Priest discusses Holocaust documentation efforts

By Ryan Torok
Published on June 6, 2013

The Rev. Patrick Desbois, secretary to the French Conference of Bishops for relations with Judaism and adviser to the Vatican on the Jewish religion, appeared at Wilshire Boulevard Temple on May 22 to discuss his effort to locate the mass graves of the approximately 1.5 million Jews who were murdered in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust between 1941 and 1944.

Springs Fire forces evacuations for Jewish institutions in Ventura County

By Ryan Torok
Published on May 3, 2013

Synagogue leaders are reporting that the Springs Fire has affected Jewish institutions in Ventura County, including Malibu camps run by Wilshire Boulevard Temple (WBT) and synagogues Temple Ner Ami, Temple Etz Chaim and Temple Adat Elohim.

Wilshire Boulevard Temple pledged $30 million by Erika Glazer

By Ryan E. Smith
Published on February 14, 2013

Wilshire Boulevard Temple has received a pledge of $30 million from Los Angeles philanthropist Erika Glazer to assist with its ongoing restoration and redevelopment.

Arrest made following Wilshire Boulevard Temple bomb scare, vandalism

By Ryan E. Smith
Published on December 20, 2012

A naturalized citizen from South Korea was arraigned today on charges related to the numerous bomb threats made Dec. 18 against Wilshire Boulevard Temple (WBT) in Koreatown and a police squad car parked adjacent to its campus, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Man arrested in connection with Wilshire Boulevard Temple bomb threats

Published on December 20, 2012

The man arrested in connection with fake bomb threats made against a Los Angeles synagogue was also charged with vandalizing it earlier this month.

Wilshire Boulevard Temple target of bomb threats

By Ryan E. Smith
Published on December 18, 2012

Police responded to multiple bomb threats targeting the Koreatown home of Wilshire Boulevard Temple (WBT) and a police squad car parked adjacent to the campus on Dec. 18, disrupting life for much of the workday at one of Los Angeles’ largest synagogues and its surrounding neighborhood.

Ben-Aharon

By Rob Eshman
Published on August 8, 2012

My childhood best friend was Billy Thein. We met at Encino Elementary School in Mrs. Bernstein’s third-grade class, and were pretty much inseparable after that. Billy was funny and smart and cool — and in a public school packed with the striving, anxious, gawkward spawn of suburban Jewry, cool stood out.

The Architect and the Rabbi: Wilshire Boulevard Renovation is a Collaboration, History Lesson

By Susan Freudenheim
Published on August 1, 2012

Early on a recent Wednesday morning, architect Brenda Levin bounded up the metal steps temporarily installed at the center of the historic sanctuary of Wilshire Boulevard Temple. Leading the way up 10 flights — that’s 100 feet — she climbed to the normally inaccessible domed ceiling, high enough to touch the enormous Hebrew letters circling the oculus' opening.

A hunger that cannot be fed

Published on July 18, 2012

When Gudrun and Daniel Brock opened their front door, Aaron, the couple’s 6-year-old son, ran to hug his teacher from Wilshire Boulevard Temple, whom he had not seen in more than a year. Only she heard him whisper: “I missed you so much.”

Temple Judea education director heading to Wilshire Boulevard Temple

Published on March 21, 2012

Rabbi Bruce Raff, Temple Judea’s longtime director of education, is leaving the Valley Reform congregation at the end of the 2011-2012 school year for a rabbi educator position with Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s religious school, according to a Feb. 28 e-mail to Temple Judea congregants.

Wilshire Boulevard Temple opens new elementary school

Published on June 10, 2011

A fresh crop of young students will study at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple this fall when Brawerman East Elementary School opens for the first time. Brawerman East will be located on the historic Wilshire Boulevard Temple campus, the site of the oldest congregation in Los Angeles, in the Koreatown neighborhood. Dr. Hannah Bennett, the newly appointed principle of Brawerman East Elementary, said the location in the nearly 150-year old building makes for an exciting opportunity.

4-year-olds lead

By Ryan Torok
Published on June 7, 2011

A preschool class at Wilshire Boulevard Temple has helped raise more than $3,000 for Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA, inspired by a successful heart surgery for one of the students’ siblings. When 9-month-old Matthew Stevelman was just 10 days old, he underwent heart surgery because his two main arteries were in the wrong position and didn’t allow for enough oxygen in his blood.

Synagogues re-group as economic downturn challenges building campaigns

By Brad A. Greenberg
Published on November 19, 2008

" . . . People are thinking psychologically that they are poor, or less wealthy, so it creates this difficulty for institutions to raise basic capital, as well as operational monies . . . "

Truth in Storytelling

By Rabbi Stephen Julius Stein
Published on April 24, 2008

It's too bad, but I didn't know from Pesach until rabbinic school at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati.

Koreatown residents visit the synagogue next door

By Dikla Kadosh
Published on March 8, 2007

Korean Americans and Jews gathered at Wilshire Boulevard Temple to dialogue about mutual understanding and to discuss conditions in the formerly Jewish Wilshire Center district, which is now home to the largest Korean population outside of Seoul.

A Righteous History

By Stephen Breuer
Published on January 29, 2004

More than 20 years ago, as I looked over family papers with my late father, I came across a letter referring to my "conversion." Curious, I asked
what that meant. With some self-consciousness, my father first shared with me the fact that I had a Catholic baptism as a 2-year-old child in Vienna, Austria.

New Leader at City’s Oldest Synagogue

By Julie G Fax
Published on May 29, 2003

When Steven Leder was 14, he got into some trouble with the law. Rather than send him to reform school, his parents sent him to a Reform Jewish summer camp in Wisconsin.

Worth Waiting For

By Ellen Jaffe-Gill
Published on May 9, 2002

With pomp, ritual and the added joy that comes when a long wait precedes a happy event, the Los Angeles school of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) ordained its first rabbis May 5 at Wilshire Boulevard Temple.

Timely Talk of History’s Attic

By Mike Levy
Published on May 3, 2001

The timing could not have been better.

When the California Museum of Ancient Art scheduled its lecture series on "The Archaeology of Ancient Israel" to begin Monday, May 14, at Wilshire Boulevard Temple, it could not have known that Rabbi David Wolpe's Passover sermon touching on doubts about the historical accuracy of the Exodus story would spark a wave of local interest in Biblical archaeology.