BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SCR 19|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SCR 19
Author: Steinberg (D), et al
Amended: As introduced
Vote: 21
WITHOUT REFERENCE TO COMMITTEE OR FILE
SUBJECT : Jewish American Heritage Month
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This resolution designates May 2009, as Jewish
American Heritage Month.
ANALYSIS :
This resolution states:
1.The earliest Jewish immigrants came to California and
other parts of the southwest as early as the seventeenth
century, fleeing persecution form the Spanish
Inquisition. As "converses," they had to practice their
religion in secret to avoid detection of their true
religious faith by the Inquisition, which was active in
Spain's New World colonies.
2.The next wave of Jewish immigration to California came
during the Gold Rush of 1849. Jews were among the
original "forty-niners," settling in San Francisco and
the gold rush town of Nevada City, Grass Valley, Jackson,
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and Sacramento. Most of the Jewish population were
immigrants from Germany and Austria-Hungary.
3.Members of the pioneer Jewish community in California
enjoyed unprecedented freedom and social mobility to
pursue their dreams of independence and prosperity.
Immigrants such as Adolph Sutro, Levi Strauss, Isadore
and Anthony Zellerbach, Aaron Fleishhacker, and the
Hellman family arrived in gold rush California and
founded some of the major business enterprises of the
West. Some of the businesses, like Levi Strauss and
Wells Fargo Bank, are now household names.
4.In the socially mobile atmosphere of frontier California,
the Jewish community not only prospered but participated
fully in the state's political life. As early as 1852,
Elkan Heydenfeldt and Isaac Cardozo were elected to the
Legislature. Solomon Heydenfeldt served as a justice on
the California Supreme Court. Members of the Jewish
community were elected mayors of numerous California
cities.
5.Starting in the early twentieth century, a new wave of
Jewish immigrants arrived in California, mostly from the
countries in Eastern Europe and Russia. They were
fleeing religious persecution and terrible poverty in
their native lands and flocked to the cities of the east
coast. These immigrants soon began making their way to
the Golden State, settling in Los Angeles, San Francisco,
San Diego, Sacramento, and throughout the San Joaquin
Valley. It was in Hollywood that the motion picture
industry began to develop and many of its pioneers, such
as Carl Laemmle, Adolph Zukor, Samuel Goldwyn, Louis B.
Mayer, and Jack Warner, were members of California's
rapidly growing Jewish community. Many Jewish performers
of the silent and early movie era, such as Fanny Brice,
Bronco Billy Anderson, Theda Bara, Al Jolson, and Douglas
Fairbanks, also came to Hollywood and helped start the
motion picture industry.
6.In the 1930's and 1940's and after the Second World War,
California welcomed refugees from Nazi persecution, who
then contributed tour state's business, cultural, and
academic life. These members of the Jewish community
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were joined by tens of thousands of second generation
families moving west to enjoy the prosperity and growth
of California in the postwar period and they took
advantage of California's advanced public university
system, moving rapidly into the middle class and the
professions.
7.A new wave of Jewish immigrant fleeing persecution and
political instability in the former Soviet Union and Iran
began to arrive in California in the 1970's and 1980's.
After Tehran, Los Angeles is now the city with the second
largest ethnic Iranian population in the world, the
majority of which is Jewish.
8.In the decades after the Second World War, the remaining
barriers to Jewish educational, economic, and social
advancement fell rapidly as California society led the
way in tolerance of diversity and a commitment to an open
society. Jewish institutions, such as Skirbal Cultural
Center and the Museum of Tolerance, have become central
institutions in California's cultural life.
9.California has been home to the Jewish community since
the arrival of the earliest European settlers.
Successive waves of Jewish immigrants have come to
California to find a better life. California's openness
has allowed the Jewish community to enjoy a degree of
freedom and prosperity unrivaled in history.
This resolution designates May 2009 as Jewish American
Heritage Month.
FISCAL EFFECT : Fiscal Com.: No
RJG:cm 3/16/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED
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