{{short description|Orthodox synagogue in Venice, Los Angeles, California}} {{Use American English|date=July 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2023}} {{Infobox religious building | building_name = Pacific Jewish Center | image = PJC new paint.JPG | image_upright = 1.4 | alt = | caption = The synagogue on the [[Venice, California|Venice Boardwalk]], 2009 | location = 505 Ocean Front Walk, [[Venice, Los Angeles|Venice]], [[Los Angeles]], [[California]] 90291 | country = United States | coordinates = {{coord|33.993|-118.479|region:US-CA_type:landmark|format=dms|display=inline,title}} | map_type = United States Los Angeles Western | map_size = 250 | map_relief = 1 | map_caption = Location in western [[Los Angeles]] | religious_affiliation = [[Orthodox Judaism]] | state = | municipality = | consecration_year = | status = [[Synagogue]] | functional_status = Active | leadership = Rabbi Shalom Rubanowitz | website = {{url|pjcenter.com}} | architecture = yes | architect = | architecture_type = | architecture_style = | founded_by = | funded_by = | general_contractor = | facade_direction = | established = {{nowrap|{{circa|1940s}} {{small|(as Bay Cities Synagogue)}}}} | groundbreaking = | year_completed = 1925 {{small|([[power station]] completed)}} | designated = | added = | refnum = | delisted1_date = | heritage_designation = [[City of Los Angeles]] landmark | construction_cost = | specifications = no | length = | width = }} The '''Pacific Jewish Center''', abbreviated as '''PJC''' and also known as the '''Shul on the Beach''', is an [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] [[Jewish]] [[synagogue]] located at 505 Ocean Front Walk, in [[Venice, Los Angeles|Venice]], [[Los Angeles]], [[California]], in the United States. The synagogue is known for its outreach to unaffiliated and disconnected Jews.<ref>{{citation |title=Prayer Shawls, Flip-Flops Mingle at 'Shul on the Beach' |author=Spence, Rebecca |newspaper=[[The Forward]] |date=September 26, 2007 |url=http://www.forward.com/articles/11708/ |accessdate=2012-11-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Religion and Prime Time Television |author=Suman, Michael |publisher=UCLA Center for Communication Policy, Greenwood Publishing Group |year=1997 |page=116 |isbn= }}</ref> The Shul remains the last of the synagogues built in Venice during the first part of the 20th century. Although an Orthodox synagogue,<ref>{{cite journal |editor=Clark Roof, Wade |title=Religious pluralism and civil society |volume=612 |journal=Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |publisher=Sage Publications |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4129-5987-2 |page=144 |quote="... the Pacific Jewish Center, an Orthodox synagogue in Venice Beach,…" }}</ref> worshippers who identify themselves as many different denominations are all welcomed when attending services and other events due to its location in an eclectic neighborhood.
The 1925 building, originally a [[power station]], was identified as a [[City of Los Angeles]] landmark.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cityplanning.lacity.org/complan/pdf/vencptxt.pdf |publisher=City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning |title=Venice Community Plan |date=September 29, 2000 |version=adopted |page=A-2 |accessdate=2012-11-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130403112736/http://cityplanning.lacity.org/complan/pdf/vencptxt.pdf |archive-date=April 3, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
==History== Pacific Jewish Center was established as Bay Cities Synagogue in the 1940s.<ref name=jewishjournal>{{cite web |date=July 3, 2003 |title=New Rabbi Hopes More Families Enjoy Sun, Surf, Shabbat at PJC |author=Wenig, Gaby |newspaper=[[The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles]] |url=http://www.jewishjournal.com/community/article/new_rabbi_hopes_more_families_enjoy_sun_surf_shabbat_at_pjc_20030704 |access-date= }}</ref> The congregation was one of several synagogues established in Venice Beach in the 1920s (two others also on the Venice boardwalk).<ref name=jewishjournal/> All except this one, and Mishkon Tefilo,<ref>{{cite web |title=Congregation Mishkon Tephilo Celebrates Diversity |work=Kehilla |date=December 2014 |publisher=Pacific Southwest Region, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism |url=http://pacsw.uscj.org/new/december-2014/congregation-mishkon-tephilo-celebrates-diversity }}</ref> had disappeared by the late 1960s. The membership had gradually dwindled until there was hardly a [[minyan]] available. However in 1977, a group of young, Orthodox Jews led by [[Michael Medved]] and [[Daniel Lapin|Rabbi Daniel Lapin]] re-established the community and it soon became the nexus of Orthodox outreach in Los Angeles for the next decade.<ref name=nyt>{{cite news |title=At the Intersection of Synagogue and Boardwalk, a Feud |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |authorlink=Jennifer Steinhauer |first=Jennifer |last=Steinhauer |date=July 20, 2008 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/us/20boardwalk.html |accessdate=2012-11-02}}</ref> Lapin was the unpaid rabbi of the congregation from 1978 to 1992.<ref>{{cite book |title=Religious Leaders and Faith-based Politics: Ten Profiles |author1=Formicola, Jo Renee |author2=Morken, Hubert |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2001 |page=98 |isbn= }}</ref>
The Bar Mitzvah of [[Jason Gould]], son of [[Barbra Streisand]] and [[Elliott Gould]], was held at the shul.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Barbra Streisand Scrapbook |author=Waldman, Allison J. |publisher=Citadel Press |year=2001 |page=26 |isbn= }}</ref>
==Controversy== An attempt led by the Pacific Jewish Center to construct an [[eruv]] in the Venice Beach neighborhood met with opposition from the Sierra Club and others concerned with impacts to birds or disruption to esthetics of the beach.<ref>{{cite AV media |publisher=[[National Public Radio]] |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6433995 |title=A Kosher Beach That's Not for the Birds |author=Myrow, Rachael |date=November 4, 2006 |access-date= |format=streaming audio }}</ref> The [[California Coastal Commission]] conditionally approved the project in late 2006.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.jewishjournal.com/up_front/article/carry_on_venice_community_gets_an_eruv_approved_20061123/ |newspaper=[[The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles]] |date=November 22, 2006 |title=Carry On! Venice community gets an eruv approved |author=Tugend, Tom |access-date= }}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
== Further reading == * {{cite journal |author=Hill Shevitz, Amy |title="Israel at the Shore of the Sea": Jewish Space and Place in Venice, California |journal=Southern California Quarterly |volume=83 |number=2 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn= |location= |date=Summer 2001 |doi=10.2307/41172067 |pages=125-142 }}
==External links== *{{official website|http://pjcenter.shulcloud.com/}} *[http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures/venice/community/pacific-jewish-center.html KCET Departures: Pacific Jewish Center] further history of PJC and Los Angeles Jewish community
{{Synagogues in the United States}}
[[Category:Landmarks in Los Angeles]] [[Category:1940s establishments in California]] [[Category:Orthodox Judaism in Los Angeles]] [[Category:Orthodox synagogues in California]] [[Category:Synagogues in Los Angeles]] [[Category:Venice, Los Angeles]] [[Category:Jewish organizations established in the 1940s]] [[Category:Former power stations in California]] [[Category:Industrial buildings completed in 1925]] [[Category:20th-century synagogues in the United States]]