Jewish Museum of the American West

Coming soon from Jonathan L. Friedmann, JMAW Director, and John F. Guest, Western States Jewish History Association Vice President: SONGS OF SONDERLING: COMMISSIONING JEWISH ÉMIGRÉ COMPOSERS IN LOS ANGELES (Texas Tech University Press) Songs of Sonderling is the story of Jacob Sonderling’s unique contributions to Jewish liturgical music. Rabbi Sonderling was many things: a descendant of Chassidic rebbes, a rationalist, a Reform rabbi, a Zionist, an army chaplain, a celebrated... orator, an artistic soul. From his early career at the Hamburg Temple and German Army service in World War I, to his wandering years in the Eastern United States and founding of the Society for Jewish CultureFairfax Temple in Los Angeles, Sonderling cultivated a unique aesthetic vision of Judaism, a five-sense appeal. Jonathan L. Friedmann and John F. Guest document and analyze Sonderling’s experience and expression of Judaism through music. Rabbi Sonderling’s vision yielded liturgical commissions from exiled Viennese Jewish composers who arrived in Los Angeles in the 1930s and 40s. Through these musical settings, activities at the Fairfax Temple, and involvement with the Los Angeles campus of the Hebrew Union CollegeJewish Institute of Religion, Sonderling made an indelible mark on the city’s Jewish community and the wider musical world, both Jewish and non-Jewish. Songs of Sonderling focuses on the commissions Sonderling made from 1938 to 1945: Ernst Toch’s Cantata of the Bitter Herbs, Arnold Schoenberg’s Kol Nidre, Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s A Passover Psalm and Prayer, and Eric Zeisl’s Requiem Ebraico. Through musical analyses and an examination of Sonderling’s career in Los Angeles, Friedmann and Guest contribute to the study of Jewish liturgical music, Jewish history in the American West, Jewish identity in the 20th century, and the Jewish diaspora writ large.

JEWISH GOLD COUNTRY, a new book by JMAW Director Jonathan L. Friedmann, is reviewed in J. - The Jewish News of Northern California. Check it out!

Visit the latest at the Jewish Museum of the American West: "THE JEWISH CEMETERY AT CHAVEZ RAVINE, 1855-1902: PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE OSCAR WILLENBERG COLLECTION" The Hebrew Benevolent Society of Los Angeles was formed in 1854 as the city’s first chartered charitable organization. A year later, the society established a Jewish cemetery at Lilac Terrace and Lookout Drive in Chavez Ravine, just south of today’s Dodger Stadium, which opened in 1962. It was the city’s first Jewish site and the first Jewish cemetery in Southern California. Oscar Willenberg, a non-Jewish native of Germany, became superintendent of the Jewish cemetery in 1891.

Visit out our latest exhibit: "THE JEWISH AERONAUTICAL ASSOCIATION, LOS ANGELES, 1933-1941" The formation of the Jewish Aeronautical Association began with an incident in 1933. Leonard Shluker, a Canadian-born flying enthusiast, was volunteering as an aircraft mechanic when another mechanic remarked that, in his opinion, a Jew could not fly an airplane. Inspired to prove the naysayer wrong, Shluker contacted a few friends to form a Jewish flying club.

Check out the latest exhibit at the Jewish Museum of the American West: "EDWARD W. KINNEY: THE FIRST TO CONVERT TO JUDAISM IN LOS ANGELES, 1889" On May 25, 1889..., Annie Cohn married non-Jew Edward W. Kinney. After the civil ceremony, Edward visited Annie’s father Leopold B. Cohn, a wealthy pawnbroker. Leopold was heartbroken over the escapade, and a stormy scene ensued. Peace was restored when, eight days later, Edward became the first person to convert to Judaism in Los Angeles. See more

Visit the latest exhibit at the Jewish Museum of the American West: "CHAIM SHAPIRO: JEWISH SOCIALIST, LABOR ZIONIST, AND CANDIDATE FOR CALIFORNIA LIEUTENANT GOV...ERNOR AND LOS ANGELES MAYOR" The 1930 California gubernatorial race included candidates from the Socialist Party. Upton Sinclair, the renowned muckraker and novelist best known for 'The Jungle' (1906), ran for governor, and Chaim Shapiro ran for lieutenant governor. A campaign leaflet described the candidates as: "Not politicians, but social engineers, understanding the needs of humanity. Devoting their lives to the cause of Socialism has made them better men. When voting for them you are not only voting for real men but also for the principles for which they stand."

TTU Press is proud to announce a new journal! Submissions can be directed to Jonathan L. Friedmann at [email protected]

Check out the latest exhibit at the Jewish Museum of the American West: "Abraham Lincoln and Diogenes: Painting by Solomon Nunes Carvalho, Sephardic Pioneer of ...Los Angeles." Artist and photographer Solomon Nunes Carvalho arrived in Los Angeles in 1854 and helped establish the Hebrew Benevolent Society (today's Jewish Family Service) -- the city’s first chartered non-profit charitable organization. While in Los Angeles, Carvalho painted portraits of Pío Pico, the last governor of Alta California under Mexican rule, and several prominent pioneers. Unfortunately, these paintings have been lost. Abraham Lincoln and Diogenes, c. 1865, is Carvalho’s best-known work, and the only known portrait of Lincoln by a contemporary Jewish artist.

Check out the latest exhibit at the Jewish Museum of the American West: "Installation Service of Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin, Temple Israel of Stockton, 1914" Before ...coming to Los Angeles, serving at Wilshire Boulevard Temple for 69 years, and becoming "Rabbi to the Stars," a young Edgar Magnin served briefly as rabbi of Temple Israel in Stockton, California. JMAW has obtained a copy of the Installation Service program. See more

Now available: JEWISH GOLD COUNTRY Order your copy today. Helps pass the quarantine time!

JMAW director Jonathan Friedmann's forthcoming book, JEWISH GOLD COUNTRY (release date: March 23), is reviewed in San Diego Jewish World.

The Jewish Museum of the American West recently acquired a Brownstein-Louis Company catalog from 1918, which includes 166 pages of photographs, listings, wholesale prices, detailed descriptions, and order forms (regular and rush). Learn more at our latest exhibit: THE BROWNSTEIN-LOUIS COMPANY CATALOG OF 1918: MEN'S FURNISHING GOODS IN LOS ANGELES

JMAW director Jonathan Friedmann is interviewed in today's Calaveras Enterprise about his forthcoming book, JEWISH GOLD COUNTRY. Check it out!