Jewish Home for the Aged (former) Mural – Los Angeles CA

Description

In 1937, Saul Rabino painted a mural, “Moses—Hebrew Prophets,” for the Jewish Home for the Aged in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA. He received funding from the Federal Art Project (FAP).

Inspired by the Los Angeles County Poor Farm in Downey, CA, the Hebrew Sheltering Association opened its Home for the Aged  in August 1915. The Home provided “housing to around forty full-time residents ranging from seventy to ninety-three years old, as well as daily kosher meals, clothing, and free religious services at Congregation Tiferes Israel (located just across the street on East First) to all of those in need” (see Luce, “Hebrew Sheltering and Home for the Aged”). Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Home in 1946.

Located in the Home’s auditorium, Rabino’s oil-on-canvas mural depicted scenes from the Torah and a Jerusalem cityscape. The mural’s current status is unknown.

Born in Odessa in 1892, Rabino studied at the Russian Imperial Art School and Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. He immigrated to the United States in 1922 and, after relocating to Los Angeles, began working for the FAP. “As a prolific worker he produced about forty images on subjects like the WPA workers, chess players, musicians, and the unemployed” (see “Saul Jacob Rabino Biography”).