Our History
A Timeline of Wilshire Boulevard Temple
1853
Solomon Carvalho, an artist with John C. Fremont’s exploratory expedition of the West, visits Los Angeles, encouraging local Jews to form a Hebrew Benevolent Society. In July, the Society incorporates; the following year, it receives land from the city to establish the first Jewish cemetery, located near present-day Dodger Stadium.
1862
Joseph Newmark, a lay rabbi, obtains a state charter and organizes Congregation B’nai B’rith, the first Jewish synagogue in Los Angeles.
1873
With 40 families, the congregation dedicates its first The Temple's second synogogue building,
building, which the Los Angeles Star describes as “the approximately 1928
most superior church edifice in Southern California.”
Temple president Isaias W. Hellman is a civic leader who helped Harrison Gray Otis buy the Los Angeles Times and helped build the trolley cars that joined Henry Huntington’s Pacific Electric Line.
1888
With Temple membership now doubled, elements of Reform Judaism are introduced. A national economic depression coupled with the end of a real estate boom affects the congregation. Nonetheless, construction begins in 1889 on a new building downtown at Ninth & Hope on a lot purchased several years earlier.
1896
Congregation B’nai B'rith’s new Sanctuary is dedicated before a capacity crowd of Jews and Christians. The congregation adopts a Reform prayer book.
1899
Typifying the new American Reform movement, Rabbi Sigmund Hecht assumes leadership, bringing stability and strong growth to B’nai B’rith. Rabbi Hecht is instrumental in organizing Jewish federated giving. The congregation subsequently fosters the growth of several Jewish charitable agencies.
1901
Congregation president Kaspare Cohn donates 30 acres of land in East Los Angeles to replace the cemetery established nearly 50 years earlier. Over the next eight years, remains and stones are transferred from Chavez Ravine to the new Home of Peace Memorial Park.
The Temple's current synagogue, approximately 1929 Rabbi Hecht organizes women’s and youth
programs and affiliates the congregation with the
Union of Hebrew Congregations.
1914
Rabbi Hecht hires recently ordained Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin to serve as his assistant. Rabbi Magnin joins Hecht in expanding the congregation’s local interfaith outreach and civic engagement in both national and international issues.
1922
B’nai B’rith breaks ground for its third synagogue at the northeast corner of Hobart and Wilshire Boulevards.
1925
Rabbi Maxwell H. Dubin joins the clergy at the Temple to direct the Religious School and adult programs.
1929
The new Temple is dedicated. Its richly ornamented interior features black marble, gold inlay, fine mosaics, rare woods and Biblically-themed murals created by artist Hugo Ballin, who was commissioned by Warner Bros. studio chief Jack Warner and his two surviving brothers. The Temple’s immense Byzantine dome soon becomes a landmark in Wilshire Center and throughout Los Angeles.
1937
On November 30, the official name of the Congregation is changed from Congregation B'nai B'rith to Wilshire Boulevard Temple.
1949
Rabbi Alfred Wolf joins the Temple.
1952
Under the leadership of Rabbi Wolf, the Temple develops Camp Hess Kramer in Malibu.
1968
Wilshire Boulevard Temple opens Gindling Hilltop Camp in Malibu.
1979
Rabbi Dubin dies, after 54 years at the Temple.
1981
Wilshire Boulevard Temple enters the National Register of Historic Places.
1982
Rabbi Harvey J. Fields comes to Wilshire Boulevard Temple.
1984
Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin dies, after 69 years at Wilshire Boulevard Temple. Rabbi Wolf succeeds him as senior
The Temple's current synagogue, approximately 1950 rabbi.
1985
Rabbi Emeritus Wolf retires from the Temple to become founding director of the Skirball Institute on American Values of the American Jewish Committee. He is succeeded as senior rabbi by Rabbi Fields. Rabbi Karen Fox joins the Temple in January as the congregation's first woman rabbi.
1987
Rabbi Steven Z. Leder comes to Wilshire Boulevard Temple.
1992
Wilshire Boulevard Temple dedicates the Steve Breuer Conference Center in Malibu.
1995
The Temple purchases property for the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Campus at Olympic Boulevard and Barrington Avenue.
1998
The Audrey and Sydney Irmas Campus opens in West Los Angeles. The Mann Family Early Childhood Center opens at the Irmas Campus.
1999
Brawerman Elementary School West opens at the Irmas Campus.
2009
The Erika J. Glazer Early Childhood Center opens at the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Campus
Temple Campus. The Rose Window and spicebox
chandeliers in the Sanctuary are removed for restoration.
2011
Brawerman Elementary School East opens. Full renovation begins on the historic building; the Magnin Sanctuary closes until the fall of 2013.
2013
The historic Temple Campus is renamed the Erika J. Glazer Family Campus of Wilshire Boulevard Temple. Read more here. Fully restored and renovated Magnin Sanctuary reopens for High Holy Days 2013, with the grand celebration of the official reopening on September 29, 2013.
2014
On July 20, the Temple breaks ground on a new structure along Sixth Street, to house the Karsh Social Service Center, parking for approximately 450 cars, and a rooftop sports complex for Brawerman students, the congregation, and the neighborhood. Renovation begins on the two existing school buildings--the historic de Toledo School Building (1929) and the 1962 building, to meet the educational needs of
The inside of the current Sanctuary our current and future children and families.
following its grand reopening in 2013
2015
The parking pavilion and renovated school buildings for the Early Childhood Center and Brawerman East open in the fall.
2016
The Karsh Family Social Service Center, furthering the Temple's longstanding commitment to Tikkun Olam and community service, (right) opened it's doors in April.