Conscious Jewish historic memory begins with Abraham and God’s first words to him, ”Lech Lecha”-“Go”, an emphatic “Go”,” get yourself out of your country, away from your  kindred, and away from your father’s home.” Movement, whether by act of God or by human brute force, has been a hallmark of Jewish existence.

Between 2500-2700 years ago, this ancient people was struck with conquest and exile, a fate that was repeated 2000 years ago. As a result, a vast diaspora, “Galut”( exile) was created. The story of the “wandering Jews” , scattered across North Africa, Spain, greater Syria and Mesopotamia and the Iranian plateau, serves as the basis to our  “Memory in Action”, as this diaspora comes to make a new home in the Western Hemisphere, and specifically, for our story, in southern California.

Our first accounts will focus on the initial waves of Jews who came primarily from Eastern and Central Europe to settle in Los Angeles at the start of the 20th Century. This is the story of those who founded and made  their Jewish home at Hollywood Temple Beth El. It is a story of creativity, resilience, overcoming prejudice, and building new lives.

Two millennia ago, some Jews made their way into the Italian peninsula, some as merchants, and some as captives taken by the Roman Empire in the aftermath of two great failed rebellions by the Jews. Others made their way to the Iberian Peninsula. Among these were the progenitors of my family. 

Gradually, these Jews made their way from Italy  into the realms of Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire. This became the heartland of Ashkenazi ( Central and Eastern European) Jewry and here we have the first flowering of the great European school of Rabbinic study, as embodied in the figures of Rashi and his “ Eineklach” ( grandchildren). 

It has been estimated that no more than 3000 families comprised the core of this dynamic Jewish community that settled in regions bordering what would become France and Germany. “ Lech Lecha”—this is what they were told, again, this time by rioting Crusaders or rapacious kings eager to seize hold of Jewish properties.

They headed east and came to the land that became  Poland, fleeing from the turmoil of persecution and expulsion in the Rhineland; they were invited in with open arms by the rulers who saw in them a great resource for the development of their realm. They joined a small number of Jews who had settled there in the preceding centuries, as well as some Jews who may have come from the Land of  the Khazars around the Black Sea. Later, they were joined by Jews who fled the Spanish inquisition and came in either from Italy up to central Europe or through the Ottoman Empire,  which at one time extended to  the gates of Vienna..

Here, the Jews of  Ashkenaz ( the term used for Germany in old sources) hoped they found a welcome home, a home of a thousand years. Yet as they settled, they knew that this too would pass some day.  They called their new land,“Po-lin”, a play on Polen, in German, Poyln, in Yiddish, but “Po- lin” in Hebrew. “ Rest here, never settle”, as my father explained to me. It was the recognition that Jewish existence, as portrayed in the title of the famous musical was “ A Fiddler on the Roof”.

In the 20th century, the Jewish communities that remained in Europe were devastated by genocide, exile, or forced assimilation. The Jews of North Africa and the entire Middle East, communities dating back as much as 2500 years and more, were expelled, as thes elands became , as Europe, “Judenrein.” 

The largest, last great hopes on the Jewish people , lay in one of two possibilities, the reborn State of Israel, or the “Goldene Medina”, the Golden Nation, the United States of America. Here is the story of the reborn lives as captured through the lens of people who helped create modern Los Angeles and were involved with Hollywood Temple Beth El.

As citizens of this new land, we are committed to the concept that the new America will never be just a “Po-Lin”, a temporary resting place.

Jewish Roots of L.A.

Peter Hauge, Librarian, Los Angeles Public Library

The story of Jewish history in Los Angeles began in 1841, before California would become a state, with the arrival of the Workman-Rowland wagon train. Among the settlers was a Jewish, German-born tailor, Jacob Frankfort. Little is known about the personal details of Frankfort’s life. We have no journal he may have kept, and while his business dealings, wealth, and civic engagement are well documented, the nearest synagogue was thousands of miles away, and Frankfort, like many who would follow him, was here for business. We know more about his bringing a rifle along with him than we do about whether or not he packed a Kiddush cup and siddur, or lit candles on Shabbat. Frankfort was a skilled tradesman in high demand, and this was the Wild West, after all. 

Frankfort wouldn’t be the only Jewish person in Los Angeles for long. Records from the 1850 Census tell us that seven other Jewish pioneers had taken up business in the same two-story adobe building as Frankfort, known as Bell’s Row, on the corner of Aliso and Los Angeles Streets. To get an idea of how well he was doing, the same building was later purchased using money borrowed from Frankfort.

Map of Bell’s Row, [1858]. From the Western States Jewish History Archives 

When Rancher Louis Phillips arrived in 1852, he would go on to purchase a 2,400-acre sprawl of land, which would become Huntington Park, Lynwood, Vernon, Maywood, Bell, South Gate, and Montebello. By this time, the Jewish population of Los Angeles was growing rapidly, and people would soon need houses of worship.

Formal religious services wouldn’t begin until 1854 when Joseph Newmark, a wholesale-retail businessman, served as the lay Rabbi of Los Angeles. In 1862, Newmark invited Rabbi Abraham Wolf Edelman to lead the Congregation B’nai B'rith, today known as Wilshire Boulevard Temple.

As Los Angeles was seeing exponential growth and success, so too were the thriving Jewish communities. Boyle Heights was long known as the heart of the Jewish populace. In the mid-1920s, about a third of all of the Jews in Los Angeles lived in Boyle Heights, and by 1930, Boyle Heights would be home to 10,000 Jewish families. Temple Street and the Central Avenue district would also become known as enclaves of Jewish families.

Morris L. Goodman, who sold dry goods in the same Bell’s Row as Frankfort, was elected as one of the first Council members of Los Angeles in 1850 and would be the first of many other Jewish men and women to take up seats in city politics. Harris Newmark, nephew of Joseph Newmark, was encouraged to run for mayor and was on the first board of trustees of the Los Angeles Public Library. However, it wouldn’t be until 2013 when Los Angeles would elect their first Jewish, and current mayor, Eric Garcetti.

Jewish Americans in Los Angeles found places not only in business and politics but in new and emerging fields as well. Los Angeles would soon become known as the movie capital of the world, in no small part due to the contributions of those Jewish persons who found success in show business.

When silent films came onto the scene in the late 1890s, the business was seen as a risky venture by many due to the low cost of tickets and the moral debates around the industry. Regardless, many Jewish vaudeville entertainers and producers migrating from the East saw the opportunity to apply their skills and talents to the silver screen. Los Angeles was soon the premier destination for movie making. In 1915 Carl Laemmle opened the world's largest motion picture production facility, Universal Studios. Adolph Zucker was one of three to found The Paramount Pictures Corporation, which started in the Lasky-DeMille Barn in an orange grove in Hollywood. Theater owner Marcus Loew would go on to purchase Metro Pictures in 1920, soon followed by Goldwyn Pictures and later merged to become Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in Culver City.