Call it the rise of a more active generation, call it newer technological opportunities, or just call it wanderlust, but whatever you want to call it, you can’t deny it: people are traveling in MUCH higher numbers than they used to.
Travel is a favorite hobby of many today, an act attainable by most everyone who truly desires it, with several new travel apps, deals, and worldwide celebrations available to all.
Millennials are traveling for culture and for fun today, not just for business or family purposes. There has been a high rise in volunteerism and faith-based or spiritual tours in the past 5 years, more and more eager travelers wanting to see something bigger than themselves.
We believe that there are so many unique travel experience opportunities within the U.S, especially when it comes to faith-based, spiritual, or healing vacations. These types of learning experiences can range from wanting to learn more about the history of your particular religion to want to experience a new/specific kind of culture for yourself.
Hence, today’s travel blog feature subject: Los Angeles’ Jewish Culture Tour! We send several groups to L.A each year, the entire city an absolute hotspot for culture, history, education, and, of course, beachside and Hollywood fun! This city is a jackpot in our opinions, offering groups a diverse array of things to do, no matter what their interest or reason for traveling is.
If you are particularly interested in culture, or perhaps even more specifically Jewish culture, history, and religion, then Los Angeles is an even bigger jackpot for you.
Outside of Hollywood Heights or Santa Monica Pier, away from Universal Studios and the land of Disney, your group can explore one of the most historic and locally influential cultures to ever settle in the city, the Jewish culture.
With hundreds upon hundreds of Eastern European immigrants coming to this area during the ’20s and ’30s, specific neighborhoods in particular, like Boyle Heights, gathered quite the cultural community. Boyle Heights hosts a heavy history of both Jewish and Latino communities, with several progressive community centers, original Jewish Deli’s, and important religious landmarks within the boundaries of the neighborhood (Broad Street Shul). You can see what life was like for the secular working-class Jewish peoples within the Heights with a visit here, the past residents enjoying a lifestyle of multiculturalism unlike much of the rest of the world at that time.
There are various annual tours of this community, as well as anytime apps to download to get a virtual tour with all the same great facts (cicLAvia tours).
This area actually held the largest congregation in the Jewish community west of Chicago during its peak, the star church here built in the manner of an authentic Eastern European synagogue. This Jewish cultural symbol, Broad Street Shul, held 75,000 members between the ’20s and ’50s.
Not only does the city of L.A let you explore such cultural hotspots as Boyle Heights and Broad Street Shul, but it also offers your group a new look at old history, with a couple of really interesting cultural museums in town free for you to visit.
The entire museum scene in Los Angeles is practically unstoppable, with so many educational adventures around town it’s hard to tell student or family groups where to go first, but if you are with a cultural or religious group on a trip like this then you need to make a beeline to the cultural beacons of the city, the Museum of Tolerance and the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. What better way to learn all you can about the Jewish religion, culture, and experience than by visiting the research facilities studying them in detail, allowing you to put yourself in the place of individuals from the past. Skirball Cultural Center is a must-stop for Jewish culture, as well, hosting several Jewish heritage exhibits worth spending some time with.
There are also several other cultural influences in this city that you may want to explore, from L.A Chinatown to El Pueblo Historical District. Even the American cultural roots here are amazingly authentic, this being the birthplace of Hollywood and pop culture for our nation in general.
Long story short, a cultural or faith-based trip to Los Angeles will not be a disappointment, it will be educational, exciting, and even entertaining.
