Image taken on 2009-06-03 22:17:33 by JHSUM.
Swimmers at Sophie Worth Camp
January 27th, 2010
Image taken on 2009-06-03 22:17:55 by JHSUM.
Los Angeles Synagogues: A Century Ago
January 20th, 2010The Breed Street Shul, which housed the Congregation Talmud Torah, has quite an interesting and significant history.
Located at 247 North Breed Street in the Boyle Heights district on the Los Angeles River’s east bank, he Breed Street Shul served a once thriving Jewish neighborhood in Boyle Heights that has since become predominately a Latino community.
The property on Breed Street was purchased after 1910. In 1915, Beth Hamedrash was built on the back of the property. Construction on the shul itself began in 1920 and it was dedicated in 1923. The large building is constructed of brick and the interior fixtures are polished wood.
The Breed Street Shul served as the focal point of the neighborhood that was the heart and soul of the Los Angeles Jewish community. Even if you have never been to Los Angeles, you might very well have seen the shul. Both the 1927 original and the 1980 remake of “The Jazz Singer” featured the Breed Street Shul.
The Breed Street Shul was, at one time, one of the largest synagogues on the West Coast and home to the largest Orthodox congregation west of Chicago.
After World War II, The Jewish presence in Boyle Heights began to diminish as the area became more of an industrial area. An influx of other cultures resulted in young Jewish men returning from military duty during the war to use their VA loans to move to other areas. This resulted in the shrinkage of the congregation at the shul.
In 1987, the Whittier Narrows earthquake caused damage to the building. After that, the Breed Street Shul was only used intermittently until it was finally abandoned in 1996. Shortly after that, there were attempts to renovate the building. The Jewish Historical Society of Southern California took over the project in 1999 and set up the Breed Street Shul Project as a nonprofit organization to oversee the renovation.
The project was not only to preserve an historical Jewish site but to also serve the current community as a community center. To this end, several Latino organizations and the J. Paul Getty Museum worked with the Jewish Historical Society of Southern California to clean up and refurbish the building.
By the time the renovation project really got under way, there was a large hole in the ceiling, the inside walls were covered with graffiti and a razor wire topped fence surrounded the building. Many living in the area did not even have an idea of what the building was.
Young Latinos from the Imaginando Manana program (translation: Imagining Tomorrow) of Impacto worked on the clean up. In addition to learning the Jewish history of their neighborhood, the youths also learned tolerance and respect for other cultures. The youths were helped by Impacto Director Christine Sanchez to understand and care about the need to renovate the shul by having them imagine how they would feel if it were a site of significance to them.
During the clean up, Sunday clean up events became very popular with, not only the youths, but the community at large. They were advertised and well attended. Participating in the project served to strengthen community bonds and formed a bond with the Jewish heritage of the neighborhood.
Directing the youths from Impacto in the clean up were JHS President, Stephen Sass and Robert Chattel Brent Riemer of Chattel Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Inc. The specialty of Chattel’s company is historical preservation. Chattel also served as vice president of JHS. He lent his building expertise to the renovation project.
In view of plans to make the site a community center, he is quoted as saying, “This building should continue to be a place of congregation. ” Among the ideas for merging service to the current community and preserving the site’s Jewish history is a computer lab with displays depicting the history of the site as a Jewish legacy.
With the dedication and input of the leadership of the JHS and local organizations, the renovation of the Breed Street Shul will not only serve as an historical preservation and community center, it will also advance to tolerance and understanding between two cultures. The very nature of this project exemplifies the truest essence of Jewish tradition of serving the community, whether it is Jewish or not.
A Question About Jewish Persons And Historical Behaviour?
January 6th, 2010At no time ever does it seem to me the “Jew” has accepted the society they were in at the time
They were hated and persecuted in Europe – but I don’t think it started because the Eurpoeans rejected them
I think it was because they rejected the Europeans refusing to associated with the nation or the King etc they were in
So my question is
Does a Jew have a nationality beyond being Jewish ?
It seems to me they do not
They are a Jew – that happens to be somewhere – The US Canada Russia etc But they are never Russian’s or Canadian’s they are Jews
They recognose only themselves keeping seperate now and in the past from the society they find themselves in
Is this in part or in whole —–true ? Am I way off base ?
Is this in part or in whole the reason they have been so universally hated for so many thousands of years ?
To me it seems quite impressive that they have remained this seperate for this long – but I do believe it was thier choice first
Berman Family New Year’s greeting card
December 26th, 2009
Image taken on 2009-06-04 00:13:14 by JHSUM.
Differing Views of Jewish Living
December 18th, 2009Defining or describing a Jewish lifestyle assumes that one understands the meaning of Jewish identity. What constitutes Jewish living is therefore connected with the age old question of who is a Jew or what constitutes Jewishness. This fact causes Jewish living to vary substantially in contemporary Jewish society, in and outside of the land of Israel. Determining what is distinctly Jewish can be troubling endeavor because it affects the manner in which one lives his or her live in areas of morality, politics, family, and inter-group relations.
Some have chosen to articulate Jewish living in terms of those elements that emphasize the historic connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel above any purely religious concerns. This of course was reflected in the Zionist movements of the 19th and 20th centuries and continues to manifest itself in part in both the civil religious practices of Israeli society and the generally secularized attitudes of Israeli Jews toward Judaism. Others have chosen to define Jewish living in terms of a racial or cultural distinctive viewing Jewishness as primarily an ethnic identity since ethnic communities share a sense of common origins, claim a common and distinctive history, and possess a sense of collective uniqueness and solidarity, and a distinctive lifestyle.
More traditionally inclined movements maintain definitions of Jewish living based upon classical approaches to Halakhah. At the opposite end, movements like Reform Judaism which emphasize individual autonomy often radically depart from historic notions of what Jewish living has meant. “Jewish values” have replaced traditional understandings of Jewish living and in American society such values have largely morphed into the phenomena of Jewish liberalism and social action.
Each of these perspectives provides justification for its definition of Jewish living. Each of these positions also encompasses a number of strengths and weaknesses which fail to fully appreciate the complexity of Jewish life in light of classical Jewish sources.