A Boyle Heights Boyhood

Links

History of Los Angeles

 

From David Hoffman: Sonia and I have had a lot of fun wandering around the web learning a great deal more about the Jewish cultural/political/social/organizational scene of LA circa 1900 – 1920. (Workman’s Circle/Arbeter Ring, Folk Schule; various branches of Zionism active in LA from 1901 on, trade unions (particularly the ILGWU) and other political groups, and their interrelationships and ties to hospitals, and schools.)

Jewish Presence in Los Angeles

Thank you, thank you! I have just spent an hour (not nearly enough!) enjoying first, the map of 1909 Los Angeles, then Rochlin’s wonderful evocative story of her mother-in-law’s life in Nogales. I can see that I am not going to get much done this weekend! Carol Dondick

“The Supreme Court’s decision in Shelley v. Kraemer in 1948, ending racial and religious restrictions in home sales, enabled Jews to move to neighborhoods that had been off limits (the issue of minorities and housing would continue to be controversial, however, for many years). By the 1960s only the elderly seemed to be all that was left of the Jewish community in Boyle Heights. I recall the not uncommon comment, “My grandmother still
lives in Boyle Heights, she won’t leave.”

Photographic Images

The largest, oldest and likely most influential Jewish Reform Synagogue in Los Angeles is Wilshire Boulevard Temple, at Wilshire Boulevard and Hobart Street, built in 1929. The three designers of the Byzantine structure are Abram Edelman (son of the temple’s first rabbi and architect of the previous temple at Ninth and Hope streets), S. Tilden Norton (noted architect and honorary president of the Temple) and David Allison.”

Maps

Bibliography

  • Jews of Los Angeles
  • Boyle Heights”, California Historic Magazine, 76 [1, 4]:117

The following organizations are additional important sources of information to anyone studying the history and development of Los Angeles. Be sure to telephone ahead of time in order to make sure that they have the resources you need, and to set up an appointment as needed.

Research Sources

Personalities