The Classical Period: 1930s-1960s
The development of Beverly-Fairfax as Los Angeles's prime Jewish neighborhood was nothing if not a gradual process. Beverly-Fairfax neighborhood became a residential destination for Jews during the 1930s and gradually emerged as the city’s prime Jewish area during the 1940s and 1950s.With its newly constructed houses, duplexes, and apartments, Fairfax attracted Jews from Boyle Heights who sought to relocate west of downtown. A move to the Fairfax neighborhoods tended to represent a modest though nevertheless meaningful expression of upward mobility in an overwhelmingly Jewish setting. Here, they built an identifiable ethnic community—for the religious and secular, the Yiddish and English speaking, the middle class and the lower middle class, and the foreign and native born—commonly referred to as Los Angeles’ “Borscht Belt” and “kosher canyon.” Describing this area, sociologist Fred Massarik in 1959 noted, “American urban values, a cosmopolitan orientation, and Jewish tradition give rise to a new form of social and economic neighborhood organization that is complex but novel non-ghetto blend.”
If the dual allure of ethnic distinctiveness and middle class aspiration brought Jews en masse to the area, Fairfax was never quite an area marked by affluence but a home for the barely middle class. In comparison to most of other neighborhoods where Jews settled during the postwar era, the Jews of Fairfax were likely to have lower rates of homeownership, a relatively high percentage of Jews working in the clerical and sales fields, and a slightly lower-than average median household income. While no more than 20% of the Jews in Los Angeles lived in Beverly-Fairfax through the 1950s, the area boasted the highest concentration of Jewish residents throughout Los Angeles and a plethora of (public and religious) schools, synagogues, social clubs and storefronts that catered primarily to Jews.
Explore the links below to learn more about the institutions, organizations, and general demographic conditions that helped to define life in the Fairfax neighborhood during the Classical Period:
