A bronze plaque once told visitors that a quiet corner of Chavez Ravine was the first Jewish site in Los Angeles. The plaque is gone, and a high school student named Gabriel Katrikh, known to friends as Gavi, is working to put it back.
Gavi is a junior at a Los Angeles high school and a Scout in BSA Troop 360. Instead of lamenting the lost heritage, he made it his Eagle Scout project. Now, he is raising money for a replacement plaque and planning a volunteer cleanup of the site. Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary is proud to support his work alongside the California Landmark Foundation.
The story reaches back to the earliest years of Jewish life in the city, and it speaks to something we care about every day at Hillside: looking after the places where a community remembers its people.
The First Jewish Site in Los Angeles
In 1854, the small Jewish community of Los Angeles formed the Hebrew Benevolent Society, the first charitable organization in the city. In 1855, the Society bought three acres in Chavez Ravine from the city council for one dollar and set the land aside as a sacred burial ground. More than 300 people were laid to rest there.
As Los Angeles grew around the cemetery, the Society ended burials in 1902, and the graves were moved between 1902 and 1910 to Home of Peace Cemetery in East Los Angeles, which is still open today. In 1968, the State of California registered the original site as California Historical Landmark No. 822, “First Jewish Site in Los Angeles,” and a bronze plaque was placed there to tell its story.
The Plaque that Disappeared
Sometime between 2020 and 2022, thieves pried the plaque off its stone, most likely to sell the metal for scrap. Today the marker stands empty on Lilac Terrace, near Dodger Stadium, on land that is partly used as a fire department training center.
Gavi does not claim to know why it was taken. “I don’t think it’s antisemitism,” he said. “I think somebody was just trying to steal it and make some money.” He is quick to add that the motive changes little about the loss. “Even if it wasn’t for antisemitic reasons, we forgot history,” he said. “I think that’s detrimental to understanding why we’re here and how we’ve gotten here. We need that history.”
He also sees the loss as larger than one community. “The Jewish people have done quite a bit in Los Angeles,” Gavi said, pointing to the hospitals Jewish Angelenos founded and to the way Chavez Ravine itself changed over time. “This is a pretty important part to that history too,” he said. “Not just our Jewish community. Part of LA history.”
Gavi’s Eagle Scout Project
The project began on a Shabbat morning at synagogue, when a fellow congregant told Gavi that the office of Assemblymember Isaac Bryan hoped to see the plaque restored and might offer it as an Eagle Scout project. Gavi followed up by email, one introduction led to another, and the path eventually reached Hillside and the California Landmark Foundation.
The project has two parts. The first is raising the money for a replacement plaque, which has been quoted at $3,477.58 including tax and shipping, so Gavi’s goal is $3,500. The state and the city do not pay to replace stolen landmark plaques, which means the plaque returns only if people chip in. The second part is a volunteer cleanup day at the site, planned around the fire department’s schedule and rules, so that the landmark receives the care it deserves.
The new plaque will be made of aluminum instead of bronze. Gavi, the California Landmark Foundation, and Hillside chose it together, because aluminum costs less, keeps the original title and historical text, and is far less attractive to thieves who sell metal for scrap. The group has also talked through other ways to protect it, including a gate and a camera, and Gavi is continuing those conversations with the people who manage the site.
Gavi is balancing all of this with a junior year course load. So far, he says, the work has been mostly emails, but he hopes to finish by the end of the school year.
Why it matters to him
Gavi lives in Pico-Robertson, a neighborhood with a large Jewish community, and he says the project has made him think about how that community took root. “There’s so much Jewish history in Los Angeles,” he said. “We’ve been here for so long, and we’re really thriving now. To see how that got its roots, and what got me here today, is amazing.”
The subject of Jewish burial became personal for him only weeks ago. After Yom Kippur this year, his rabbi asked whether any boys at the school could help at the funeral of a Jewish woman who had died with almost no family nearby. Traditional prayers at the grave require a minyan, a quorum of ten, and the family needed enough people to make one. Gavi went to Mount Sinai cemetery, where he helped lower the casket and fill the grave. He had never done so before, and he called it a powerful moment.
Tradition has a name for that kind of service, chesed shel emet, a true act of kindness, because the person who receives it can never repay it. Gavi sees a connection to his project. “I do feel deeply connected to honoring the legacy of the people who were buried here,” he said, “and letting people know that the history of the LA Jewish community is the history of Los Angeles, is the history of Chavez Ravine, and not just leaving it as an empty marker.”
How Hillside is supporting the project
Hillside is a Jewish cemetery, and caring for the memory of those who rest in Jewish ground is part of our work. When Gavi’s project reached us, we were glad to take part. We are working with Gavi and the California Landmark Foundation to bring the plaque back, we helped choose aluminum as a lasting and less costly material, and Hillside has made a $200 contribution to the replacement fund, the first gift to Gavi’s campaign.
The goal is $3,500. Every dollar raised goes to the plaque, and anything beyond the goal goes toward installation and cleanup supplies. Gavi’s message to the community is simple. “Donate to the GoFundMe,” he said. “It’s not so much, it’s $3,500. We can get it.”
You can give, or share the page with friends, family, and your congregation, at
https://www.gofundme.com/f/restore-las-first-jewish-site
Sharing helps just as much as giving, and we whole heartedly support the restoration of this essential piece of Jewish History in Los Angeles.
