Wilshire Boulevard Temple

Loading...

Wilshire Boulevard Temple, founded in 1862 as Congregation B’nai B’rith, is the oldest Jewish congregation in Los Angeles, California.

The WBT is the oldest continually operating Jewish synagogue in the city, constructed in the Byzantine Revival style in 1929 under the stewardship of rabbi Rabbi Edgar Magnin.

Hirsz, Aaron, Szmul and Itzhak Wonskolaser — better known in Hollywood as Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack Warner, or simply, the Warner Brothers — catapulted the film world out of the silent movie era into the talkies with The Jazz Singer. One of the Warners’ lasting gifts to Los Angeles, however, is not on film, but on the walls of the grand and graceful Wilshire Boulevard Temple.

The Temple is a masterpiece inside and out. The building’s Byzantine dome is very familiar to passersby, but inside is another artistic glory. Commissioned by studio head Jack Warner and painted by artist Hugo Ballins, murals depicting the journey of Jewish people from biblical times to their arrival in the United States, ring the sanctuary.