Pacific Jewish Center Reviews
505 Ocean Front Walk
Los Angeles, CA
(310) 452-1111
The Pacific Jewish Center, also known as The Shul on the Beach or PJC, is a synagogue in Venice, Los Angeles, California, known for its outreach to unaffiliated and disconnected Jews. The Shul remains the last of the synagogues built in Venice during the first part of the 20th century. Although an Orthodox synagogue, due to its location in an eclectic neighborhood worshippers who identify themselves as many different denominations are all welcomed when attending services and other events.The 1925 building, originally a power station, was identified as a City of Los Angeles landmark.HistoryPacific Jewish Center was established as Bay Cities Synagogue in the 1940s. The congregation was one of several synagogues established in Venice Beach in the 1920s (two others also on the Venice boardwalk). All except this one 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 Rabbi Daniel Lapin re-established the community and it soon became the nexus of Orthodox outreach in Los Angeles for the next decade. Lapin was the unpaid rabbi of the congregation from 1978 to 1992.The Bar Mitzvah of Jason Gould, son of Barbra Streisand and Elliott Gould, was held at the shul.