The 60 foot long mural depicts multi-ethnic, multi-racial working class solidarity from a Jewish point of view.
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Topline:
The story behind the Pico-Robertson mural that depicts multi-ethnic, multi-racial working class solidarity from a Jewish point of view.
Why it matters: The mural and the Worker’s Circle, the group that commissioned it, shows alternative ways of identifying as Jewish, and isn't focused on religion or nationalism.
Why now: The mural is 27 years old and has been defaced several times. The Worker’s Circle and the artist say the time is ripe to restore its images and message.
The backstory: Jewish activists in L.A. and elsewhere have worked through the decades alongside labor, educational and political activists. The mural’s painter is a Filipino-American, who included Filipino history in the mural.
What's next: The leader of Worker’s Circle in L.A. is seeking help from the L.A. City Council to restore the mural.
[Editor's note: This story is part of an ongoing LAist series exploring public art in L.A.]
The mural is called A Better and More Beautiful World, or A shenere un besere velt in yiddish.
It covers a roughly 60-foot-long and 15-foot-tall wall on the side of the Worker’s Circle building in Pico-Robertson. The mutual aid group, founded by Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants, opened an office in L.A. in 1908, not long after it started in New York.
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The story behind the Pico-Robertson mural depicting working-class Jewish history, painted by a Filipino artist
This mural stands apart from other Jewish themed public art in L.A. in that it does not focus on the religious or national part of Jewish identity.
Early 20th century labor activist Rose Schneiderman
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“I think that part of what the idea of this mural… was to sort of stake out a claim for a different vision of what it means to be Jewish,” said Caroline Luce, a historian who has researched the history of the Worker’s Circle, also known by its Yiddish name, Der Arbeter Ring.
That vision at the group’s founding more than a century ago, and when this mural was unveiled in 1998, Luce said, challenged ideas of Jewish identity dictated by influential members of Jewish communities, including rabbis or wealthy patrons.
The Workmen's Circle building.
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“That has been the sort of philosophy of the organization… to inspire Jews, not only to worship in the way that they feel and join political movements, but to fight for social justice and to create a better and more beautiful world,” Luce said.
The mural centers portraits of Jewish writers and feminists, as well as labor and educational leaders, and weaves in similar activists from outside the community to show a Jewish identity linked in solidarity with the struggles of other working class people.
From Emma Goldman to Cesar Chavez
Nearly two dozen people are portrayed in the mural, including 19th century Russian writer Sholem Aleichem, early 20th century feminist and labor organizer Rose Schneiderman, and Molly Picon, the early 20th century Yiddish theater’s most famous actor.
An image of Cesar Chavez, at the top of the photo; below him are socialist presidential candidate Eugene Debs (L) and Morris Hillquit, and anti war activist and labor movement lawyer.
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Alongside them are depictions of Martin Luther King, Jr., Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese consul in Lithuania who helped thousands of Jews escape Nazi Germany, and near the center of the mural, farmworker leader Cesar Chavez.
“He is an important part of Los Angeles and California's labor history. We all marched, we marched with SEIU, the hotel workers when they had the big strike,” said Ruth Judkowitz, the head of the Worker's Circle in L.A.
Silva was in his mid 20s when he painted A shenere un besere velt.
To reflect his own background, he included the shining sun motif from the flag of the Philippines rising above the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, and his mother as a young girl in a group of kids.
Silva painted the sun over the Statue of Liberty as a reference the sun on the flag of the Philippines.
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”The work is about inclusiveness, and that we all share the same dreams and hopes… the common connections [that] bind us all together as workers, as immigrants,” Silva told LAist.
The mural’s been defaced
While the mural's primary focus is on the history of Jews pushing for social justice, there is an Israeli flag, which has been vandalized over the years.
After the first instance more than a decade ago, artist Silva was asked to fix and modify it. He added the words for peace in English, Arabic and Hebrew displayed on leaves, an allusion to the Philippine Indigenous tradition of writing on leaves.
Behind them he painted an abstract image inspired by Palestinian woven fabric designs.
Silva's addition, a tree with the words peace written in English, Hebrew and Arabic.
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In July, someone defaced the mural again, covering the Israeli flag with a Palestinian flag and painting the U.S. flag upside down.
“In some ways it's just an easy target, [the mural] looks Jewish,” said historian Luce. “It also may be that there's just a fundamental misunderstanding” about what the mural and the organization that commissioned it stand for.
Judkowitz agreed.
"We're pro-humanity, we're pro-people," she said. “We'd love to see a two-state solution. We'd love to have a true Palestinian state… a place they could call home and a place that they can live in peace.”
She's been talking to Silva about doing restoration work on the mural next year. Judkowitz said she’s seeking support from the Los Angeles City Council.
She and others say the mural’s message of encouraging and proposing alternative Jewish identities is as relevant now as in 1908 when Worker’s Circle opened its doors in L.A. and 1998 when the mural was unveiled.
“[After Oct. 7] there's an extreme amount of disappointment of the leadership of many of the congregations and communities in which some of these folks grew up and a desire to reinvent what it means to be Jewish,” Luce said. “A kind of return to internationalism and a movement away from Jewish nationalism and specifically of Jewish Zionism.”
Much like when Worker’s Circle started in 1900, some Jewish people in L.A. are starting their own groups to reflect new forms of Jewish identity. They include, Luce said, Der Nister Downtown Jewish Center and others.
