Photo Essay: Hollywood's First Jewish Temple, Restored

[Last updated 9/11/21 1:04 PM PT]

You can't really talk about the history of Hollywood without considering Judaism.



And it would be tough to consider the Jewish history of LA without including Hollywood.



The two come together in beautiful ways at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple...



...in what was once the western boundary of the City of Los Angeles...



...with nothing but bean fields between it and Beverly Hills and Santa Monica...



...but what is now smack dab in the middle of Koreatown...



...without a lot of Jews nearby.



Still, Wilshire Temple is the house that Hollywood built...



...under the leadership of architect Abram M. Edelman (also responsible for the Breed Street Shul and Shrine Auditorium)...



...but with contributions and donations from all the major film impresarios of the 1920s...



...including Jewish history murals (starting with Genesis) painted by art director and production designer Hugo Ballin (also muralist for Griffith Observatory), courtesy of the Warner Brothers.



Phase One of the temple's restoration, led by Brenda Levin of Levin & Associates Architects, was completed last year...



...which included seismic, cosmetic, and mechanical alterations (including lots of cleaning, upgrading the air conditioning, adding lighting and speakers, etc.).



It is the oldest synagogue in the LA area, the third home of the Congregation B’nai B’rith (founded in 1862)...



...and was officially closed for two years in 2011 after pieces of plaster literally had started falling down from the sanctuary ceiling.



It is Byzantine and Moorish in design...



...and feels very much like a theater, as was the wish of Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin, who chose the new location to be on Wilshire, "The Fifth Avenue of the West," and whose Hollywood friends earned him the title "Rabbi to the Stars."



As you walk upstairs from the Wilshire Boulevard front lobby...



...past the art glass windows in the stairwell...



...under one of the many shadow-casting ornate lighting fixtures...



...you get even closer to the sanctuary's 100 foot octagonal domed ceiling, fully restored, with its oculus lit in a midnight blue...



...and inscribed with the Shema Yisrael, a Jewish prayer from the Torah expressing monotheism – all a gift from Hollywood tycoon Irving Thalberg of MGM, rising high above gifts from the Warners, Sid Grauman, Louis B. Mayer, Carl Laemmle, and all his other contemporaries.



You also get closer to the stained glass windows...



...including the rose window depicting the twelve tribes of Israel, all of which were lovingly restored by LA's own Judson Studios.



But at one point, the sanctuary was in such bad shape, and Wilshire Temple had opened another campus on LA's West Side, there was a question whether there was even a place for a Jewish temple on LA's eastside, and whether the Koreatown location could be – or should be – saved. Fortunately, a master plan was approved, grants were received, and support poured in to restore not only the domed sanctuary, but the entire Wilshire Boulevard campus, inside and out. Handicap accessibility was added, resulting in a new side entrance through a courtyard off the parking lot.


Photo: Levin & Associates Architects

Inside, scaffolding was built to create a platform high enough to clean and paint the coffers in the ceiling. Elsewhere, too, paint was restored to its original color whenever possible, though much of what you see is actually a combination of several different colors of paint, and, in some cases, sprayed with gold on top. The carved walnut wood has been cleaned and restored (with the addition of a new apron at the end of the altar/stage area). The seats have been reupholstered. Flood lights have been replaced with LEDs and less blinding stage lights hidden high off to the side. The Kimball pipe organ was completely refurbished, the pipes and console cleaned and restored.

Since the sanctuary's acoustics are better for music than for talking, the Temple has welcomed a few musical performances and plans a calendar of many more in the future, as well as other secular and non-sectarian cultural events to attract the local community – Jews and non-Jews alike.

This is a real success story in preservation, and one that's not finished yet. For the second phase, they are building a large parking structure behind the temple, and are instituting more community outreach which includes a school, a food pantry, and social services (including medical, vision, and mental health care).

Update 9/11/21: The addition of the Audrey Irmas Pavilion has been completed, located east of the main temple building along Wilshire Boulevard.

Download the LA Conservancy's brochure on the restoration here.
More great photos of the restoration from Curbed here.

Watch the video that shows the pre-restoration condition of the temple here:


Related Post:
Photo Essay: Breed Street Shul, Unsafe for Entry