The 1900′s

1900
Railroad builder Herman Silver, onetime president of the Los Angeles City Council, ran and lost as the Republican candidate for mayor.
1900-1926
There was no distinct Jewish Neighborhood. 2500 Jews lived “downtown” which in 1910 was described as Temple Street (the main Jewish Street) and area to its south. In 1920, this was described to include Central Avenue. Smaller groups lived in the University, Westlake and wholesale areas. Except for University, these areas steadily declined between 1900 and 1926.
1901
Ahabath Zion, the first Zionist organization in Los Angeles, was formed.
1902
The Kaspare Cohn Hospital (1902-1910), which later became Cedars of Lebanon, and eventually Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, was established. From 1902-1905 it treated tuberculosis sufferers from Eastern sweatshops, until rich neighbors forced them to stop treating TB patients.
1904
Mordecai Zeitoun, the first Sephardic Jew to arrive in 20th century Los Angeles, was a veteran of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 and a native of Algeria.
Russian Molokans, a Christian sect of dissenters to Russian Orthodox Church, flee Russia due to persecution by Tzarist government and mandatory conscription during Russo-Japanese War. Almost all of the Molokans who immigrate to United States settle in Los Angeles, primarily in “the flats” of Boyle Heights.
1906
After San Francisco Earthquake devastates city, many Japanese Americans migrate south to Los Angeles, increasing local Japanese American population. The center of commercial and social life is Little Tokyo. By 1920s, Japanese Americans begin moving along First Street into Boyle Heights.
1908
The Jewish Orphans’ Home of Southern California was incorporated by the B’nai B’rith. A new building opened in Huntington Park in 1912.
Asher Hamburger and his sons build the Hamburger Building at 9th and Broadway, which became the city’s largest department store.
Los Angeles City Council establishes nation’s first zoning law protecting Westside communities from industrial development. Boyle Heights remains open to industrial development, which by the 1950s occupies approximately 1/4 of the area.
1908-1912
Construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct enabled the city to expand.
1909
Workman’s Circle/Arbeiter Ring, a Yiddish cultural and political organization establishes its Los Angeles headquarters—the Vladeck Center—in Boyle Heights. This becomes an important meeting hall for Jewish labor unionists and activists concentrated in Boyle Heights.
1909-1933
Beginning in this year and continuing until 1933, as part of the City Beautiful Movement, a series of 12 monumental bridges were designed and built to cross the Los Angeles River. Six connect Boyle Heights to downtown Los Angeles.
Organized 1906; 1909-1925
Sinai Temple was organized in 1906. It was the first Conservative congregation in Los Angeles and the first Conservative synagogue built west of Chicago. Since 1925 it has been the Welsh Presbyterian Church. There are still huge Stars of David in the windows and above the interior ceiling chandelier.

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Timeline of Jewish History in Los Angeles

The 1910′s »