Have you ever looked around Los Angeles and felt there might be a seed of Jewish history in a building, a business, a street name?
The first record of a Jewish presence in the pueblo that became the City of Los Angeles was in the late 1840s. The census of 1850 counted 8 Jews. As of 2022 Los Angeles represented the 2nd largest Jewish community in the United States. Its size and diversity make it unique. The community includes 565,000 Jewish individuals living in nearly 300,000 households.
From the beginning these urban pioneers took an active role in every facet of the City's life. One of the seven members of the City Council was Jewish. The city attorney in 1862, city treasurer in 1876 and chief of police in 1878 were also Jews. Since the city’s American beginnings, Jews have shaped the social, economic, and cultural life of Los Angeles. They emerged as early leaders in commerce, civic life, and philanthropy, propelling the city’s growth while enriching its multiethnic character. By the twentieth century, the Jewish population had diversified substantially, setting the stage for disparate community experiences and destinies. Jews occupied a place at both the center and margins of urban life. Not only did Jews shape Los Angeles in important ways, their own religious and ethnic identities in turn were shaped by the city’s culture of self-reinvention. They exerted an enduring and important influence on the city’s development.
If you are interested in how the past brought the Jewish community of Los Angeles to today, join us in this SDG for a thoughtful examination of how the present molded today's dynamic 'future' in the Los Angeles Jewish community.
Week One. The Founders
Week Two Religious institutions
Week Three Organizations, social clubs and Unions
Week Four. Health care and Medicine
Week Five Commercial Identity from Boyle Heights to Fairfax and Beyond
Week Six. Business focus in Banking, Dry Goods, Department Stores, Delis, Architecture and Public Service
Week Seven The Entertainment Industry
Avishary Artsy, Jews and the Architectural Development of Los Angeles, KCRW 2016, PDF to be provided
California Jewish History, Jewish Virtual Library, PDF to be provided
Cultural History of Jews in California: The Jewish Role in American Live, Purdue University Press 2008. PDF to be provided
Robert Glass Cleland and Frank B. Putnam, Isaias W. Hellman and the Farmers and Merchants Bank, Huntington Library, 1965 (A few copies available online and in some libraries)
Frances Dinkelspiel, Towers of Gold, How one Jewish Immigrant named Isaias Hellman Created California, St. Martin's Press 2008 (A few copies available online and in some libraries)
Early Jewish Pioneers of Los Angeles - 1842 to 1899, Western States Jewish History Journal, PDF to be provided
Wendy Elliott, The Jews of Boyle Heights, 1900 -1950: The Melting Pot of Los Angeles, Southern California Quarterly, Spiting 1996
Herman W. Hellman, Early Pioneer Jewish Los Angeles Food Wholesaler and Banker, Jewish Museum of the American West. PDF to be provided
Hollywood Forever, History, Culture and Tradition of Jewish Cemeteries in Los Angeles. PDF to be provided.
Sonia Hoffman, The Early Years: Jews Help to Build and Govern Los Angeles, Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles. PDF to be provided
Sara Hyman, Growing up Fairfax, Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles. PDF to be provided
Roberto Loiederman, Mining teh "Golden Age' of Los Angeles, Jewish Journal 2014. PDF to be provided
Los Angeles Citywide Historic Context Statement, LA City Department of City Planning, 2016. PDF to be provided
Los Angeles, Jewish Virtual Library. PDF to be provided
Pat Morrison, Jewish Communities Thrived in early LA and helped the City Thrive. Los Angeles Times 2022. PDF to be provided
Harris Newmark, Sixty Years in Southern California, available online free from the Gutenberg Free Press, 1984.
Aaron Paley, Playing Jewish Geography, The Forward 2008. PDF to be provided
Bruce A Phillips, Not quite White: The Emergency of Jewish "Ethnoburbs" in Los Angeles, 1920 -2010, John Hopkins University Press, 2016
Harriet and Fred Rochlin, Pioneer Jews, A New Life in the Far West, Mariner Books, 1984 (A few copies available online and in some libraries)
D.J. Waldie, Harris Newmark: Jewish Patriarch, Pioneer Businessman, Angeleno, Lost LA 2017. PDF to be provided
Jewish Mosaic ,Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbqKONZwqIY
Mapping Jewish LA: Jewish Histories in Multiethnic Boyle Heights. YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZNr59-8VBA