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More to celebrate! Jewish American Heritage Month
May 2016
 Groundbreaking for Beth Jacob Congregation on 30th St in North Park, 1950. In the center with the shovel, Rabbi Monroe Levens from Tifereth Israel Synagogue. To the left facing us with glasses and no hat is Rabbi Baruch Stern of Beth Jacob Congregation. |
 Women from the Birdie Stodel Chapter of B'nai B'rith Women host the Jewish Welfare Board USO at Congregation Beth Israel 1940's or 50's.
Both photos above courtesy Jewish Historical Society of San Diego Archives |
By Presidential proclamation and Congressional resolution, May is Jewish American Heritage Month. The official website invites us to "celebrate Jewish Americans who have helped weave the fabric of American history, culture and society" for more than 350 years. Visit the site for events and programs nationwide and a resource for school and community leaders.
Here at home, we are grateful to SOHO members Laurel and Stan Schwartz for writing the following brief history of Jews in San Diego for eNews. They are historians and preservationists who helped save Temple Beth Israel at Third Avenue and Laurel Street from demolition. They lead the Jewish Historical Society of San Diego, which maintains a local Jewish community archives at San Diego State University.
Jewish life in San Diego started in what is called Old Town, near the San Diego River and just below the hill where the Spanish built the first California mission in 1769. The first Jew, Louis Rose, arrived at this remote frontier site in 1850, the same year the city received its charter. The first Jewish religious service was held here the following year. In this town of 800, there were, perhaps, 25 Jews until the 1860s. By then, most were very visible, considering their small number, both as businessmen and civic leaders. There was one woman at this time with her own cattle brand, Hannah Mannasse.
The first congregation, originally called Adat Yeshurun, and which later changed its name to Congregation Beth Israel, was founded in 1861, making it the oldest in Southern California. When, in the 1870s, the center of town moved southeast, to its permanent location on San Diego Bay, the Jewish population moved also. They set up stores and lived nearby. The first synagogues were built in this downtown area, including one of the oldest in the American West, Temple Beth Israel (1889). This building, which is owned and preserved by San Diego County, was moved to Heritage Park in 1978. Its correct name is Congregation Beth Israel and it is still used occasionally for Jewish worship services.
In 1926, the Reform congregation, Beth Israel, moved uptown to the west side of Balboa Park, and by the mid-20th century the Conservative and Orthodox congregations had moved uptown to the north and east sides of the park. The North Park neighborhood became the center of Jewish life with a kosher butcher, bakery, a Jewish Community Center and the homes and businesses of many Jewish families.
With the founding of the University of California San Diego in La Jolla in 1960, Jewish professors and their families from outside of San Diego began to move there. Prior to that, beginning in the 1940s, La Jolla residents had a restrictive covenant against Jews and other minorities in their property deeds - discrimination that was enforced by real estate agents. By the late 1970s, the community had migrated primarily to the east, near San Diego State University, to the South in Chula Vista, and a little to the north.
Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, the population is very spread out. Jews congregate throughout San Diego County, from the Mexican border to the northern boundary, the Marine Base at Camp Pendleton. As a matter of fact, Jews even congregate at Camp Pendleton and south of the border in Tijuana. There are now about 100,000 Jews in San Diego County and over 30 congregations, including the three original ones.* Today's residents can find congregations rich in all the flavors of Judaism, from Humanistic to Chabad.
*The first congregation, Beth Israel, constructed and moved to a Byzantine-style synagogue designed by William Wheeler in 1926. This building at Third Avenue and Laurel Street was threatened with demolition after the congregation moved to a large, new synagogue complex in University City. Preservationists, including the authors and SOHO, managed to save the 1926 building and have it declared eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. It was sold and restored as the new home of Ohr Shalom Synagogue. The second and third congregations are Tifereth Israel Synagogue, now in San Carlos, and Beth Jacob Congregation, now in the College Area.
By Laurel and Stan Schwartz, Jewish Historical Society of San Diego, a 501 (c) (3) Corporation with Archives at San Diego State University.
Jewish Historical Society of San Diego
(619) 232-5888
stanschwartz@cox.net
Archives in Conjunction with the Jewish Studies Program
Irving and Sylvia Snyder Reading Room
Love Library at San Diego State University
Website: jewishstudies.sdsu.edu/archives.htm
Searchable website: jhssandiego.pastperfect-online.com
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