History of the Jews in Los Angeles

History of the Jews in Los Angeles — the history of Judaism and the Jews in Los Angeles, Southern California.

As of 1989 Los Angeles had the second highest population of Soviet Jews in the United States; New York City had the highest population.

In 1841 Jacob Frankfort arrived in the Mexican Pueblo de Los Ángeles in Alta California. He was the city's first Jew. When California was admitted to the Union in 1850, The U.S. Census recorded that there were eight Jews living in Los Angeles.

Morris L. Goodman was the first Jewish Councilman in 1850 when the Pueblo de Los Ángeles Ayuntamento became the Los Angeles City Council with US statehood. Solomon Lazard, a Los Angeles merchant, served on the Los Angeles City Council in 1853, and also headed the first Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.

Joseph Newmark, a lay rabbi, began conducting the first informal Sabbath services in Los Angeles in 1854.

In 1854 Joseph Newmark arrived in of Los Angeles and helped found the Hebrew Benevolent Society for the evolving Jewish community, after organizing congregations in New York and St. Louis. The first organized Jewish community effort in Los Angeles was their acquiring a cemetery site from the city in 1855. The Hebrew Benevolent Society Cemetery was located at Lookout Drive and Lilac Terrace, in Chavez Ravine, central Los Angeles. Present day historical marker for the "First Jewish site in Los Angeles" is located south of Dodger Stadium, behind the police academy, in the Elysian Park area. In 1910 the bodies were moved to the Home of Peace Cemetery in East Los Angeles.

The oldest congregation in Los Angeles started in 1862, a Reform denomination, it is the present day Wilshire Boulevard Temple congregation.

In 1865 Louis Lewin and Charles Jacoby organized the Pioneer Lot Association which developed an eastern Los Angeles area, later known as Boyle Heights.

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