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Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel records
LSC.2340
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Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel records
Creator:
Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.2340
Physical Description:
42 linear feet
(53 boxes, 7 cartons, 6 shoe boxes, 14 flat boxes, 1 tube, 1 oversize flat box, 1 oversize folder)
Date (inclusive): 1905 to 2017, bulk 1920-2005
Date (bulk): 1920-2005
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.
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.
Language of Material: Primarily in English and Ladino, some materials are in Spanish, Hebrew, and French.
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.
Physical Characteristics and 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.
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.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Alex Rachmanony, STTI President, 2016.
This collection forms part of
UCLA's Sephardic Archive Initiative.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
9988323433606533
[Identification of item], Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel records (Collection 2340). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles
E. Young Research Library. University of California, Los Angeles.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Digitized Facsimilies Available
PORTIONS OF THIS COLLECTION HAVE BEEN DIGITIZED. Please consult digital facsimiles instead of originals.
Ladino books have been individually cataloged in the UCLA Library online catalog. Records for these items may be found by
searching this keyword string: "Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel records."
Western States Jewish History Archive (LSC 1739). Available at UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Sephardim -- California -- Los Angeles
Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Archives
- Collection Overview
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Collection Details
- Conditions Governing Access
- Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
- Conditions Governing Use
- Immediate Source of Acquisition
- About the Archive
- UCLA Catalog Record ID
- Preferred Citation
- Custodial History
- Processing Information
- Biographical / Historical
- Scope and Content
- Arrangement
- Digitized Facsimilies Available
- Separated Materials
- Related Materials