History
Founded in 1862 as the first Jewish congregation in what was then a town of only 5,000 people, the synagogue that later became Wilshire Boulevard Temple has both significantly contributed to and been shaped by the tremendous growth and development of Los Angeles and its Jewish community.
In the pioneering spirit of the men and women who settled the West during the 19th century, Jews were instrumental in bringing railroads, banks, and water systems, as well as libraries, philanthropies, and institutions of higher learning to the fledgling city. They also brought their Jewish heritage and faith.
Joseph Newmark, a lay rabbi and member of one of the city’s founding Jewish families, organized and served as the first leader of Congregation B’nai Brith, the predecessor of Wilshire Boulevard Temple. Rabbi Abraham Wolf Edelman from San Francisco became the synagogue’s, and the city’s, first full-time Jewish clergyman.
Home of Many Jewish Leaders in L.A.
As the home to L.A.'s original Jewish community, the congregation's members have included many leaders of Los Angeles’s civic, entertainment, and business sectors. Often, they were drawn to the synagogue by its legendary spiritual leader of nearly seven decades: Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin.
It was Rabbi Magnin who urged the relocation to Wilshire Boulevard. He recognized that much of the city’s growing Jewish population was migrating west of downtown in the 1920s, and that the boulevard was becoming a center for the buildings of other faiths as well as commercial enterprises.
At the same time, he wanted a structure that would match the increasing stature of the synagogue and the Jewish community in Los Angeles. Assisting him in this effort were the Hollywood film industry’s Jewish “moguls,” to whom he ministered at weddings, funerals, and High Holy Day services. (Read more about the Rabbi Magnin and his Hollywood connections at the Rabbi to the Stars link.)
Designed to Spark Imagination and Spirituality
At the dedication in June of 1929, he remarked, “This is more than a work of art. . .This imposing edifice will stimulate the imagination and awaken the spiritual consciousness of the hundreds of thousands of people who will be privileged to enter its portals.”
Over the decades since then, the congregation has continued to serve and inspire the legions of congregants as well as the larger community. Beginning in the 1950s, Camp Hess Kramer, Gindling Hilltop Camp, and the Steve Breuer Conference Center in Malibu were developed to meet the needs of the community's youth. The Camps continue to this day, nestled among 200 acres overlooking the Pacific Ocean. In 1998, the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Campus in West Los Angeles, was dedicated to serve congregants who had moved to the city's west side.
Meanwhile, the Temple Campus continues to anchor the synagogue’s prominent place in the heart of the city, and is poised to serve a resurgent young Jewish population residing in the Hollywood Hills, Hancock Park, Loz Feliz, Silverlake and downtown Los Angeles. (See “About the Project” for details.)
A Golden Past Meets a Brilliant Future
The campaign to restore, revitalize, and expand Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s historic urban campus will ensure that the synagogue can continue to innovatively meet the evolving needs of the Jewish community, while reaching out to its increasingly diverse non-Jewish neighbors. “We will build the most vibrant center of Jewish life the city has ever known because we can and we must,” Rabbi Steven Leder told the congregation in his 2007 Yom Kippur address.
