Page 156 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Early days in Los Angeles

railroad men and bankers, yet he received contributions from the
same people as campaign funds. The crisis did not last long, but
when it happened it was severe and money and jobs were scarce.
Scrip was issued by the city administration to pay the unemployed
and wages were very low. Los Angeles had no manufacturing to
speak of; it was really an agricultural community. A few projects had
just begun to develop, like the aqueduct and Griffith Park.
Griffith Park was built as a municipal job; that is, the city hired the
workers and the city engineer was the boss. To get work on this job,
one had to have pull through some city official, because there were
more men looking for jobs than the work needed. Naturally, the men
who got hired first were the natives, so my brother had to have some
pull to get a job there, and it had to be through some high official
who was a Jew. There was in Los Angeles a small Jewish community,
located in a few neighborhoods like Temple Street, East First Street,
and Central Avenue. The wealthy and prominent Jews were scattered
on the west side, which was the high-class people’s quarter. Those
rich Jews had their temple, Congregation B’nai B’rith, on Ninth
Street near Grand, built in the second half of the nineteenth century.
It was the center of their cultural and charitable work.
The first rabbi at this temple was named Edelman, not a very
highly-educated Jew, because we have nothing left by him of any
significance of his activities or cultural influence, but his son, a
doctor, later became president of the temple. The current rabbi,
whose name was Hecht, was not interested in Jewish affairs as we
think of them today. He was as cold in his feelings toward Jewish
culture and national aspirations as in his manner and appearance.
Ceremony, kaddish, and charity: that was all the rabbi could give us.
Dr. Edelman, being president of a temple and treating Gentile
patients, was respected by the Gentiles. They gave him a share in the
city administration and made him one of the police commissioners.
He also got a share of the spoils, which he used for a beneficial
purpose. As I said before, the removal office in New York diverted
some Jews to the Pacific coast, and they fell on the local charitable
organizations for help. So the doctor helped the easterners—or,
rather, double easterners, from Eastern Europe and the east coast of
this country—to get work on the Griffith Park project.
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