Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel records, 1905 to 2017, bulk 1920-2005, bulk 1920-2005

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Summary

Creators:
Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Abstract:
Collection consists of records from the organized Sephardic Jewish community of Los Angeles and other materials related to Sephardic life in 20th century Los Angeles.
Extent:
42 linear feet (53 boxes, 7 cartons, 6 shoe boxes, 14 flat boxes, 1 tube, 1 oversize flat box, 1 oversize folder)
Language:
Primarily in English and Ladino, some materials are in Spanish, Hebrew, and French.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel records (Collection 2340). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library. University of California, Los Angeles.

Background

Scope and content:

The Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel records consist of materials related to the Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel (STTI) and its lay and religious leadership and congregants, as well as items of broader relevance to Sephardic and Jewish life in Los Angeles, California, the United States, and abroad. The collection includes organizational records, such as board meeting minutes, correspondence, event programs and tribute journals, publications, ephemera, photographs, scrapbooks, subject and research files, assorted awards and honors, 1/4 inch audiotapes of Sephardic, Balkan, and Turkish music collected by Emily Sene, and VHS and audiocassettes of STTI events. The bulk of the collection is in English and to a lesser extent Ladino.

Biographical / historical:

After centuries of established life on the Iberian Peninsula, Jews were formally expelled by Spanish royal decree in 1492. With many refugees settling in North Africa and the Ottoman Empire, these Jews developed a distinct Sephardic (meaning Spanish, in Hebrew) culture and community that included the retention and development of a unique hybrid language, known as Judeo-Spanish or Ladino. At the outset of the 20th century, these Sephardic Jews sought better futures elsewhere, such as in sub-Saharan Africa, Western Europe, South America, and the United States. In search of economic opportunity and respite from political turmoil in the crumbling Ottoman Empire, many of these Sephardic Jews found their way to Los Angeles, a rapidly growing commercial and industrial metropolis. Throughout the century, the Sephardic community in Los Angeles would expand and come to include Jews from various backgrounds, notably North African, Israeli, and Persian Jews. By the end of the century, Los Angeles had solidified its status as a center of Sephardic life worldwide.

The Comunidad Sefardi de Los Angeles (Sephardic Community of Los Angeles) was officially formed in 1920 by a few dozen young immigrant men, though its roots go back to 1912 with the formation of Ahavat Shalom (Love of Peace). Catering to members from cities along Turkey's Mediterranean coast - like Istanbul, Bursa, and Izmir - these organizations were simultaneously religious, social, cultural, and economic in nature. Soon after in 1921, another Sephardic organization, Haim vaHessed (Life and Kindness), was formed and later changed its name to the Sephardic Brotherhood. The center of Sephardic life was to be found primarily in and around downtown until the 1930s, when it moved southwest towards South Los Angeles and the Exposition Park area. The Community's synagogue, Tifereth Israel, was inaugurated in 1932 and built on Santa Barbara Avenue, now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. In 1959, a congregational merger created the Sephardic Community and Brotherhood of Los Angeles. Beginning in 1967, plans for a new temple in Westwood were underway that were ultimately realized during a final dedication ceremony in 1981. Over time, the organization and synagogue names would both be identified as the Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel (STTI), as it is known at the time of processing (2019).

Parallel to and closely intertwined with STTI is another Sephardic congregation in Los Angeles that was formed in 1917 as Sociedad Pas i Progreso (Peace and Progress Society) and consisted mainly of Jews from the Island of Rhodes. In 1935, after inaugurating a synagogue in South Los Angeles at 55th St. and Hoover, they changed their name to the Sephardic Hebrew Center. After moving their temple to Ladera Heights in the late 1960s, SHC changed their name to Sephardic Beth Shalom in 1992, only to merge with Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel (STTI) in 1993.

These organizations each had their own women's groups - known as Sisterhoods or Ladies' Auxiliaries - that catered to their members' social, philanthropic, and communal needs. Through the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Brotherhood, Community, Sephardic Hebrew Center, and their corresponding women's groups joined together in a short-lived Council of Sephardic Organizations, which mainly coordinated fundraising and social events.

Other Sephardic organizations represented in this collection are the Maccabeans - a semi-independent young adult group - and the Sephardic Benevolent Society, alongside the Los Angeles Sephardic Home for the Aged (LASHA) and other local, national, and international Sephardic and Jewish organizations, programs, and groups.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Alex Rachmanony, STTI President, 2016.
Custodial history:

Materials in this collection were collected by Maurice Hattem and an archival team made up of members of STTI. The bulk of these materials were collected in the 1980s.

Processing information:

Processed by Max Daniel under the supervision of Courtney Dean in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), 2018-2019. Earlier inventory work done by Chris Silver, Caroline Luce, and Joanna Chen Cham at STTI, 2015.

Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.

We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Problematic Content and Description in UCLA's Library Collections and Archives.

Arrangement:

This collection has been arranged in the following series and sub-series:

  • Series 1: Institutional records, 1920-2017
    • Subseries 1.1: Minutes, 1920-2005
    • Subseries 1.2: Building and financial records, 1929-2017
    • Subseries 1.3: Organizational records, committee records, and official correspondence, 1920-2009
  • Series 2: Publications, newsletters, and programs, 1932-2015
    • Subseries 2.1: Newsletters and publications, 1946-2015
    • Subseries 2.2: Programs, yearbooks, events, 1932-2015
  • Series 3: Subject files, 1905-2014
    • Subseries 3.1: Maurice I. "Bob" Hattem papers, 1922-2005
    • Subseries 3.2: Personal files, 1911-2014
    • Subseries 3.3: Place files, 1905-2003
  • Series 4: Photographs, scrapbooks, and clippings, circa 1910-2004
    • Subseries 4.1: Photographs, 1910-2001
    • Subseries 4.2: Scrapbooks and clippings, 1910-2004
  • Series 5: Audiovisual, 1951-2004
    • Subseries 5.1: Sene collection, 1953-1980
    • Subseries 5.2: Other audiovisual materials, 1951-2004
  • Series 6: Awards, artwork, and ephemera, 1911-2002
    • Subseries 6.1: Awards, plaques, certificates, drawings, 1911-2002
    • Subseries 6.2: Ephemera, 1913-1990

Physical / technical requirements:

CONTAINS UNPROCESSED AUDIO AND AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: Audio and audiovisual materials are not currently available for access and will require further processing and assessment. If you have questions about this material please email spec-coll@library.ucla.edu.

PORTIONS OF THIS COLLECTION HAVE BEEN DIGITIZED. Please consult digital facsimiles instead of originals.

Physical location:
Portions of the collection stored off-site. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page. Oversize materials (Boxes 76, 78, 79, 83) held on-site. Box 69 held on-site for preservation reasons.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Access to digital materials is available on-site in the Special Collections reading room. Requests to access digital materials must be made at least 2 days in advance. Once request has been made, please confirm viewing arrangements with Special Collections reference desk staff.

Terms of access:

Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel records (Collection 2340). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library. University of California, Los Angeles.

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
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