THE ROLE OF ARTISTIC CREATIVITY IN THE LIVES OF ISRAELI ÉMIGRÉS IN LOS ANGELES

Curated by: Anat Gilboa

For decades, Los Angeles has been home to thousands of Jewish immigrants from Israel. Despite the hardships of adjustment to a foreign country, these individuals have been able to rebuild their lives and find success. In the Winter 2017 service-learning course “The Roles of Artistic Creativity in Lives of Israeli Émigrés in Los Angeles,” UCLA undergradute students, directed by Professor Anat Gilboa, reached out to a group of creative Israelis in LA. They interviewed and documented the journey of Israeli artists, musicians, and film directors from Hollywood about their migration in connection to their artwork. This is the course project, aiming to contextualize trends of Jewish Israeli migration and assimilation as they are manifested in different forms of fine art, poetry, music, and film.

IRANIAN JEWISH LIFE IN LOS ANGELES: PAST AND PRESENT

Curated by: Saba Soomekh

Collected here are reports, interviews, and images created by teams of UCLA students enrolled in “Iranian Jewish Life in Los Angeles: Past and Present,” a Sociology course taught by Dr. Saba Soomekh annually since fall 2013. As the students learned, the Iranian Jewish community represents an important chapter in recent Los Angeles history. Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, tens of thousands of Persian Jews migrated from Iran, forming one of the wealthiest waves of immigrants to ever come to the United States. Through their course work, the students studied how immigration has affected different generations of Iranian Jews and documented the remarkable ways Iranian Jews have rebuilt their community and their own lives. Here they add the stories of Iranian Jews to the map of Jewish Los Angeles.

THE PEOPLE’S INSTITUTION:
THE JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE OF LOS ANGELES

Curated by: Max D. Baumgarten

Why has Los Angeles in general–and the Beverly-Fairfax neighborhood in particular– attracted various waves of jewish immigrants and migrants? What exactly do these newcomers have in common with one another and the broader Jewish community? What institutions have been instrumental in helping these newcomers resettle?

These are just some of the key questions that a group of undergraduate students at UCLA, enrolled in Max D. Baumgarten’s Winter 2017 “Jews in Los Angeles: Representation, Memory, and History in the Digital Age” course were asked to address. As part of a service learning course that sought to enhance and facilitate civic engagement, the course revolved around a partnership with the Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles.

These student exhibitions were created through service learning courses sponsored by the UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies with the support of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.