secondary school and a properly supervised religious education, for which the Consistory was responsible. Many great Jewish scholars were born and lived in Paris in the modern period. They included the Nobel Prize winners Rene Cassin and A. Lwoff. On June 14, 1940, the Wehrmacht entered Paris, which was proclaimed an open city. Most Parisians left, including the Jews. However, the population returned in the following weeks. A sizable number of well-known Jews fled to England and the USA. (Andre Maurois), while some, e.g. Rene Cassin and Gaston Palewski, joined General de Gaulle's free French movement in London. Parisian Jews were active from the very beginning in resistance movements. The march to the etoile on Nov. 11, 1940, of high school and university students, the first major public manifestation of resistance, included among its organizers Francis Cohen, Suzanne Dijan, and Bernard Kirschen.

The first roundups of Parisian Jews of foreign nationality took place in 1941; about 5,000 "foreign" Jews were deported on May 14, about 8,000 "foreigners" in August, and about 100 "intellectuals" on December 13. On July 16, 1942, 12,884 Jews were rounded up in Paris (including about 4,000 children). The Parisian Jews represented over half the 85,000 Jews deported from France to extermination camps in the east. During the night of Oct. 2-3, 1941, seven Parisian synagogues were attacked.

Several scores of Jews fell in the Paris insurrection in August, 1944. Many streets in Paris and the outlying suburbs bear the names of Jewish heroes and martyrs of the Holocaust period and the memorial to the unknown Jewish martyr, a part of the Centre de documentation juive contemporaire, was erected in in 1956 in the heart of Paris.

Between 1955 and 1965, the Jewish community experienced a demographic transformation with the arrival of more than 300,000 Sephardi Jews from North Africa. These Jewish immigrants came primarily from Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt. At the time, Morocco and Tunisia were French protectorates unlike Algeria which was directly governed by France. Since their arrival, the Sephardi Jews of North Africa have remained the majority (60%) of French Jewry.

In 1968 Paris and its suburbs contained about 60% of the Jewish population of France. In 1968 it was estimated at between 300,000 and 350,000 (about 5% of the total population). In 1950, two-thirds of the Jews were concentrated in about a dozen of the poorer or commercial districts in the east of the city. The social and economic advancement of the second generation of east European immigrants, the influx of north Africans, and the gradual implementation of the urban renewal program caused a considerable change in the once Jewish districts and the dispersal of the Jews throughout other districts of Paris.

Between 1957 and 1966 the number of Jewish communities in the Paris region rose from 44 to 148. The Paris Consistory, traditionally presided over by a member of the Rothschild family, officially provides for all religious needs. Approximately 20 synagogues and meeting places for prayer observing Ashkenazi or Sephardi rites are affiliated with the Consistory, which also provides for the religious needs of new communities in the suburbs. This responsibility is shared by traditional orthodox elements, who, together with the reform and other independent groups, maintain another 30 or so synagogues. The orientation and information office of the Fonds social juif unifie had advised or assisted over 100,000 refugees from north Africa. It works in close cooperation with government services and social welfare and educational institutions of the community. Paris was one of the very few cities in the diaspora with a full-fledged Israel-type school, conducted by Israeli teachers according to an Israeli curriculum.

The Six-Day War (1967), which drew thousands of Jews into debates and
Pro-Israel demonstrations, was an opportunity for many of them to reassess their personal attitude toward the Jewish people. During the "students' revolution" of 1968 in nearby Nanterre and in the Sorbonne, young Jews played an outstanding role in the leadership of left-wing activists and often identified with Arab anti-Israel propaganda extolling the Palestinian organizations. Eventually, however, when the "revolutionary" wave subsided, it appeared that the bulk of Jewish students in Paris, including many supporters of various new left groups, remained loyal to Israel and strongly opposed Arab terrorism.

As of 2015, France was home to the third largest Jewish population in the world. It was also the largest in all of Europe. More than half the Jews in France live in the Paris metropolitan area. According to the World Jewish Congress, an estimated 350,000 Jews live in the city of Paris and its many districts. By 2014, Paris had become the largest Jewish city outside of Israel and the United States. Comprising 6% of the city’s total population (2.2 million), the Jews of Paris are a sizeable minority.

There are more than twenty organizations dedicated to serving the Jewish community of Paris. Several offer social services while others combat anti-Semitism. There are those like the Paris Consistory which financially supports many of the city's congregations. One of the largest organizations is the Alliance Israélite Universelle which focuses on self-defense, human rights and Jewish education. The FSJU or Unified Social Jewish Fund assists in the absorption of new immigrants. Other major organizations include the ECJC (European Council of Jewish Communities), EAJCC (European Association of Jewish Communities), ACIP (Association Consitoriale Israelité), CRIF (Representative Council of Jewish Institutions), and the UEJF (Jewish Students Union of France).

Being the third largest Jewish city behind New York and Los Angeles, Paris is home to numerous synagogues. By 2013, there were more than eighty three individual congregations. While the majority of these are orthodox, many conservative and liberal congregations can be found across Paris. During the 1980s, the city received an influx of orthodox Jews, primarily as a result of the Lubavitch movement which has since been very active in Paris and throughout France.

Approximately 4% of school-age children in France are enrolled in Jewish day schools. In Paris, there are over thirty private Jewish schools. These include those associated with both the orthodox and liberal movements. Chabad Lubavitch has established many educational programs of its own. The Jewish schools in Paris range from the pre-school to High School level. There are additionally a number of Hebrew schools which enroll students of all ages.

Among countless cultural institutions are museums and memorials which preserve the city's Jewish history. Some celebrate the works of Jewish artists while others commemorate the Holocaust and remember its victims. The Museum of Jewish art displays sketches by Mane-Katz, the paintings of Alphonse Levy and the lithographs of Chagall. At the Center of Contemporary Jewish Documentation (CDJC), stands the Memorial de la Shoah. Here, visitors can view the center's many Holocaust memorials including the Memorial of the Unknown Jewish Martyrs, the Wall of Names, and the Wall of the Righteous Among the Nations. Located behind the Notre Dame is the Memorial of Deportation, a memorial to the 200,000 Jews who were deported from Vichy France to the Nazi concentration camps. On the wall of a primary school on rue Buffault is a plaque commemorating the 12,000 Parisian Jewish children who died in Auschwitz following their deportation from France between 1942 and 1944.

For decades, Paris has been the center of the intellectual and cultural life of French Jewry. The city offers a number of institutions dedicated to Jewish history and culture. Located at the Alliance Israélite Universalle is the largest Jewish library in all of Europe. At the Bibliothèque Medem is the Paris Library of Yiddish. The Mercaz Rashi is home to the University Center for Jewish Studies, a well known destination for Jewish education. One of the most routinely visited cultural centers in Paris is the Chabad House. As of 2014, it was the largest in the world. The Chabad House caters to thousands of Jewish students from Paris and elsewhere every year.

Located in the city of Paris are certain districts, many of them historic, which are well known for their significant Jewish populations. One in particular is Le Marais “The Marsh”, which had long been an aristocratic district of Paris until much of the city’s nobility began to move. By the end of the 19th century, the district had become an active commercial area. It was at this time that thousands of Ashkenazi Jews fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe began to settle Le Marais, bringing their specialization in clothing with them. Arriving from Romania, Austria, Hungary and Russia, they developed a new community alongside an already established community of Parisian Jews. As Jewish immigration continued into the mid 20th century, this Jewish quarter in the fourth arrondissement of Paris became known as the “Pletzl”, a Yiddish term meaning “little place”. Despite having been targeted by the Nazis during World War II, the area has continued to be a major center of the Paris Jewish community. Since the 1990s, the area has grown. Along the Rue des Rosiers are a number of Jewish restaurants, bookstores, kosher food outlets and synagogues. Another notable area with a sizeable Jewish community is in the city’s 9th district. Known as the Faubourg-Montmarte, it is home to several synagogues, kosher restaurants as well as many offices to a number of Jewish organizations.

With centuries-old Jewish neighborhoods, Paris has its share of important Jewish landmarks. Established in 1874 is the Rothschild Synagogue and while it may not be ancient, its main attraction is its rabbis who are well known for being donned in Napoleonic era apparel. The synagogue on Rue Buffault opened in 1877 and was the first synagogue in Paris to adopt the Spanish/Portuguese rite. Next to the synagogue is a memorial dedicated to the 12,000 children who perished in the Holocaust. The Copernic synagogue is the city’s largest non-orthodox congregation. In 1980 it was the target of an anti-Semitic bombing which led to the death of four people during the celebration of Simchat Torah, the first attack against the Jewish people in France since World War II. In the 1970s, the remains of what many believed to have been a Yeshiva were found under the Rouen Law Courts. Just an hour outside of Paris, this site is presumed to be from the 12th century when Jews comprised nearly 20% of the total population.

Serving many of the medical needs of the Jewish community of Paris are organizations such as the OSE and CASIP. While the Rothschild hospital provides general medical care, the OSE or Society for the Health of the Jewish Population, offers several health centers around the city. CASIP focuses on providing the community social services include children and elderly homes.

Being a community of nearly 400,000 people, the Jews of Paris enjoy a diversity of media outlets centered on Jewish culture. Broadcasted every week are Jewish television programs which include news and a variety of entertainment. On radio are several stations such as Shalom Paris which airs Jewish music, news and programming. Circulating throughout Paris are two weekly Jewish papers and a number of monthly journals. One of the city’s major newspapers is the Actualité Juive. There are also online journals such as the Israel Infos and Tribute Juive.

Los Angeles, California

Located in Southern California, the city of Los Angeles has approximately 4 million inhabitants occupying 455 square miles of territory, making it the second most populous city in the United States and the largest in size in the world. By 1967, Los Angeles was home to more than 510,000 Jews, second only to New York City. Its current Jewish population is estimated at 662,000.

The origins of the city date back to the early Spanish colonization of California. Los Angeles was formally dedicated as a Pueblo on September 4th, 1781, with as few as 44 inhabitants. The accession of California to the United States in 1850, following the Mexican-American War and the discovery of gold, brought a surge of Jews from Western Europe and the Eastern United States. While in search of a quick fortune, the majority did not engage in gold mining but opened stores in many of the small towns and mining camps throughout Northern California. A Los Angeles census of 1850 revealed a total of 1,610 inhabitants of which eight were Jewish.

Jewish services were first formally established in 1854 with the arrival of Joseph Newmark (1799-1881). Rabbinically trained and traditionally oriented, he was the patriarch of the Jewish community until his death. Services were generally held in various rented and borrowed places until the first synagogue was constructed in 1873 at 273 N. Fort Street (now Broadway). Also in 1873, the Jews took the initiative in organizing the first chamber of commerce. Jewish business, which concentrated on wholesale and retail merchandising, was among the largest in town. In 1865, I.W. Hellman and Henry Huntington ventured into the banking business, becoming among the dominant financial powers in the state of California. With the arrival of the transcontinental railroad and as a result of a concerted program of promotion by the chamber of commerce, the population of Los Angeles rose sharply during the 1880s. The expansion of the railways through Southern California prompted the historic real estate boom in Los Angeles. The population, only 11,000 in 1880, multiplied five fold in just a few years. With the arrival of the large numbers of Midwesterners, the easygoing, socially integrated society began to change. Jewish social life became more ingrown and Jews began to establish separate social outlets including a young men’s Hebrew Association and the Concordia Club for their card playing parents.

At the beginning of the 20th century, large numbers of Eastern European Jews began to migrate to Los Angeles to begin in their turn, the ascent to prestige, status and security. In 1900, the population of Los Angeles was 102,000 with a Jewish population of 2,500. Twenty years later, the Jews numbered 70,000, out of a total of 1,200,000. The rapid increase of the population created, for the first time, recognizably Jewish neighborhoods. By 1920, there were three major Jewish areas in the central avenue district. The high percentage of Jews moving west due to health reasons made the establishment of medical institutions the first order of communal business. In 1902, the home of Kaspare Cohn was donated to become the Kaspare Cohn Hospital. It wasn’t long after that in 1911 The Jewish Consumptive Relief Association was established and began building a Sanitarium at Duarte. For the elderly, The Hebrew Sheltering Home for the Aged was established and in 1910, B’nai Brith became the moving force for the establishment of The Hebrew Orphan’s Home, ultimately becoming known as Vista Del Mar. In 1912, the Federation of Jewish Charities was established to unite all the fund raising efforts for the Jewish institutions. The Kaspare Cohn Hospital gradually transformed into a general hospital. It later moved in 1926 to its present facilities on Fountain Street near Vermont Avenue, and was renamed The Cedars of Lebanon Hospital.

The first decade of the 20th century was marked by a transition from charitable aid to social welfare. In 1934, several social organizations were established to serve the needs of a growing Jewish community. These included the United Jewish Welfare Fund, the United Jewish Community and the United Community Committee which had been established to combat anti-Semitism. The new community leaders were primarily lawyers and not men of inherited wealth. Men like Lester W. Roth, Harry A. Holtzer, Benjamin J. Scheinman and Mendel B. Silberberg who succeeded the Newmarks and the Hellmans. In 1937, the United Jewish Community was incorporated as the Los Angeles Jewish Community Council with the United Jewish Welfare Fund as its fundraising arm. The Federation of Jewish Philanthropies continued as a separate entity until 1959 when a merger was effected between the Jewish Community Council with its Pro-Israel interest and overseas concerns, and its orientation toward Jewish education, and the Federation of Jewish Welfare organizations embodying the earlier Jewish community, with its primary concern for local philanthropies.

At the end of World War II, nearly 150,000 Jews were living in greater Los Angeles, an increase of 20,000 since the war had begun. The major growth of the Jewish population in Los Angeles began after 1945 when thousands of war veterans and others along with their families moved west. By 1948, the Jewish population numbered a quarter of a million people, representing an increase of 2,000 people a month as Jews continued to move west in what became one of the greatest migrations in Jewish history. In 1951, there were an estimated 330,000 Jews living in Los Angeles and by 1965, the community had reached half a million, becoming one of the largest Jewish population centers. This vast increase in the Jewish population resulted in a proliferation of congregations, synagogues and religious functionaries. The national movement of religious denominations “discovered” Los Angeles as the United Synagogue established its Pacific Southwest Region, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations established its Southern Pacific Region and rabbis by the dozen wended their way west. By 1968, Los Angeles was home to 150 different congregations.

After 1945, all three branches of Judaism had established schools of higher learning. The Jewish Theological Seminary established the University of Judaism, which in turn developed a Hebrew teacher’s college, a school of fine arts, a graduate school and an extensive program of adult Jewish studies. Similarly, the Hebrew Union College developed a branch in Los Angeles with a rabbinical preparatory school, cantor’s training school and a Sunday school teacher’s program. Yeshiva University established a branch specializing in teacher training and adult education. The Bureau of Jewish Education did much to raise the level of teaching and encouraged and subsidized Hebrew secondary schools. By 1968, the Los Angeles Hebrew High School, the largest, had more than 500 students. That same year, Jewish mobility had brought an end to the formerly Jewish Boyle Heights, Adams Street, Temple Street, Wilshire District and other predominantly Jewish areas and neighborhoods. Jews settled in the western and newly developed sections of sprawling Los Angeles.


Los Angeles at the start of the 21st century

Approximately five percent of the world’s Jews live in the city of Los Angeles. As of 2013, the region was home to more than 650,000 Jews, making it the second largest population of Jews in the United States and the fifth largest in the world. The Jews of Los Angeles account for nearly 17% of the city’s total population. The vast majority live in the city proper while the rest live in neighborhoods throughout the metropolitan area.

Throughout the Greater Los Angeles area are numerous organizations which serve L.A’s many Jewish communities. Some, like the American Jewish Congress, Anti-Defamation League, the Progressive Jewish Alliance and the American Jewish Committee, focus on national issues such as combating anti-Semitism and human rights. Other organizations are more community based such as the Southern California Council for Soviet Jews, Mercaz USA Pacific Southwest Region and the Jewish Federation Los Angeles. The National Council of Jewish Women, Jewish Family Services, the Jewish Labor Committee and the ETTA focus their efforts on families, worker’s rights and healthcare. Additionally, there are a number of Israel advocacy groups including Stand With Us, the Council of Israeli Organizations and the Promoting Israel Education and Culture Fund.

In nearly every neighborhood with a Jewish presence, there is at least one synagogue. Spread across Los Angeles are more than 120 congregations, representing four distinct movements within Judaism. The vast majority of these congregations hold services in their own buildings. By 2014, there were an estimated 61 different Orthodox synagogues, 33 Reform, 27 Conservative, 3 Traditional and 1 unaffiliated with any one movement. In addition to prayer services, many of these synagogues offer educational services for both children and adults. There are also more than 90 private Jewish schools. As of 2011, there were approximately 9 preschools, 24 elementary schools and 12 High schools located throughout Los Angeles. Together they enroll more than 100,000 students each year. While the majority of these are Orthodox (23) there are several belonging to the Reform, Conservative and Traditional movements. There are also Jewish colleges, such as the Hebrew Union College (The Jewish Institute of Religion), the American Jewish University and Yeshiva of Los Angeles.

With such a large population, there is no shortage of social and cultural programs for L.A.’s Jewish youth. Among them are the National Conference of Synagogue Youth Orthodox Union, the Los Angeles Girls’ Israel Torah, Camp Gan Israel and the Yachad Sports Program.

Los Angeles is home to many cultural centers and museums. Among the most well known are the city’s various Holocaust Memorials such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, USC’s Shoah Foundation and the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. Across Los Angeles are five different Jewish Community Centers and several education centers including the Jewish Learning Exchange, the Jewish Studies Institute and the Jewish Community Library. Also located in Los Angeles is the Southern California branch of the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science and the American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

The first Jew to settle in Los Angeles was Jacob Frankfurt, a tailor from Germany. Since his arrival in 1841, Los Angeles has experienced several waves of Jewish immigration from Europe as well as the Middle East. According to the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles, as many as 250,000 Israeli Jews live in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. While arriving steadily since the early 1950s, a significant wave of Israeli immigration is thought to have occurred during the 1970s. It was during this same period, that in the wake of the Islamic Revolution, tens of thousands of Persian Jews fled Iran to Los Angeles. The Jews of Iran are known for being one of the wealthiest waves of immigrants ever to arrive to the United States. According to the US Census Bureau’s 2010 Survey, approximately 34,000 Persian Jews live in Beverly Hills, where they constitute 26% of the total population. In 2007, Jimmy Delshad, a Persian Jew was elected Mayor of Beverly Hills. Due to their significant population and ownership of many businesses and properties throughout Beverly Hills’ Golden Triangle, the area has come to be known as “Tehrangeles.” During the late 1980s, thousands of Jews from the Former Soviet Union arrived to California. By 1989, Los Angeles had the second largest population of Soviet Jews in the United States.

By the 1960s, many neighborhoods throughout the Greater Los Angeles area became districts well known for their large Jewish populations. Fairfax and Pico-Robertson, two neighborhoods located in Western Los Angeles, are among the city’s most famous Jewish communities. They have also been a primary destination for Israeli and Soviet Jewish immigrants. Other Jewish enclaves can be found in Beverly Hills, San Fernando Valley, West Hollywood, Hancock Park, Encino, Westwood, Brentwood and Sherman Oaks. Located in and around many of these neighborhoods are numerous Jewish landmarks. The Fairfax, Pico-Robertson and Boyle Heights neighborhoods are themselves historic Jewish sites. The cemetery marker at the Hebrew Benevolent Society which dates back to 1855 is considered to be the first Jewish site in all of Los Angeles. The Breed Street Shul, also known as Congregation Talmud Torah of Los Angeles, was the largest Orthodox synagogue in the Western United States from 1915 to 1951, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. On a tour of Los Angeles, visitors will discover that many of the city’s famous buildings have a Jewish connection. Morris L. Goodman was the first Jew to serve LA County at the Los Angeles City Hall. S. Charles Lee, born Simeon Charles Levi was an American architect known for his design of the Los Angeles Theatre. In the city’s Terminal Annex Post Office are 11 murals made by Latvian-born Jewish artist, Boris Deutsch. The Holocaust Monument in Pacific Park was designed by Jewish artist, Joseph Young. Other well known Jewish landmarks include the city’s famous Jewish restaurants including Nate ‘n Al’s in Beverly Hills, Art’s in Studio City, Pico Kosher Deli, Canter’s, Greenblatt’s and Langer’s in MacArthur Park. Following an influx of Israeli and Persian Jews, several restaurants opened up, becoming famous for their unique and traditional foods. Places like Golan Restaurant, Tiberias, Nessim’s and Falafel Village offer authentic Middle Eastern cuisine.

Not long after settling in Los Angeles did members of the Jewish community begin establishing hospitals and healthcare facilities. By the 1980s, many of L.A.’s best medical centers were those which had been founded by Jewish leadership. One of the most well known is Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Others include Jewish Women’s Health, Jewish Free Loan Association for Short-term Health Care, Gateways Hospital & Mental Health Center, Aviva Family & Children’s Services, Bikur Cholim Healthcare Foundations and the Los Angeles Jewish Home for Senior Care.

The Jewish community of Los Angeles has often been recognized for its philanthropy. Many of the largest Jewish organizations in the United States have local branches in Los Angeles. There are also several advocacy groups which raise funds for Israeli universities. Organizations such as the Tel Aviv University American Council and the American Associates of Ben-Gurion University both educate individuals about the schools and their academic achievements. Major sources of funding and community support come from groups such as the One Family Fund, Jewish Community Foundation, the Shefa Fund, Yad b’Yad Los Angeles, the Jewish National Fund and Mazon –A Jewish Response to Hunger. There are additionally many charitable organizations which support Israeli medical research including Friends of Sheba Medical Center, the Israel Cancer Research Fund and the Israel Humanitarian Foundation.

The city of Los Angeles has a wide selection of news and media outlets. Among them are many independent periodicals which serve the Jewish community of Los Angeles. The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles is one such newspaper. It was established in 1985 and originally had been distributed by the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. As of 2010, it had a readership of 180,000, making it the largest Jewish weekly paper outside of New York City. Other Jewish newspapers include the Jewish Journal, Shalom L.A., The Jewish Observer Los Angeles, The Jewish Link, and Israeli papers –Shavua Israeli and Ha’Aretz. Two of the largest publishers of Jewish media in Los Angeles are TRIBE Media Corp. and Blazer Media Group. On radio are stations Israla, an Israeli music channel and Aish Talmid of Los Angeles.

Casablanca

In Arabic: الدار البيضاء‎  / Dar El Beida

The largest city and harbor of Morocco.

Casablanca was known as Anfa during the Middle Ages. The city was destroyed by the Portuguese in 1468, and its Jewish community was dispersed. Moses and Dinar Anfaoui (i.e., "of Anfa") were among the signatories of the "Takkanot" of Fez in 1545. In 1750 the rabbi Elijah synagogue was built, but it was only in 1830 with the arrival of Jewish merchants, principally from Mogador, Rabat, and Tetuan, that the community really developed.

At the beginning of the 20th century there were 20,000 inhabitants, of whom 6,000 were Jews. There were then two synagogues, eight Talmud Torah schools, and four private schools. The first Alliance Israelite Universelle school, founded in 1897, was supported by the local notables. After the plunder in 1903 of Settat, an important center of the region, the community received 1,000 Jewish refugees. Later, Casablanca was itself devastated by tribes in rebellion, and a large number of its inhabitants were massacred in August 1907. Among the Jews, there were 30 dead, some gravely injured, and 250 women and children abducted.

By 1912 Casablanca became the economic capital of Morocco and, thereby, an important center for the Jews of Morocco, as well as for their coreligionists all over north Africa and Europe. The Casablanca community distinguished itself in all spheres by the intensity of its activities.

Many of its members held high positions in commerce, industry, and the liberal professions. The upper class of Casablanca's Jewish community founded numerous philanthropic societies to care for the needs of their coreligionists who arrived in successive groups from the interior of the country. The new arrivals, who were often without any means of livelihood, gathered in the "Mellah" district of the ancient Medina and lived in great poverty.

The "community council" provided them with various kinds of support, the funds for which were collected from a tax on meat and from private donations. The schools of the Alliance also provided free education. During World War II the anti-Jewish policies of the Vichy government restricted the rights of the Jews, especially in Casablanca, and even deprived them of their livelihood until the landing of the allies in 1942. After the liberation of Morocco, many Jews from the interior, often only the men, were attracted to Casablanca by the city's prosperity. For more than 35 years the community was led by Yachia Zagury (d. 1944). Principal spiritual leaders of the community had included Chayyim Elmalech (d. 1857), David Ouaknin (d. 1873), Isaac Marrache (d. 1905), Moses Eliakim (d. 1939), and Chayyim Bensussan.

Between 1948 and 1968 tens of thousands of Moroccan Jews went to Casablanca, either to settle there or to await emigration. Numerically, the drop in population resulting from the emigration was offset by the constant influx of Jews from the provinces so that the population figures of the Jews in the town hardly changed until 1962.

In 1948 the number of Jews in Casablanca was estimated at about 70,000; while census reports indicated that 74,783 Jews in 1951 (34% of Moroccan Jewry) and 72,026 Jews in 1960 (54.1% of the total Jewish population of Morocco) lived in Casablanca. However, in 1964 the number of Jews in Casablanca was estimated at about 60,000 out of the 85,000 Jews in Morocco. There followed a large-scale exodus of Jews from the town; their numbers were not replenished by new arrivals. Out of a total of 50,000 Moroccan Jews there remained an estimated 37,000 in Casablanca in 1967 and no more than 17,000 out of a total population of 22,000 Jews the following year. Until Morocco gained its independence, Casablanca Jews did not enjoy equal rights, and in 1949 only 600 of the 70,000 Jews in Casablanca had the right to vote in municipal elections. From 1956, however, when all of Moroccan Jewry acquired equal rights, Jews in Casablanca voted and were elected in municipal elections. In 1964 three Jewish representatives sat on the Casablanca city council, and in 1959 Meyer Toledano was elected deputy mayor. From 1948 to 1968 there were several instances of attacks on Jews, particularly on the eve of Moroccan independence (1956) and to a lesser extent after the Six Day War of June 1967. The authorities did their utmost to protect the Jewish population.

As the largest Jewish community in north Africa, Casablanca had many communal institutions, including schools of Alliance Israelite Universelle, Otzar Ha-Torah (which had 2,079 pupils in 1961), Em Ha-Banim, and ORT. There was also a rabbinical seminary Magen David, founded in 1947. A total of 15,450 pupils attended Casablanca Jewish educational establishments in 1961 but most of these institutions closed after 1965. The community had many charitable organizations, administered by the community committee. Until 1957 the Jewish agency maintained offices in the town, as did the Jewish national fund, the American Jewish Joint Distribution committee and WIZO, but all these were closed after Morocco became independent.

In 1997 there were 6,000 Jews living in Morocco, 5,000 of them in Casablanca.

There are synagogues, "mikvaot", old age homes and kocher restaurants in Casablanca. The Chabad, ORT, Alliance and Otzar Ha-Torah schools have remained active. The Chabad movement is active there. Religious education is given in the Lycee Yeshiva, "kollel" of Casablanca. Since 1963 there have been Jewish newspapers.