The Jewish Community of San Diego

MINHAH IN CAPTAIN'S CABIN ABOARD U.S.S LEAHY-
GUIDED MISSILE CRUISER. TWO JEWISH COMMANDING
OFFICERS IN ATTENDANCE.
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, USA, 1978.
PHOTO: SANFORD H. SHUDNOW, USA
(BETH HATEFUTSOTH PHOTO ARCHIVE,
COURTESY OF SANFORD H. SHUDNOW, U.S.A.)

Sukkah in the Naval base of the US Army,
San Diego, California, USA, 1984
Photo: Sanford H. Shudnow, USA
(The Oster Visual Documentation Center, Beit Hatfutsot,
courtesy of Sanford H. Shudnow, USA)

Yale Strom (b. 1950), klezmer, violinist, composer, filmmaker, writer, photographer and playwright, born in former Soviet Union who emigrated to the United States. He is considered a pioneer amongst revivalists of traditional Jewish Eastern European klezmer music. After 1981 he conducted
extensive field research on Jewish and Gypsy communities in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Initially, his work focused primarily on the use and performance of klezmer music amongst these two groups but gradually, his focus increased to examining all aspects of their culture, from post-World War II to the present. In the more than two decades since his initial ethnographic trip, Strom has become the world's leading ethnographer-artist of klezmer and history.

Strom's klezmer field research helped form the base for the repertoires of his two klezmer bands, Hot Pstromi in New York and Klazzj in San Diego. Since Strom's first band began in 1981, he composed his own New Jewish music, which combines klezmer with Hasidic nigunim [melodies], Rom, jazz, classical, Balkan and Sephardic motifs. These compositions ranged from quartets to a symphony, which premiered with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He composed original music for the Denver Center production of Tony Kushner's "The Dybbuk". Strom is also one of the only top composers of Jewish music to carry on the tradition of writing original songs, with Yiddish lyrics, about humanitarian and social issues. He was the only klezmer violinist to be invited to instruct master classes at the American String Teachers Association.

Strom's research has also resulted in nine books including "The Last Jews of Eastern Europe" and "Uncertain Roads: Searching for the Gypsies". Strom's most recent book, written in collaboration with his wife, Elizabeth Schwartz, is "A Wandering Feast: A Journey Through the Jewish Culture of Eastern Europe" (2005).

Strom has directed five award-winning documentary films ("At the Crossroads", "The Last Klezmer", "Carpati: 50 Miles, 50 Years", "L’Chayim, Comrade Stalin!" and "Klezmer on Fish Street") and has composed music for countless others. "The Last Klezmer" was short-listed for an Academy Award. "Klezmer on Fish Street" won the 2003 Palm Beach International Film Festival's Special Jury Selection award. "Lehaim, comrade Stalin!" - is focusing on the life of Jews in Birobijan in 1930s. At that time 40 thousands Jews inhabited Birobijan. Those remaining there keep supporting Jewish traditions and speak Yiddish.

Strom's is also a talented photographer who has mounted several solo exhibititions on Jewish and Gypsy life and portraits of klezmer musicians in Bessarabia. He published photographs of Jews in the Eastern Bloc countries. They are today part of many collections including those of Beit Hatfusot, The Skirball Museum, The Jewish Museum of NYC, The Frankfurt Jewish Museum and the The Museum of Photographic Arts.

Strom has lectured extensively throughout the United States and Europe and taught at NYU for 4 years, where he created the course "Artist-Ethnographer Expeditions". He is on the advisory board of the Center for Jewish Creativity, based in Los Angeles. At present he is Artist-in-Residence in the Jewish Studies Program at San Diego State University.

Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979), philosopher, sociologist and political theorist, born in Berlin, Germany. Marcuse became known as the "Father of the New Left." In 1916 he joined the German Army. He then became a member of a Soldiers' Council that participated in the 1919 aborted socialist Spartacist strike and uprising. He completed his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Freiburg in 1922 on German romantic literature after which he moved back to Berlin, where he worked in a publishing house. He returned to Freiburg in 1928 to study with Edmund Husserl, who developed the method of phenomenology believing that experience is the source of all knowledge, and wrote "Hegel's Ontology and Theory of Historicity". This study was written in the context of the Hegelian renaissance which was taking place in Europe with an emphasis on ontology, which studies the nature of existence of life and history, idealist theory of spirit and dialectic.

After the rise of Nazism, Marcuse emigrated first to Switzerland in 1934 and then to the USA, although he remained associated with the Frankfurt Institute for Social Development and in 1940 he published "Reason and Revolution", a dialectical work which examined G. W. F. Hegel and Karl Marx.

During World War 2, Marcuse first worked for the U.S. Office of War Information (OWI) on anti-Nazi propaganda projects and in 1943 he transferred to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency. His work for the OSS involved research on Nazi Germany and denazification. After the dissolution of the OSS in 1945, Marcuse was until 1951 employed by the US Department of State as head of the Central European section.

In 1952 he began a teaching career as a political theorist, first at Columbia University, then at Harvard University, then at Brandeis University from 1958 to 1965, where he taught philosophy and politics, and finally, at the University of California, San Diego. He was a friend and collaborator of political sociologists and political philosophers and a friend of Columbia University sociology professor C. Wright Mills, one of the founders of the New Left movement. In the post-war period, Marcuse was the most explicitly political and left-wing member of the Frankfurt School and continued to identify himself as a Marxist, a socialist, and a Hegelian. Marcuse's criticism of capitalist society (especially in his 1955 synthesis of Marx and Freud, Eros and Civilization, and his 1964 book One-Dimensional Man) resonated with the concerns of the student movement in the 1960s. Because of his willingness to speak at student protests, Marcuse soon became known as "the father of the New Left in the United States". His work heavily influenced intellectual discourse on popular culture and scholarly popular culture studies. He was a popular speaker in the US and Europe in the 1960s and 1970s. Marcuse's 1965 essay "Repressive Tolerance", in which he claimed capitalist democracies can have totalitarian aspects, was strongly criticized by conservatives. In it he argued that genuine tolerance does not tolerate support for "repression", since doing so ensures that voices on the margins will remain unheard. He characterizes tolerance of repressive speech as "inauthentic". Instead, he advocates a form of tolerance that is intolerant of right wing political movements. His An Essay on Liberation in 1969, celebrating liberation movements such as those in Vietnam, inspired many radicals. In 1972 he wrote Counterrevolution and Revolt, which argues that the hopes of the 1960s were facing a counterrevolution from the right.

After Brandeis University decided against the renewal of his teaching contract in 1965, Marcuse devoted his life to writing and lecturing around the world. His efforts brought him attention from the media, which claimed that he openly advocated violence, although he often clarified that only "violence of defense" could be appropriate, not "violence of aggression". He continued to promote Marxian theory, with some of his students helping to spread his ideas. Marcuse’s analysis of capitalism derives partially from one of Karl Marx’s main concepts. Marx believed that capitalism was exploiting humans; that the objects produced by laborers became alienated and thus ultimately dehumanized them to functional objects. Marcuse took this belief and expanded it. He argued that capitalism and industrialization pushed laborers so hard that they began to see themselves as extensions of the objects they were producing.

Edna Nahmias (1943-2002), composer, born in Johannesburg, and grew up in South Africa. When Edna was twenty two, she came to Israel, where she married, and had two daughters. She later divorced, and in 1981 immigrated to the United States to join her family, who had moved there from South Africa. In 1989, Edna became an active volunteer in Jewish life and local temple activities. Her involvement included leading the evening service, taking part in Kabbalat Shabbat services, and reading from the Torah on Shabbat morning. She was member of the Temple choir, and the local San Diego Choir.
Edna Nahmias composed twenty seven melodies of original Jewish music between 1990-1992. These were inspired by a Jewish music workshop, in which she participated that was led by clarinetist Giora Feidman.
In 1994, her health began to deteriorate due to many serious illnesses. Edna Nahmias died in Sun City, California, USA.

Harry Schonfeld (1929-2003), psychologist, born in Ibanesti, Romania. The family left Romania in 1938 and settled in Trinidad, in the British West Indies, where he graduated from high school at St. Mary's College in Port-of-Spain. The family immigrated to the USA settling in New York in 1946. He moved to San Diego in California and attended San Diego State University, graduating with a degree in psychology in 1949, and then he received a MA degree in Social Work from the University of South California.

Schonfeld began his career at Pacific State Hospital in Pomona, CA. in 1952. He then worked in many different positions with the California State Departments of Health and Mental Health in the greater Los Angeles area. He was a recognized expert in the field of mental retardation, and devoted his time and energy to the developmentally disabled and their families.

Schonfeld was active in a variety of community and professional organizations, including the local Jewish community and in the field of social work, including the Jewish Federation, B'nai Brith, Los Amigos de la Humanidad, and Foundation for Advocacy, Conservatorship, and Trust (FACT). He also served as president of Temple Beth Israel in Pomona during the 1960s, and he was a long-time religious school teacher both at Temple Beth Israel and Temple Shalom in West Covina, CA. He retired in 1989 and died in Pomona.

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.

United States of America (USA)

A country in North America

Estimated Jewish population in 2018: 5,700,000 out of 325,000,000 (1.7%). United States is the home of the second largest Jewish population in the world. 

Community life is organized in more than 2,000 organizations and 700 federations. Each of the main religious denominators – Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist – has its own national association of synagogues and rabbis. 

American cities (greater area) with largest Jewish populations in 2018:

New York City, NY: 2,000,000
Los Angeles, CA: 662,000
Miami, FL: 555,000
Philadelphia, PA: 275,000
Chicago, IL: 294,000
Boston, MA: 250,000
San Francisco, CA: 304,000
Washington, DC & Baltimore, MY: 217,000

States with largest proportion of Jewish population in 2018 (Percentage of Total Population):

New York: 8.9
New Jersey: 5.8
Florida: 3.3
District of Columbia: 4.3
Massachusetts: 4.1
Maryland: 4
Connecticut: 3.3
California: 3.2
Pennsylvania: 2.3
Illinois: 2.3