Seen here on the society page of the Los Angeles Herald is a detailed description of the 25th anniversary party of Louis (Leib) and Hannah (Channa) Newman, who had immigrated with their five children in 1880 from what is now the city of Kalisz in Poland; at the time it was part of the Prussian/Austrian empire. Hannah was one of nine Mendelson siblings, all of whom had arrived in the U.S. in the mid to late 19th century and slowly made their way out west, settling along the California coast, from San Francisco down to San Diego. The family members in Los Angeles and Orange County were particularly close, and the many cousins grew up together. Here we see mentioned siblings Louis (“Mr. L. Mendelson of Capistrano), Adele, and Ed, all children of Max and Clara (“Mr. and Mrs. M. Mendelson of Capistrano), who owned the Mendelson Mission Inn. Clara Mendelson was Mr. Newman’s sister, and Flora Davis (“of Anaheim”) was the daughter of yet another Mendelson, Helena. The Mendelson, Newman, and Davis families, who had struggled upon arrival in the U.S., recreated the strong family ties that had existed back in Prussia while at the same time becoming financially successful. And they passed these values onto their children, who continued to maintain the connections to each other and to Judaism into the next generations.
Dalia Taft, archivist of the Orange County Jewish Historical Society, highlights images from the archives every month. For more information, please visit www.jewishoc.org/history. You can also contact Dalia at daliat@jccoc.org or at (949) 435-3400, ext. 360. The Orange County Jewish Historical Society is a program of the Merage Jewish Community Center and is fully funded by the Jewish Community Foundation Orange County.