City to Buy Synagogue for Historical Society

Ending years of uncertainty over the future of the deteriorated Breed Street Shul in Boyle Heights, the Los Angeles City Council agreed Tuesday to acquire the synagogue--featured in the original and the remake of “The Jazz Singer”--and turn it over to the Jewish Historical Society for a museum and community meeting room.

That move came over the objections of the now-defunct congregation, whose lawyer said the building should be destroyed and the property sold.

The 75-year-old synagogue, once at the center of the Jewish community in Los Angeles, has virtually no members left. The sparkling crystal chandeliers and the velvet-encased Torah have long been gone, furniture has been used for fires, graffiti mar a mural of the Ten Commandments and prayer books lie on the floor soiled by urine and bird droppings.

The city two years ago erected fences around the earthquake-damaged building and declared it a public nuisance.

On Tuesday, lawmakers moved toward preserving the building, a proposal that struck an emotional chord with several council members. Councilman Hal Bernson became a bar mitzvah there; Jackie Goldberg’s aunt, uncle and cousins were members of the congregation, and her aunt still holds the synagogue’s checkbook; and Mike Feuer’s mother grew up a few blocks away.

Even as late as the 1970s, when the congregation couldn’t gather a minyan of 10 men to pray, Jewish members of the city attorney’s office would drive over to make up the deficit.

Proponents say the council action will help reverse that decay.

“This makes a tremendous difference,” Goldberg said. “It will be a part of the history of Los Angeles forever.”

But Steven Stone, an Encino attorney representing the now-defunct Congregation Talmud Torah, says the building should be torn down and the property sold with proceeds going to charity. He said he also doubts whether the historical society will be able to raise enough money for the restoration.

“There was a lot of personal history to it,” Stone said, referring to the council action. “But there’s another voice that says in the interest of common sense you’re attempting to spend millions of dollars for something that might never happen.”

Still, Steve Sass, head of the Jewish Historical Society, said that although the renovation will be costly, private donations will cover the restoration of the synagogue.

“This has been a pattern of demolition by neglect,” Sass said. “It’s definitely a daunting task but we’re excited about the support we have.”

The Los Angeles Conservancy also is supporting the synagogue restoration, applying for a $45-million FEMA grant to meet earthquake codes and standards.

Although the city has spent $95,000 to secure it and protect it from recent rains, Councilman Richard Alatorre said the synagogue restoration will not be funded by the city. Nonetheless, Alatorre, whose predominantly Latino district includes the synagogue, said its preservation is important to the city, standing as a symbol of the different communities that constitute Los Angeles.

At one time, from about the 1920s to the 1950s, Boyle Heights was what Sass called “the lower East Side of Los Angeles.” Cesar Chavez Avenue was known as Brooklyn Avenue. Kosher food shops were plentiful. Between 75,000 and 90,000 Jews lived in the area, the largest Jewish population west of Chicago.

By maintaining the synagogue, supporters say it will help the community as well as serve as a monument to a different time in the city’s history.

“It will be a witness to the past but important for the future,” Sass said.