SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA JEWISH REFERENCE



JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

The Jewish Historical Society of Southern California was founded in 1952 and has spent its history preserving and interpreting the Jewish experience in Southern California. The Society works to preserve written, spoken, and photographic records. It also publishes a popular journal entitled Legacy and holds public meetings on aspects of Jewish history in Southern California. In addition to all of this, the society mounts exhibits and works to preserve historic landmarks.

Aside from preservation, the Jewish Historical Society seeks to create awareness of local Jewish history while also reaching out to the larger community. The society hosts tours of Jewish historical sites around Los Angeles, assists in the production and research of film series, lectures, exhibits, publications, oral histories, and maintains a community records archive.

The current project of the society is the rehabilitation of the Breed Street Shul in the Boyle Heights neighborhood in east LA.

JEWISH COMMUNITY LIBRARY

The Jewish Community Library has been open for over fifty years to meet the information and literary demands of the Jewish community. They also plan programs and events to promote family participation in Jewish education and continuity. In addition, the library offers full reference services to the general community.

Their impressive 25,000 volume library includes literature, children’s literature, educational materials, and difficult to find volumes of rabbinic texts. Their video collection boasts the entire Jewish Heritage Video Collection and they have a section of Judaic software.

JEWISH GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles is an organization for Jewish genealogy education. It is dedicated to the sharing of genealogical information, techniques, and research tools with those interested in tracing their family’s or even their culture’s roots.

Meetings are held once a month and provide a varied mix of lectures, workshops, and films to assist their members with family history research. The Society also owns a growing collection of several hundred reference books, journals, CDs, and maps to assist members in their research.