Looking back

Young Chang

COSTA MESA -- The Jewish Federation of Orange County announced on

Friday it is moving to Irvine by the end of next year.

Here’s a quick history on the federation’s current home.

The grounds housing the largest and most concentrated Jewish spot in

the county once held an automotive museum.

Over the years, the land also housed a warehouse for different

companies. In 1990, the building and the Baker Street land were donated

to the Jewish Federation by generous community benefactors. The

federation officially moved into the building in 1994.

The first bit of Jewish culture that inhabited the land, though, was a

group of Jewish Day Schools including the Hebrew Academy, the Morasha Day

School and the Tarbut V’Torah Community Day School. They moved onto the

Costa Mesa land in 1991, even before the federation offices arrived, and

now are in Irvine.

When the federation moved to Costa Mesa in 1994, the land was actually

its fifth home.

The fund-raising agency began in 1965 in Tustin. They then moved to an

office on Harbor Boulevard in Costa Mesa, then to Garden Grove, Tustin

and then back to Costa Mesa.

“We raise about $2 million a year, and the $2 million goes to support

Jewish Community services in Orange County, in Israel and around the

world,” said Alison Mayersohn, federation spokeswoman.

The group’s beneficiary agencies, many of which are housed on the

federation campus, include the Jewish Community Center, Jewish Family

Service, the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization, the Bureau of Jewish

Education, the Hillel Foundation, the American Jewish Committee, the

Anti-Defamation League, the United Jewish Communities, the Community

Foundation of the Jewish Federation, the Jewish Agency for Israel and the

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

All of these agencies moved onto the campus between 1991 and 1999.

Mayersohn remembers the first big community event that was held on the

federation campus in 1995. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had been

assassinated and the community of Orange County gathered at the

federation’s auditorium for a memorial event. The gathering was sudden

and about 400 people came.

Earlier this year, the federation hosted a similarly large gathering

-- this time to show solidarity for Israel. More than 800 people attended

the standing-room only event.

“It reminded us of why we are here,” Mayersohn said. “Isn’t this nice,

that we have a home and a central address for all the people in Orange

County to come to?”

Today, the federation awaits a new home on the Samueli Campus, next to

the Tarbut V’Torah Community Day School in Irvine.

* Do you know of a person, place or event that deserves a historical

Look Back? Let us know. Contact Young Chang by fax at (949) 646-4170;

e-mail at o7 young.chang@latimes.comf7 ; or mail her at c/o Daily

Pilot, 330 W. Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627.