Beit Olam: The Forever Homes of East L.A.’s Jewish Cemeteries

Cemeteries mean many things to many people. In this episode, we talk with alum Rachel Trombetta about her thesis, Beit Olam: A Home Everlasting–The Jewish Cemeteries of East Los Angeles. Rachel shares the history of Jewish congregations in Los Angeles, how they moved away from the central city over the years, and what that means to the burial grounds established as their “forever homes.” She discusses distinct features of Jewish cemeteries and the specific challenges of conserving cemeteries in general. And she shares her unusual path to heritage conservation from the world of TV and film locations.

Transcript

Ceramic memorial portraits (R. Trombetta).
Cemeteries in Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles (Map by R. Trombetta).
The 4 Jewish cemeteries in East LA (map by R. Trombetta).
Home of Peace Mausoleum (R. Trombetta).
Beth Israel Cemetery (R. Trombetta).
Pebbles left by visitor at Beth Israel (R. Trombetta).
Mount Zion conditions in early 2013. Courtesy of Paul Pitkoff and the Mount Zion Cemetery East Los Angeles Facebook Group.
Cracked Concrete in Agudath Achim (R. Trombetta).
Damaged gravestones in the Benevolent section of Home of Peace (R. Trombetta).
Damaged ceramic memorial portraits (R. Trombetta).
Jewish population movement from the 1850s to the 1970s (Map by R. Trombetta).

Rachel Trombetta works in the Locations and Art Departments of feature films and television series and is a proud member of her Teamster local. She earned her Master of Heritage Conservation degree from USC in 2018. Her favorite cemetery is Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.