1. The masthead of the original Observer read “Filmland’s House of Worship.”
2. In 1925 a group of Temple women organized a Sisterhood. Headed by Mrs. Sol Wurtzel (wife of the Temple’s first President) and Elizabeth Chadwick (of Chadwick Chapel) they joined the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods (now Women of Reform Judaism) in 1927.
3. On December 30, 1927 there was a call for book donations to start a library. The original library was named after member Calvert Lynn Altman who died tragically at age 22.
4. The first Observer printed Friday September 23, 1927 in the folksy style of the time stated: “Mr. And Mrs., I. E. Chadwick (of the Chadwick Chapel) left Sunday for New York, incidentally they plan to see the Dempsey-Tunney fight in Chicago.”
5. The first annual Midnite show was held to raise money to buy the Methodist church building on Ivar. It featured such stars of the day as Sophie Tucker.
6. Sally Rand, a famous ’20s fan dancer entertained at a Sisterhood Purim party. She performed the Black Bottom for the mixed audience.
7. The Star of David rosette window in the sanctuary was donated by Leon Schlesinger, a Warner Bros producer who created Loony Tunes and Merrie Melodies. He also helped finance the first talking picture The Jazz Singer. Mr. Schlesinger was purportedly the inspiration for Daffy Duck. He had a lisp.
8. The Perpetual Lamp that hangs over the Ark in the sanctuary was a gift from Hal Wallis who produced Casablanca as well as 400 other full length features in a 50 year motion picture career.
9. The wooden Ark, situated in the chapel, was donated by Sol Wurtzel. There is speculation that it was made by artisans working at Twentieth Century Fox where he was CEO.
10. The miniature model of the sanctuary located in the Sanctuary lobby was hand done by Temple member Joseph Cooper, a prominent local dentist whose office was four blocks from the Temple. It took him 1,000 hours.
11. Henry Diskay, a Hungarian tenor who was the voice that sang Kol Nidre for the movie The Jazz Singer, appeared as Temple Israel Cantorial soloist in the early 1930s.
12. In 1930 Stanley Fox and ten Temple members sent a letter to every Jewish person living in Hollywood inviting them to come to services and enroll their children in Religious School.
13. Although the Temple only had 162 members in the early 1930s, over 400 people used to attend Friday night Shabbat services including many celebrities such as Eddie Cantor.
14. In 1936 Rabbi Isaacson brought a young “Choir Director” from Chicago to lend his voice to services. Following the untimely death of Rabbi Isaacson that same year, Saul Silverman became Cantor.
15. In September 16, 1938 Temple Israel held its first Oneg Shabbat. It was called the “After-Glow with Mrs. Dave Coleman as chief glow-worm.”
16. In 1938, as world tensions heightened, then President Sol Bischoff chaired a spiritual demonstration appealing for prayer on behalf of the oppressed people in Europe.
17. On Kristallnacht in 1938, in Berlin, Rabbi Nussbaum rushed into the burning Freidenstemple (Temple of Peace) to rescue the small Torah that now rests in our Ark.
18. The 13th annual Midnight Show held at the Pantages Theater starred Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Ben Blue, Burns and Allen and Ann Miller.
19. In 1940 the Sisterhood sponsored a successful Mother’s Day Lunch at the cost of $.65 a plate and $.50 for “daughters.”
20. In 1941 Rabbi Morton Bauman was officially installed as the third Rabbi of Temple Israel at the Congregational Dinner marking Temple Israel’s 15th anniversary.
21. In 1942 the Temple collected funds and presented an ambulance to the United States Army.
22. Rabbi Bauman enlisted and became a military chaplain. Rabbi Max Nussbaum was engaged in his absence.
23. During the 1940s Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan, founder of the Reconstructionist Movement spoke from the pulpit as did Rabbi Stephen S. Wise.
24. Joseph H. Corwin (father to Sherrill, grandfather to Bruce) was instrumental in bringing Rabbi Max Nussbaum to Temple Israel in 1943.
25. In 1943 the Temple sponsored a dormitory for World War II service men. Staffed by the Sisterhood the dormitory contained 125 beds and served 20,000 “boys” in the first eighteen months of operation. A December 29, 1944 Observer noted that “Mrs. Max Nussbaum and daughter, Hannah made beds at the dormitory.”
26. The Friday night Israel was declared a State, huge crowds gathered in the street outside the Ivar Temple. Loudspeakers were set up outside so that people who were not able to get into the packed Temple could hear Rabbi Nussbaum speak. People danced in the street.
27. The Sanctuary and the Briskin building cost $417,000 to construct.
28. A cornerstone was laid by the congregation on December 14, 1947. It was designated as “Freedom to Worship Day” during the Bill of Rights week. A time capsule was placed inside. Among other things a bag of earth from Palestine was placed inside.
29. Irving Briskin was President of the Temple for an unprecedented six terms: 1947, 1950-51, 1963-65. His brother Samuel Briskin was President from 1932-1933. (The Briskin Building)
30. In January of 1948 Rabbi Leo Baeck spoke from our pulpit.
31. The stained glass windows in the Sanctuary depicting the symbols for Hanukah and Purim were donated by Mrs. Al Jolson in memory of her husband, Al Jolson. Jolson’s funeral service took place at Temple Israel to an over-flow crowd. He is buried at Hillside in a special enclosure with a sculpture visible from the 405 freeway.
32. In 1949 and 1950, Molly Wise and Gladys Fleischer are elected to serve on the Temple Board in their own right, “a goal we have been striving to reach for a long time.”
33. The carpet on the sanctuary floor is made from a pattern especially designed for Temple Israel.
34. On May 31, 1951, 1,400 people attended the funeral of Fanny Brice, one of the foremost entertainers of the first half of the twentieth century. George Jessel known as the Toastmaster General of the United States and a Temple member delivered one of the eulogies.
35. Charles J. Mund served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees and was President in 1952. He is one of only two congregants to hold the title of President Emeritus. His daughter Geraldine Mund was President from 1984 to 1987 ably guiding the Temple Israel through a difficult period.
36. In 1952, following the death of Joseph H. Corwin, the library was rededicated in his name.
37. Eddie Fisher sang Kol Nidre from the Choir loft.
38. Tony Curtis attended the Purim Carnival in 1952 to crown the reigning (two) Queen Esthers.
39. In 1953 the congregation celebrated its very first Bat Mitzvah when Selma Wolpe (now known as Sheri Langer) was called to the Torah.
40. During the 1950s Julius and Mina Wainchel lived at the temple in the space where the Nursery School is now. Julius was the Temple shammes.
41. Sherrill Corwin was President from 1955 to 1957 and his son Bruce was President from 1973 to 1975. Bruce’s granddaughter, Teva, daughter of Danny and Zoe is currently enrolled in Nursery School
42. In 1957, through the good offices of Sherrill Corwin and Charles Mund, Temple Israel acquired Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary. It is the final resting place of many members of Temple Israel as well as celebrities like Hank Greenberg, Jack and Mary Benny, and more recently Milton Berle.
43. In December of 1958 author Leon Uris spoke to the congregation about his novel Exodus.
44. Rabbi Nussbaum converted Mai Britt so she could marry Sammy Davis Jr. and motion picture actress Martha Hyer so she could marry producer Hal Wallis (Casablanca).
45. The Memorial service of Mike Todd was held at Temple Israel with more than 1500 mourners both inside and outside the Temple.
46. Rabbi Nussbaum converted Elizabeth Taylor and then traveled to Las Vegas to marry her to Eddie Fisher.
47. On Passover eve 1959, Rabbi Max Nussbaum was honored by NBC as the first Rabbi to be the secret guest on the long running television show, This is Your Life.
48. In the spring of 1959, 32 students were confirmed – among them were Geraldine Mund, Ben Rosenbloom (Cantor Aviva Rosenbloom’s husband) and Sandra Benay Lipshultz.
49. In 1960, as John F. Kennedy was poised to be elected President of the United States, Rabbi Nussbaum was invited to deliver the Invocation for the Democratic National Convention.
50. Harry Belafonte was a guest speaker on the Bima in the 1960s.
51. In February 1963 the Sisterhood sponsored a dinner dance at the Coconut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel. The list of raffle prizes included an Austin Healy. Admission to the gala was the sale of 20 $1 tickets to the raffle.
52. Martin Luther King Jr. was to have spoken at Temple Israel on November 22, 1963, the day that President John Kennedy was shot. He eventually addressed the congregation in 1965.
53. In 1965 at another gala dinner dance attended by 700 guests, Martha Raye was given a humanitarian award for her entertainment of U.S. troops in Vietnam.
54. In 1968 Rabbi Nussbaum traveled to Israel to be an honored guest at the dedication of the Finkelstein Student Hostel at Technion University, Haifa.
55. In 1969 Theodore Bikel addressed the congregation on “Jewish Identity on the College Campus.”
56. The Nursery School was founded in 1970.
57. Gregor Piatagorsky played Kol Nidre on his cello in 1973 on the eve of the Yom Kippur War. Many people still remember the following morning when Rabbi Nussbaum asked the congregation to open their wallets to send money to Israel to help the war effort.
58. In 1974 Rabbi Nussbaum died unexpectedly and was succeeded by Rabbi Haskell Bernat. Rabbi Bernat developed the Havurah program and began the Temple Israel retreats.
59. Rabbi Bernat brought Aviva Rosenbloom to Temple Israel to encourage congregational singing. She was not, however, allowed to sing on the Bima.
60. In 1975 Marlon Brando brought Bob Dylan to a Temple Israel Passover Seder; he sang “Blowin’ in the Wind.”
61. In the spring of 1976 Cantor Saul Silverman died after serving the congregation for 39 years.
62. In 1978 students from the Religious School accompanied by Cantor Rosenbloom and Assistant Rabbi Jonathan Kendall, traveled to the Los Angeles airport to pick up a Sefer Torah that had been recovered from a Nazi warehouse in Czechoslovakia.
63. In 1979 Temple Israel participated with the Union of American Hebrew Congregations in a major rescue effort to save the Vietnamese Boat People.
64. “Attend Friday night services with your family, there is plenty of free parking”…1980.
65. In 1980 Hollywood Boulevard was closed off so that Temple Israel could dance in the streets for Simchat Torah and in solidarity with Soviet Jewry.
66. Following the death of Sherrill Corwin in 1981 a series of concerts were dedicated in his memory. The Roger Wagner Chorale performed as did Daniel Heifetz and Metropolitan opera singer Patrice Munsel.
67. In 1984 Rabbi John Rosove was arrested in a San Francisco demonstration on behalf of Soviet Jewry. A photo exists of him sitting handcuffed in a paddy wagon.
68. The Sisterhood has been holding the Women’s Seder since 1987.
69. Bernard Briskin (son of Samuel and nephew of Irving) was President from 1987 to 1990.
70. Following in his grandfather’s footsteps, Bruce Corwin was instrumental in bringing Rabbi Rosove to Temple Israel in 1988.
71. In 1991 Rabbi Rosove and his Assistant Rabbi Daniel Swartz had to wade into a storm-flooded Nursery School to carry children on their backs to safety. The children thought it was great fun.
72. In 1993 then Assistant Rabbi Daniel Swartz instigated a new minyan service on Saturday morning, a tradition carried on to this day by Rabbi Missaghieh and more recently by the People’s Minyan.
73. An Observer from 1994 announced the completion of Temple renovation.
74. In 1996, under the leadership of Associate Rabbi Eddie Goldberg, Temple Israel began doing Chesed Day; by 1999 the day of service was called Mitzvah Day. As the event grew larger it became known as Big Sunday. In 2006 Big Sunday, sponsored by Major Antonio Villariagosa, will become the largest community volunteer day in the United States with 25,000 volunteers.
75. In 1996, during an Adult Bat Mitzvah service, a dog ran into the sanctuary and up on the Bima, followed by the very embarrassed owner. The Torah portion included discussion of animal sacrifice.
76. Leonard Nimoy and his wife, Susan Bay have been reading the book of Jonah to the congregation every Yom Kippur afternoon since the late 1990s.
77. In 2002 our Day School celebrated its Bar Mitzvah year, continuing to fulfill the dreams of our Temple founders to educate our children.
78. From 2003 through 2005 Leonard Nimoy sponsored the Nimoy Concert series bringing music once again to the Temple Israel sanctuary and featuring a variety of artists from Klezmatics to the Los Angeles Symphony.
79. In 2005 Temple Israel congregants came to the rescue of victims of Hurricane Katrina donating over 900 sets of sheets and towels in a national effort organized the by Union for Reform Judaism.
80. In 2006 Rabbi Rosove traveled to Israel to be an honored guest at the dedication of our sister Congregation, Mevasseret Zion.
