Wilshire Boulevard Temple: Kabbalat Shabbat in K-Town
If you like kimchi with your Kaddish and barbecue with your bar’chu, then come on down to Wilshire Boulevard Temple in the heart of Koreatown. Having spent most of her childhood attending Sunday school in the basements of Baptist churches, Jessica was especially excited to visit Wilshire Boulevard, LA’s oldest Jewish congregation. This beautiful Reform temple, housed in a sprawling Byzantine labyrinth, will give you Jews two for the price of one: Shabbat services AND a veritable museum of Jewish-Angeleno artifacts. Find out exactly when Jews began to control banking and the media (jk, goyim!) by viewing relics of early Semitic pioneers to the Great West. If you’re going to come to services here, come early so you have time to check out the artifacts from LA and the Old Country. Lauren highly recommends the 300-year-old Sephardic scrolls and the old-school chuppah.
A little over a minyan of folks gathered in an intimate and warm upstairs sanctuary for a quick and dirty half-hour service. The pews wrap around the pulpit, so this is no place for a Shabbat wallflower. The demographic of the crowd was, unsurprisingly, older than us. As for the service, if you’ve been to Jewish summer camp, you’ll recognize the guitar tunes (and maybe reminisce about making out with an Israeli behind the dining hall). Not a lot of commentary from the cute young rabbi (score!) who kept the service pretty by the book. Lauren dug the sermon on Jacob and forgiveness which was practical, applicable, and approximately thirty seconds long. Jessica wondered if the rabbi had a flight to catch after services.
Overall, we highly recommend popping in for a quickie in this historic landmark of a synagogue.
Chai-lights
1. Big parking lot and Metro-accessible
2. Delicious challah
3. Cute rabbi
Kvetches
1. No oneg. WTF?
2. The service was a bit like a latke with no applesauce: a little dry
3. The gorgeous main sanctuary (featured in Season 1 of the West Wing, not that Jessica watches 10-year-old reruns or anything) was closed while we were there. Guess we’ll have to go back for a day trip!
Total Bagels: Four out of five
