The Jewish Community of Los Angeles

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.