Converted Synagogue in Boyle Heights

This photograph taken from the Los Angeles Times Photographs Collection features a 1984 image by Steve Fontanini. It depicts a synagogue converted into a Spanish-speaking Christian church on the corner of Second and Matthews Street in Boyle Heights. The church is called “Iglesia Christina.” As Boyle Heights passed from the hands of the Jews to the Latinos, the religious practices there changed as well.

From the 1920s to the 1940s, Boyle Heights was predominantly Jewish. Following World War I, there was a mass migration of Jews into the United States (Elliott 2). Boyle Heights became a haven for immigrants partly because of cost and partly out of force: Jews, Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and other groups were not allowed to live elsewhere in the city because of redlining (Elliott 4). The Jewish presence fostered a distinct, harmonic, multicultural community in Boyle Heights that was absent of racial tension and hate crimes (Elliott 4). The Jewish community established the Soto-Michigan Jewish Community Center, multiple synagogues, shops such as Canter’s Brothers Delicatessen, a predominant student body in Roosevelt High School, and camaraderie with other blue-collar workers from surrounding factories that eventually formed unions (Sanchez 12). Following World War II, there was a mass exodus of the Jewish people out of Boyle Heights, as segregation laws no longer targeted them. Consequently, the Jewish population heavily declined (Sanchez 12). In the 1950s, the established traditional Jewish community weakened as the demographics changed and Latinos settled into the neighborhood, and by the 1960s, it was virtually nonexistent (Sanchez 12).

The demographic history of Boyle Heights is reflected through the synagogue. Before becoming a Christian Church, “Iglesia Cristina” was a synagogue called “Beit Medrash Srere” (Gonzales). Founded in 1922, this synagogue was home to one of thirty Jewish congregations in Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles (Gonzales). This congregation was called Beis Hamedrash, or Srere Shul (Shul means synagogue in Yiddish). At the time, many Jewish congregations practiced in storefronts or small houses, like this synagogue, because they could not afford better (Gonzales). Although these synagogues didn’t have many means, they played a pivotal role in charities from the early times. Rabbi Emanuel Schreiber was involved from the inception of the Associated Charities of Los Angeles in 1888, and by 1912 local Jewish chapters charities federated. During the 1920s and 1930s, they provided charity and food to low-income residents in Boyle Heights. These charities were the pillar of the Social Services Bureau and provided up to 80,000 meals (Engh 16-17). “Beit Medrash Srere” and “Talmud Torah” were some of the many synagogues in Boyle Heights that played a role in education by offering training for graduate programs (Engh 18). The synagogues also promoted social reforms by fighting for workers’ rights and helping create the American Civil Liberties Union in Southern California. (Engh 21-22). However, with the depletion of Jewish people and conversion of synagogues into Catholic churches, Boyle Heights lost the political position in religion that its diversity once gave it.

This particular place of worship in the photograph did not stay a synagogue for long. It has undergone many changes over the years. As many different Christian groups have come and gone from Boyle Heights, they have tried to remove the Star of David from the facade (Gonzales). Fortunately, the remaining Jewish groups and city officials would not let them. However, many of the other [original] Jewish fixtures, including the gates which had the Jewish Star, have been removed (Gonzales). As of today, the gate has both crosses and Jewish stars representing both groups. One of the Christian groups which occupied this site was “Iglesia Cristiana Hebreos,” a Spanish-speaking Hebrew-Christian congregation and a form of Latino messianic church. They were respectful to the traditions of their church’s Jewish predecessors, and they maintained the original church’s exterior and interior. A lot of the cosmetic elements of the church remain intact, and this action shows how respectful the Latino community in this area is towards the previously dominant Jewish community (Gonzales). They were not only tolerant towards the Jews but accepting as Latinos eventually became the large majority themselves. Even though many regional and demographic changes occurred, the poor people in the area maintained their core values. The new Latino church was built upon donations from the community and family values, just as the synagogue had been.

Today, the low-income residents and migrants of Boyle Heights continue worshiping together by going to modest local churches like “Iglesia Christina.” Thus, “Iglesia Christina,” a Spanish-speaking church that was once a Jewish synagogue, serves as a reminder of Boyle Heights’ multicultural past.

Exterior of converted synagogue, Iglesia Cristiana church in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, 1984. Steve Fontanini, October 18, 1984, Image courtesy of UCLA Library Special Collections

Works cited

1. Elliott, Wendy. “The Jews of Boyle Heights, 1900-1950: The Melting Pot of Los Angeles.” Southern California Quarterly 78, no. 1 (1996): 1–10. https://doi.org/10.2307/41171791.
2. Engh, Michael E. “‘A Multiplicity and Diversity of Faiths’: Religion’s Impact on Los Angeles and the Urban West, 1890-1940 on JSTOR.” (1997): 463-492
3. Gonzales, Shmuel. “2nd And Mathews Synagogue in Boyle Heights: An Example of a Small Immigrant Congregation, Then and Now.” Barrio Boychik, 14 Apr. 2018, barrioboychik.com/2015/08/03/2nd-and-mathews-synagogue-in-boyle-heights-an-example-of-a-small-immigrant-congregation-then-and-now/.
4. Sánchez, George J. “‘What’s Good for Boyle Heights Is Good for the Jews’: Creating Multiracialism on the Eastside during the 1950s.” American Quarterly 56, no. 3 (2004): 633–61.

Cite this article

Liam Fink, Chloe Florit, Jimmy Gausin. "Converted Synagogue in Boyle Heights." Los Angeles: The City and the Library. Colleen Jauretche, Editor. Fall 2020. /article/2020-12-10-f20-lecture10-03