More LA Jews?
A New Scroll of LA Jewish News
Folks,
It’s time again to sound the tool of Elul. Beginning with the first day of the Hebrew month of Elul on Sunday (8/28), we sound the shofar every morning to prepare us for the High Holy Days. Turns out there’s a whole lot of bang in a single tekiah. Hearing the shofar's piercing sound every morning reminds us to start thinking about all those things we put off, like repentance, spiritual repair of our souls, and just saying “I’m sorry.” In our household, Brenda, pictured above, often practices in the morning, so I’m covered. But for those readers not connected to a person or community where you can hear the shofar every morning, I have included a SHOFAR LINK to Brenda’s morning blasts.
Dear readers, another link that I hope you consider clicking is the SUBCRIBE button below. A New Year is coming, and MegilLA can only survive through your continued financial support.
Shabbat shalom
Edmon J. Rodman
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GUIDE FOR THE JEWPLEXED
If Jewish LA is growing,
why the sucking sound?
Edmon J. Rodman
Amidst the sucking sound of several long-time Los Angeles Jewish institutions closing, comes the cheering news, via the 2021 Study of Jewish LA, that our city’s Jewish population is actually growing.
The new study by the universities of Brandeis and Chicago, based on 3700 responses found that the number of LA Jews has increased nine percent over the 1997 survey to 564,000. However, the recent closure of Los Angeles Hebrew High School, the Institute of Jewish Education & Early Childhood Center School, Beverlywood Bakery, the demolition of the building that once housed Congregation Beth Israel, the merging of University Synagogue with Wilshire Boulevard Temple, as well the announced sale of the American Jewish University Campus, would indicate a community that is shrinking.
Looking beyond the mass numbers for an explanation for all the closures, the study provides several likely suspects, by examining what we believe and how we identify as Jews.
Initially, I looked at the rate of intermarriage, but the rate of in-marriage has remained almost the same since 1997 at 70 percent. So, the reasons for the emptying out had to lie elsewhere.
Most telling, the study found that around 50 percent of Jewish Angelenos identity with no Jewish denomination and either as secular/cultural Jews or as “just Jewish.” In the rest of the U.S. that number is 32 percent. If you were “just Jewish,” why would you need Jewish infrastructure?
Also, in answer to the question “what is essential and important about being Jewish, 68 percent responded “an ethical and moral life,” with only 29 percent answering that “spiritual life and belief” was important. Again, if a spiritual life has no call for you, why would you need a place to help you sort out what you are hearing?
As to Jewish schools closing, the overall number of Jewish children at 101,800 is comparable to the ’97 results. But the number of households with Jews 18 and over who have never married has increased roughly from 21 to 29 percent. Fewer households with kids mean fewer couples have a critical reason to join synagogue.
In hard financial times, could the sucking be caused by a cutting off of financial support?
Financially, 81 percent describe themselves as having enough or extra money, or just well-off (18 percent are just managing to make ends meet), so you would think that the community has a large enough income base to support all the Jewish institutions that a Jewish community might require. (LA’s Jewish Community Foundation has assets of $1.6 billion.)
Yet there is some light in the study’s findings as well. Since “Connecting to family and traditions” does remain important to 61 percent of those surveyed, it seems the results are telling us to invest or increase our investment in institutions like chavurot, Jewish centers, or monthly Jewish community sponsored family days.
If anything, the study is telling us we need to support communal settings like these that help families make new Jewish connections and have the potential to move others beyond feeling "just Jewish."
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How many Israelis live in LA?
Pini Herman
As last principal investigator for the 1997 Los Angeles Jewish population survey, I was more than delighted with the release of the new 2021 survey of Jewish LA. It’s been decades since the last survey, and I was quite curious as to how the community has changed.
First off, it was surprising, considering the recent contraction of the city’s Jewish infrastructure, to find that the new study reported an increase in the community: Up 40,000 Jews from 519,000 that we estimated in 1996 to an estimated 560,000 Jews living in the LA Jewish Federation catchment area.
Those totals are large numbers which take a lot of work to get to, and it’s difficult to say or even argue how accurate they are. For me, it’s easier to look at some numbers that I’ve been working on for at least 40 years here in Los Angeles: the numbers of Israelis that live among us.
In 1982, I co-authored a Master’s thesis with David La Fontaine which argued that there were 13,000 Israeli–born persons in Los Angeles. At that time, estimates of 100,000 to 200,000 Israelis living in Los Angeles were widely believed and buttressed by declarations of both the Israeli Consulate and Hebrew language newspapers published in Los Angeles.
In line with my earlier findings, in 1997 the Los Angeles Jewish Population Survey found that there were an estimated 16,800 Israeli born Jews residing in Los Angeles. This was again met by disbelief by the same entities and some new ones, such as the Israeli American Council.
So, what did the 2021 survey of Jewish LA find regarding Israelis (drumroll, please)? The estimate of Jewish Israeli born persons was a whopping 16,500. Among these are our doctors, surgeons, home renovation specialists, and those working in hi-tech and teaching. They often stand out in committee work and volunteerism in our Jewish institutions. Though small in numbers, Israelis are mighty in local Jewish affairs.
How is it that in 40 years since 1982 we have an essentially stagnant Israeli population? It seems that unlike most Jews over 30 years of age in this community who age in place, as evidenced by the bulging numbers of Jewish baby boomers, significant numbers of Israelis live in Los Angeles for a while and often move back to Israel.
New Israelis have come to replace some of the ones who have left, and others have come and slowly increased the Israeli born population of Los Angeles by 3500 in the past 40 years.
Putting the relative size of LA’s Israeli population in perspective, the City of Los Angeles has around 26,950 blocks. If all the Jews in the Jewish federation area lived in the city of Los Angeles, perhaps in an imaginary roomy neighborhood, it would be an estimated 7000 blocks and Israelis would be around 200 blocks of that.
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Pastrami on rye to the sky
JoeInSouthernCA CC BY-ND 2.0
Langer’s Deli has made it onto Tasting Table’s list of Best Deli’s in the U.S. “This is not a deli that rests on its laurels,” said the Tasting Table website about the Westlake deli.
Famous for its pastrami on rye, Langer’s was opened in 1947 by Al Langer, a son of Russian immigrants, and is now run by Al’s son, Norm.
Amongst the deli's fans and loyal customers is late writer and Hollywood director Nora Ephron, who declared her love of Langer's pastrami sandwich in a letter to the New Yorker: "It's soft but crispy, tender but chewy, peppery but sour, smoky but tangy. It's a symphony orchestra, different instruments brought together to play one perfect chord.”
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Torah on the streets of LA
In this week’s portion Ki Tetzei, “when you take,” we are introduced to some of the out of the ordinary things we can do to perform a mitzvah. We can build a parapet around the roof of our home, so “that you do not bring bloodguilt on your home if anyone should fall from it.” Also, if along a road you find a bird’s nest in a tree or on the ground with fledglings or eggs, “and the mother sitting over the fledglings or the eggs, “do not take the mother together with her young.” As an act of compassion, and “to have a long life,” we are to let the mother go. Pertaining more to our daily existence is a section to be praised by anyone who has ever lost something. Introducing the issue of what our obligation is with objects that are lost and found, we find a discussion of what to do when we see an ox or sheep go astray. “You shall give it back to him,” says the Torah, and the same when someone loses a garment, or “anything that your fellow loses and you find.” In these circumstances, just to be clear, the Torah insists “you must not remain indifferent.” This mitzvah is of such importance that there is an entire area of Jewish law called Hashavas aveidah, returning lost objects, devoted to it. In Los Angeles, acting on the principle of returning that which is lost to its owner is the Metro Lost & Found, located in a cinder block building across from the Gold Line Heritage Square Station, 3571 Pasadena Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90031. “Though not all lost items are recovered,” says Metro’s website, “Metro’s Lost and Found service is there to increase your chances of being reunited with your belongings.” The collection of belongings that we lose riding the trains is impressive, including skate boards, surfboards, walkers, crutches and wheel chairs. Some of the more unique items returned to the Lost and Found include a prosthetic leg, a prosthetic finger, and dentures. Reminding riders “to make sure you take your belongings with you when you exit a bus or train,” the text hits on why the Torah makes such a big deal about this. “We’re all human,” it says, and it’s good to know that the Lost & Found is “there if you need it.”
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Seen on the Way: East of Downtown
The new Sixth Street Viaduct, also known as the Sixth Street Bridge, connects more than the Arts District to Boyle Heights. It stands as a link to LA’s Jewish history. The original bridge, constructed in 1932, served as a thoroughfare for Boyle Heights’ Jewish population to travel to their businesses and jobs in downtown, as well as a way on a Saturday night to get to the city’s shopping and entertainment district on South Broadway. The east end of the Sixth Street Bridge near Soto St, was also just a short drive from the Soto-Michigan Jewish Community Center which opened in 1934. Designed by Raphael Soriano, a Sephardic immigrant from Rhodes and graduate of the USC School of Architecture, the center was one of the hubs of Jewish culture and recreation in Boyle Heights.
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