Newsom Budget Includes $14.9 Million to Restore Breed Street Shul in Boyle Heights

When Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Budget Act of 2021 into law on July 12, it included $14.9 million to the City of Los Angeles for restoration of the Breed Street Shul in Boyle Heights, a landmark on the National Register of Historic Places that has languished in disrepair for years.

The nearly $15 million appropriation from the state budget is a culmination of many years of political grassroots support, led by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino), Chair of the California Legislative Caucus. Gabriel worked to secure support from Latino and Jewish members of the Legislature as well to champion the cause, with Assemblymember Miguel Santiago, who represents parts of Boyle Heights in the legislature, also instrumental in securing the funding.

Gabriel’s interest in preserving the Shul started long before he became an Assemblyman three years ago. Gabriel had toured the surrounding neighborhood and the Shul itself while working with The Jewish Federation of Los Angeles.

“The work I was doing was building connections between the Jewish community and other ethnic and religious communities throughout Los Angeles,” he recalls. “And to me, it was the physical manifestation of that.” Gabriel also organized the first Passover seder in decades to be held in the Shul in 2012.

That seder would have once been an annual occurrence, back when the Breed Street Shul was a thriving epicenter of the largest Jewish community in the western U.S. It opened in 1915, part of a community of 75,000 Eastern European Jewish immigrants. The Shul’s website describes the Shul as serving “the heart of the neighborhood.”

But after World War II, the Shul’s significance decreased as the freeway system proliferated and L.A.’s Jewish community migrated away from Boyle Heights. The neighborhood transitioned into a predominantly Latino community.

The Shul is still standing, but decades of neglect left the building in disrepair. Many times, over the years, it was slated to be demolished. But members of the Jewish and Latino communities advocated for it to remain. By the turn of the 21st century, there was a greater revival of interest in the Shul, and it was added to The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).

Over the last twenty years, the Shul has slowly undergone renovations funded by various tax incentives and private donations. And it’s becoming a gathering place once again for the Jews that celebrate its religious and historical significance, while also being embraced by the current Latino community that surrounds it.

Being on the NRHP doesn’t mean endless public funds to retrofit the building to fit earthquake codes and keep up utility needs. It merely prevents it from getting demolished, but after that, it’s on its own. Fortunately for the Shul, it has its own advocates who have stepped in to ensure its preservation.

The founding president of the Shul’s board, Stephen J. Sass, says that he and the board are “excited beyond words.” Sass expressed his and the board’s gratitude for the multi-million-dollar appropriation as the Shul’s “shehecheyanu [renewal] moment.” He also recalls that 25 years ago this week—during Tisha B’Av—the Shul was in a state of squalor, exposed to the elements and not fenced from vandals. During that holiday, the City Council agreed to barricade the property and transfer the title to the board, setting in motion the restoration process.

And now, a quarter century later and during the week of Tisha B’Av once again, the Shul has optimistic news to the tune of $14.9 million—fitting timing for the week of the solemn day of remembrance of the destruction of the Second Temple.

The Shul hopes to use the almost $15 million in public funding to do a litany of restorations and renovations, which include converting the light-filled basement to offices that will house nonprofits that focus on social services, as well as creating a large performance and meeting space with significant seating in the former sanctuary.

The Shul hopes to use the almost $15 million in public funding to do a litany of restorations and renovations, which include converting the light-filled basement to offices that will house nonprofits that focus on social services, as well as creating a large performance and meeting space with significant seating in the former sanctuary. The funds will also go toward offering a permanent exhibit that tells the history of Los Angeles immigration via Boyle Heights through the eyes of the Latino, Jewish, Japanese, African American, and Russian communities. And, of course, funds will also be devoted to many upgrades for improving access for the disabled and retrofitting the building for seismic stability.

“As the chair of the [State Assembly’s Jewish] caucus, each of us does a lot to serve our districts but we want to do things that serve the Jewish community and the community more broadly,” Gabriel explains.

He is quick to point out that this project isn’t meant to just be a Jewish house of worship, but also a powerful place of positive community activity.

While it presently sits just southeast of the 101 and the 10, in the shadow of one of the busiest freeway junctions in town, the Shul itself is becoming a junction of the Latino and Jewish communities. And perhaps the freeways that swept people from it will now be the path that brings them back to the Shul once again.