“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.

Mexican colony in Fickett Hollow (1950)

Industrial Areas Foundation: Saul Alinsky

Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, trained by CSO

Out of the CSO here in Boyle Heights would arise the first generation of Mexican-American civil rights leaders; Edward Royball, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. CSO expands to San Jose

Later CSO would expand into San Jose, and lay the groundwork for the creation of the United Farm Workers. The Roybal Coalition

Roybal Fights the Freeways

East LA Freeway Interchange: 10,000 homes demolished between 1946-1965, 17,000 people are displaced.

Many people were forced to move to relocate as five freeways pushed their way through Boyle Heights. This is one of the reasons many Jewish people leave the community.

The other is the end of legalized segregation in America; which also starts to unwind in these same years. As Jews became able to move to other places, most did.

The East LA Interchange

It’s where the 5, 10, 60 and 101 freeways all intersect. Today an estimated 2.4 million vehicles pass through every day. My own family was twice displaced to make way for these freeways, at this very spot.

Excerpts from Jewish Life Magazine, September 1955

Boyle Heights Today What are the challenges for this historical, immigrant, working-class community here in Boyle Heights today in the 21st century?

Our topic of justice, for today: Rising rents, displacement and homelessness.

Because the current housing crisis, the demand for housing is high. The rents are starting to rise drastically as more people are moving closer to downtown Los Angeles. Over 75% of the residents of this neighborhood are renters. For much of the history of the area, most residents have been renters. In this historic immigrant community, today over 59% of our residents are immigrants. People who have come here in hopes of a better life or fleeing violence in their home county. Here is Los Angles, many of these families are now struggling to survive and are at risk of homelessness.

Mariachi Plaza is a good example for the current struggle against displacement in Boyle Heights.

Crisis for the Mariachis and local residents began the new landlord near Mariachi Plaza tried to raise the rent between 60 to 80% for the tenants, which equates to rent increases ranging from $500 a month to $800; followed by eviction notices.

Many of those targeted for eviction have been our cherisheds Mariachi musicians.

Local residents began a rent strike and protest which got worldwide attention. After a prolonged struggle to get the new owner to negotiate, an agreement was secured in February.

Under the new agreement, the tenants have agreed to back-pay a portion of the rent withheld during the strike, and to pay a roughly 14 percent price increase moving forward. In return, they’ll get a new 42-month lease with yearly rent hikes capped at 5 percent. They’ll also be able to collectively bargain for new leases as a renters union. This is one several successful campaigns by local anti-displacement and anti- gentrification protesters, which has given a working model to and energized the grassroots movement. Cummings Block/ Boyle Hotel – Mariachi Hotel restored and turned into “Affordable Housing” and Mixed-use retail space by East Los Angeles Community Corporation

East LA Community Corporation was able to line up the $25 million in public and private subsidies to develop 51 units of affordable housing at the Boyle Hotel – Cummings Block and adjacent parcels. ELACC added a new 20-unit apartment building adjacent to the Boyle Hotel on the Cummings Block. This is a model for our community.

Today the Cummings Block - Mariachi Hotel is now the new location of Libros Schmibros, a free book lending library created by writer David Kipen. It is a meeting place for sharing Mexican and Jewish literature and culture.

The case for protecting neighborhoods like Boyle Heights is righteous and legitimate. Here is how we can help:

● Landmarking and protecting our cultural heritage and historical sites for future generations.

● Better protections and education regarding Rent Control.

● Demanding a moratorium on controversial Ellis-Act Evictions.

● Protection of our low-income housing stock; resisting privatization publicly owned city housing.

● Affordable Housing; demanding developers follow through in building these units.

● Helping local families become home owners.

● Raising a living wave; so a home can be affordable for all our families. Share these ideas with your leaders and friends in Los Angeles, to raise awareness so we can help make a difference for struggling families! Extra Sites:

Phillips Music Co.

Jewish Bakers Union, Community Co-op – Communist headquarters. The Paramount Ballroom

Jewish Peoples Fraternal Order of the International Workers Order (JPFO-IWO)

The JPFO-IWO was an influential communists organization. Eastside was a heaven of Jewish Leftism. The Red Scare, targeted Jews.

These are children from the Yiddish day school of the JPFO-IWO.

Norman Gantz “Jazz at the Philharmonic”

Normal Gantz’s “Jazz at the Philharmonic” was a mixed-race jazz concert, their first event being a fund- raiser for the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee. Sleepy Lagoon Trial, defended by Ben Margolis

Zoot Suiters and Pachucos

East Side Sound

Vex, early eastside punk venue

Eastside Punk: Qualls, The Brat, Los Illegals

Menorah Masons Lodge No. 623

Thank you!

Shmuel Gonzales The “Barrio Boychik” Blog http://barrioboychik.com

Email: [email protected]

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Mail: P.O. Box 33272, Los Angeles, CA 90033