Name: Three Old Jewish Cemeteries of East Los Angeles
Start: 2023-03-26T12:00:00-07:00
End: 2023-03-26T15:00:00-07:00
Location: Beth Israel Cemetery

Three Old Jewish Cemeteries of East Los Angeles

Shmuel Gonzales,theBarrio Boychik, is a community organizer and local historian from Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles. As a Mexican American with roots in early Los Angeles and as a Jewish community leader in today’s eastside, it is his great pleasure to share with you the neglected stories of the diverse faith cultures of our great city.He is the founder of theBoyle Heights History Studios (& Tours)- a community cultural center which is funded entirely by donations in the form of tour ticket sales; enabling us to maintain the heritage of our neighborhood. He also is the founder of theBoyle Heights Chavurah- the grassroots Jewish fellowship of East Los Angeles.Shmuel is also a member of the Board of Directors for theBoyle Heights Historical Society. He is also the in-house community organizer for thePico Union Project, a community center located in the oldest remaining synagogue in Los Angeles. He is also a lay religious leader and the chair of the Jewish Ritual Committee forBeth Shalom of Whittier, serving the communities of Southeast Los Angeles. As well as volunteer my time for a multitude of projects related to the historical preservation of the working-class community of Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles.

Shmuel Gonzales, the Barrio Boychik

In this months cemetery tour we will be returning to East Los Angeles to explore three charming and lesser known Jewish burial sites.

Beth Israel Cemetery

Jewish History

Join us for one of our tours about the lovely and storied communities of old Jewish Los Angeles.

In this months cemetery tour series will be returning to East Los Angeles to explore three charming and lesser known Jewish burial sites on Downey Road located just behind Home of Peace Cemetery. These cemeteries are connected to old orthodox synagogues which once flourished near downtown Los Angeles at the start of the 20th century.We will be visiting the following burial grounds:Beth Israel Cemetery – Founded by one of the most celebrated of the early orthodox synagogues of downtown Los Angeles, which once attracted visitors from all over to see it’s majestic onion domes. Here we will discuss the establishment of Orthodox Jewish institutions in Los Angeles with a mass influx of Eastern European Jewish immigrants. We will also see how this site became a favorite burial site for Jewish civic leaders; as well as a celebrated burial site for artists, musicians, and Yiddishits literati. It remains as an active and well-kept religious site.Agudath Achim Cemetery - Founded by a congregation originally located in the historical South Central Los Angeles and which later relating to the West Adams District. This sacred burial site has become the resting place of several great orthodox Jewish rabbis and cantors; including the ohel of the Cleavlander Rebbe, making it the most important Chassidic pilgrimage site in Los Angeles. Also buried close by is a Cantor who is a direct descendant of the first Chabad-Lubavitcher Rebbe, whose family were the first Chassidic emissaries to serve Los Angeles starting emissaries in the 1880s. At this cemetery we will also get the thrilling chance to see an active genizah; a repository for ritual items and sacred books, for them to be kept and buried in respect.Mount Zion Cemetery - At this cemetery we will talk about how these cemeteries were founded on land borrowed from the Masonic cemetery association. We will discuss how these cemeteries were founded, and then disturbingly abandoned. We will here discuss how this lovely cemetery has be vandalized and smashed up, and how it is being restored through community efforts. We will discuss the future for honoring the Jewish heritage of great Los Angeles, which is often forgotten here outside of the official city limits in unincorporated East Los Angeles.These three old cemeteries are a wonder to behold. They even contain some of the most lovely tombstone portraits and artistic headstones to be found in any Jewish cemetery in Los Angeles; this site is absolutely picturesque.This is going to be not just a look at old Jewish cemeteries, we will be honoring the congregations who founded them and their members who ultimately came to rest here. All the while discussing these burial sites and the institutions which founded them, as a means of understanding dynamic immigrant Jewish experience of Los Angeles during the booming years at the start of the 20th-century.This will be especially interesting to those who have previously taken my &quot;Lost Cemeteries of Los Angeles&quot; or &quot;Home of Peace Cemetery&quot; walking-tours.We will be meeting at the front gates of <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/dir/&#x27;&#x27;/beth+israel+cemetery/@34.0206079,-118.2491757,12z/data=!4m8!4m7!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x80c2cf1360b3c5d3:0xfd550fcaa589a147!2m2!1d-118.1791356!2d34.0206278" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Beth Israel Cemetery</a> at 11:45 a.m., in order to start our tour promptly at 12-noon. This is a rain-or-shine event. Parking: There is plenty of street parking in their neighborhood.For public transit riders: You can take the MTA bus 18 east from downtown and exit at Downey Road and head south. You can also take the MTA bus 62 exiting and Olympic and Downey Road. For Metro rail, our location is also about a 1-mile away from the Maravilla Gold Line station, walking Third Street to Downey Road.Tickets are $25 + Eventbrite fees. Children 13 and under are free, please contact me to add them to my guest list. For current Boyle Heights residents, educators, and community activists, I will be offering a few spots on my guest list once again; please contact me at <a href="mailto:shmuel.gonzales@outlook.com" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">shmuel.gonzales@outlook.com</a>, as spaces are limited.We will be limiting this group to a maximum of 20 participants, and is expected to fill up quickly. So please sign up today!

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Three Old Jewish Cemeteries of East Los Angeles

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Three Old Jewish Cemeteries of East Los Angeles

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