In Search of Fairfax

The Urban Crisis: 1960s-1970s

Starting in the mid-1960s, a set of inter-related demographic and social changes began to transform the Beverly-Fairfax neighborhood. While Jews constituted 70% of the neighborhood’s population from the early 1950s through the mid-1960s, better-off and younger Jewish residents increasingly left Fairfax and moved toward the San Fernando Valley and the Westside of Los Angeles, a process that intensified during the late 1960s with the migration of African-Americans into the adjacent Wilshire-Fairfax neighborhood and the racial integration of Fairfax High School. 

In response to these demographic transformations, numerous community leaders, residents, and activists reasoned that it was only a matter of time until Fairfax ceased to exist as a predominantly Jewish place. Even so, Jews began to experiment with new ways to brand Beverly-Fairfax as a social and geographical realm worthy of Jewish attention. 

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 Urban Crisis period: 
 

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