Boyle Heights.”
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“Walking and talking through the history of Jewish Boyle Heights.” PresentedPresented byby ShmuelShmuel Gonzales,Gonzales, thethe BarrioBarrio BoychikBoychik BlogBlog The Indigenous History of the Area The Tongva – the Kich nation - came to settle in the greater Los Angeles area around 500 B.C.E. They had three villages of import to us here: ● Yanga (near the Pueblo) ● Otsunga (Holy village; located in El Sereno) ● Apachianga (the Flats of Boyle Heights) Note: The Indigenous people were eventually pushed out of the Pueblo by the Mexican settlers and Californios, and were moved to Aliso and Alameda in 1836. After settlers later complained that the Indigenous were bathing near the zanja (water canal) they were pushed over the river into the area of the flat river- washed eastern bank of the Los Angeles River, into El Paredon Blanco in 1845. "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles" Founded: 1781 Rancho Lopez (1830s) - Boyle Estate (1860s) Andrew Boyle Estate, 1860s William Workman, 1870s John and Elizabeth Hollenbeck, 1876 La Villa de Paredon Blanco El Paredon Blanco - “The White Bluffs.” Hollenbeck Park and Santa Fe Railroad Hollenbeck Park, Founded 1892 Hollenbeck Park Hollenbeck Park and Santa Fe Railroad Boyle Heights Cable Railway (c. 1895) Boyle Heights today, with a booming Los Angeles skyline behind it Learn about the foundational history of Boyle Heights on my tour called the “Boyle Heights Heritage Tour,” starting from Mariachi Plaza! Why do Jews come to Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles? In the first decades of the 20th century several important Jewish institutions and would move in the neighborhood, caring for and housing people who might have otherwise been homeless. With resources and medical clinics also moving into the neighborhood, Jews would begin to look to Boyle Heights to make their home. Though starting in the 1920s on account of the rise of legalized racial segregation, many Jews would not be allowed to live in other parts of the city. In those years Boyle Heights would then become the home to one-third of the entire Jewish population of Los Angeles. Jewish families would make up about 40% of the community of Boyle Heights at one time. Over 75,000 Jewish people would have come through this community in those years. Boyle Heights was once the largest and most important Jewish community west of Chicago; a perfect example of an old-school Yiddish community. As well as a most notorious immigrant community in general, which people of dozens of nationalities and languages called home. Jewish Orphans Home Founded 1906 The original location of the Jewish Orphans Home was located off Macy Street – later known as Brooklyn Ave, and now as Cesar Chavez Ave. Their building was dedicated in 1908, and within six months it had burned down. They first relocated within Boyle Heights. The Jewish Orphans Home (c. 1909) Hebrew Sheltering Society Incorporated and began operation in 1910 In either 1914 or 1916, the community had raised enough money to purchase the Gless family farmhouse in Boyle Heights. In 1915, the Society became known as The Hebrew Sheltering and Home of the Aged Association. Holy day events such as the Passover Seders would bring out families and people from the community to share the festivals with their Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs. (1941) The home would start with just 20 people. Though 1926 they would have 98 elderly people. They would eventually grow to proving senior housing for over 350 residents. הכנסת אורחים The Jewish Home for Wayfarers Built in 1938, as a residence and nursing home for homeless immigrants; prior to it’s completion people were temporarily housed at the Jewish Home for the Aged. The Breed Street Shul Congregation Talmud Torah – The Breed Street Shul Founded 1906 Congregation Talmud Torah - The Breed Street Shul Wood structure Brick Sanctuary Built 1915 Built 1923 Sanctuary of the Breed Street Shul Women’s Auxiliary in front of the Ark Boyle Heights/City Terrace Segregation: Restrictive Covenants (1920s) Housing Segregation: Red Lining of Diverse Neighborhoods (1930s) Federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation Report from 1939: Federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation Report from 1939: Red Lining of African-Americans within Boyle Heights Second Street Elementary School, example of the multi-ethnic nature of the public schools in Boyle Heights in the 1930s Brooklyn Ave Los Angeles Hebrew Academy Yiddish Labor Movement: Sponsored Yiddish days schools The Jewish experience and expression of Boyle Heights wasn’t just based on religion. Indeed the dominant form of Jewish expression was Yiddishkeit; embracing your Jewishness through Yiddish culture through language, music, poetry, and all forms of cultural Jewish expression. This was promoted by the Yiddish socialists of Boyle Heights. They were targeteed and shut down in the 1950s anti-communist Red-Scare. Yiddish Day Schools Yiddish day schools Mount Sinai Medical Clinic Dedicated 1941 Mount Sinai Medical Clinic Dedicated 1941 Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Gangster Mickey Cohen Soto-Michigan Jewish Community Center In the 1950s the Jewish community centers would start to bring more social causes of the diverse immigrant community into the center, especially resources for Mexican American community. The eastside JCCs would then increasingly be targeted during the hysteria of the anti-communist Red Scare, and then totally shut down. This would effectively end the essential Jewish programing of Boyle Heights. Eastside Jewish Cultural Center and the Menorah Center In the 1950s the Jewish Community Centers – including some very orthodox Jewish institutions such as this - were closed as a result of anti-communist paranoia amidst the Red Scare. Several of these remaining eastside Jewish Community Centers have been re-purposed as youth centers for current residents. Serving a different demographic and run by new leaders, while staying dedicated to the founders values. Brooklyn Ave Brooklyn and Soto The corners near Brooklyn Ave and Soto in Boyle Heights have always been a place for the elders to gather and talk. In the old days Jews and all nationalities alike would gather at their corners to exchange ideas. Until their friends couldn't agree anymore and start to argue, so they would retreat to their own corner, quite literally; one for labor socialists, another for communists, and yet another for anarchists, etc. Today the elders of our community still come to the corners to engage conversation. And like the immigrants who came before them they too mostly talk about jobs, the difficulties of immigration, and the rising cost of living. Klingsteins, Boyle Heights (1916) This photo was taken on 20 August 1916 of a soda fountain and store said to have been near the intersection of Brooklyn (César Chávez) Avenue and Soto Street in Boyle Heights. Whittier Blvd, in Montebello Heller’s Drug Store (c. 1928) Max Heller and his family lived behind the drugstore; the structure still stands. Druggist Max Heller (right) inside his first drugstore, located at 2600 Brooklyn Avenue (later Cesar E. Chavez Avenue) in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. A customer is seated at the soda counter. This circa 1920s real photo postcard is labeled on the reverse, "Fleishman's Cafe / Brroklyn Ave at Soto / Boyle Heights / Los Angeles" Brooklyn Ave – Delicatessens and Bakeries Canter’s Deli, 1931 Canter’s Deli Canter’s Fairfax Zellman’s Menswear (1921-1999) Brooklyn Ave to Avenida Cesar E. Chavez “La Brooklyn Av” Produced today by local business BHAB. Solomon’s Judaica and Hebrew Bookstore (1936) Chaya and Elimelech Solomon Solomon’s Judaica and Hebrew Bookstore (1936) The Anti-Nazi Parade November 1938 The Anti-Nazi Parade November 1938 Yiddish Repertory Company performing skits depicting Nazi violence. United Anti-Nazi Conference This is an example of the the racist and evil imagery that was used to vilify those who opposed Nazism in the city of Los Angeles; these being published in glossy Hollywood trade magazines, and even inserted into the Los Angeles Times by anti- semitic employees. This is an actual example of an anti- semitic leaflet handed out in front of movie theaters in Los Angeles and across the country, during the 1930s. My friend Don Hodes is 87 years old, he marched as a child in the Anti-Nazi Parade of November 22, 1938. His parents had come to the county as illegal immigrants through Canada, and settled in Boyle Heights. Troubled by the situation of the Jews trapped in Europe, they marched to demand the admittance of the refugees and were joined by their comrades of all the various nationalities of the community; some 15,000 marched for the admittance of Jewish refugees at this very spot, three years before the start of World War II. This march was the culmination of one of the first coalitions between Jews and Latinos in Boyle Heights; addressing racism and anti-immigrant sentiments that barred Jews from coming to the United States in the years leading up to the start of the Holocaust. Jewish Labor Committee The Vladdik Center St. Louis Street and 1st Street Jewish Labor Committee The Vladdik Center Jewish Garment Workers Latina Garment Workers International Ladies Garment Workers Union: Rose Pesotta Rose Pesotta, an immigrant Russian Jewish anarchists, organized the primarily Mexican immigrant garment workers, which led to the Los Angeles Garment Workers Strike of 1933 International Ladies Garment Workers Union: Rose Pesotta Leads the Strike of 1933 ILGWU: Spanish Speaking Branch 1935 Labor Day Parade Community Service Organization (CSO), today the Boyle Height City Hall. CSO (Community Service Organization) founded in 1947 In the the 1940s the Los Angeles Jewish community chest and various organizations related to Jewish progressives helped created the Community Service Organization (CSO); which they hoped would serve like a Mexican-American version of the NAACP. This mixed-raced coalitions would arise to address two major issues at that time, the lack of adequate housing and police brutality; both of which threatened the peace of the community and threatened to cause riots in our streets.