2004 Campus-Community Partnerships

next >>

"At the End of the West": Jews in the Cultural Mosaic of Los Angeles

Awardee: Prof. David Myers, Professor
History/Jewish Studies
Partner: Institute for the Study of the American West

Abstract:

UCLA and the Autry National Center have joined as partners on a long-term research and exhibition development project with the working title: "At the End of the West": Jews in the Cultural Mosaic of Los Angeles. This project pursues two related questions. First, how were the expectations and experiences of Jews in Los Angeles similar to and different from that of their co-religionists in other American places? Second, how did these expectations and experiences compare with those of diverse newcomers to Los Angeles in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? In the first phase of this project (during the 2004-05 academic year), the UCLA-Autry Partnership aims to accomplish the following goals:

  1. Complete research in local archives, museums, and private collections for material relating to the Jewish experience in Los Angeles.
  2. Hold a conference at the Autry National Center that presents fresh perspectives on the Jewish experience in Los Angeles and explores fruitful comparative dimensions of that experience.
  3. Use the research and conference to construct a new narrative of the Jewish experience in Los Angeles that is more mindful of ethnic diversity within the Jewish community and more attuned to the interaction of Jews and other Angelenos than previous accounts.
  4. Draw on that narrative to produce K-12 curricular materials that utilize the Jewish experience as an important case study in the history of Los Angeles.
  5. Digitize source material for display on the Autry s website and for use in virtual gallery explorations by students around Los Angeles and beyond.
  6. Lay the foundation for future work, leading to a major museum exhibition at the Autry National Center.

In both the short term (goals 1-5) and the longer term (the mounting of the exhibition), our intention is to challenge established notions of Jewish life in Los Angeles and stimulate broader public debates about the ethnic and cultural fabric of Los Angeles.