Bill Text: CA SCR19 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Chaptered

California Senate Concurrent Resolution 19 (Prior Session Legislation)

Bill Title: Jewish American Heritage Month.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 15-6)

Status: (Passed) 2009-05-14 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Res. Chapter 24, Statutes of 2009. [SCR19 Detail]

Download: California-2009-SCR19-Chaptered.html

BILL NUMBER: SCR 19	CHAPTERED
	BILL TEXT

	RESOLUTION CHAPTER  24
	FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE  MAY 14, 2009
	ADOPTED IN SENATE  MARCH 23, 2009
	ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY  MAY 11, 2009
	AMENDED IN SENATE  MARCH 16, 2009

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Steinberg
   (Principal coauthors: Senators Florez, Pavley, and Lowenthal)
   (Principal coauthors: Assembly Members Block, Blumenfield,
Gilmore, Jones, Ruskin, and Solorio)
   (Coauthors: Senators Alquist, Runner, and Yee)
   (Coauthors: Assembly Members Bill Berryhill, Hayashi, Huffman,
Jeffries, Monning, Nestande, Niello, and Torlakson)

                        MARCH 4, 2009

   Relative to Jewish American Heritage Month.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SCR 19, Steinberg. Jewish American Heritage Month.
    This bill would designate May 2009 as Jewish American Heritage
Month.



   WHEREAS, The earliest Jewish immigrants came to California and
other parts of the Southwest as early as the seventeenth century,
fleeing persecution from the Spanish Inquisition. As "conversos,"
they had to practice their religion in secret to avoid detection of
their true religious faith by the Inquisition, which was active in
Spain's New World colonies; and
   WHEREAS, The next wave of Jewish immigration to California came
during the Gold Rush of 1849. Jews were among the original
"Forty-Niners," settling in San Francisco and the Gold Rush towns of
Nevada City, Grass Valley, Jackson, and Sacramento. Most of the
Jewish population were immigrants from Germany and Austria-Hungary;
and
   WHEREAS, Members of the pioneer Jewish community in California
enjoyed unprecedented freedom and social mobility to pursue their
dreams of independence and prosperity. Immigrants such as Adolph
Sutro, Levi Strauss, Isadore and Anthony Zellerbach, Aaron
Fleishhacker, and the Hellman family arrived in Gold Rush California
and founded some of the major business enterprises of the West. Some
of these businesses, like Levi Strauss and Wells Fargo Bank, are now
household names; and
   WHEREAS, In the socially mobile atmosphere of frontier California,
the Jewish community not only prospered but participated fully in
the state's political life. As early as 1852, Elkan Heydenfeldt and
Isaac Cardozo were elected to the California State Legislature.
Solomon Heydenfeldt served as a justice on the California Supreme
Court. Members of the Jewish community were elected mayors of
numerous California cities; and
   WHEREAS, Starting in the early twentieth century, a new wave of
Jewish immigrants arrived in California, mostly from the countries in
eastern Europe and Russia. They were fleeing religious persecution
and terrible poverty in their native lands and flocked to the cities
of the East Coast. These immigrants soon began making their way to
the Golden State, settling in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego,
Sacramento, and throughout the San Joaquin Valley. It was in
Hollywood that the motion picture industry began to develop and many
of its pioneers, such as Carl Laemmle, Adolph Zukor, Samuel Goldwyn,
Louis B. Mayer, and Jack Warner, were members of California's rapidly
growing Jewish community. Many Jewish performers of the silent and
early movie era, such as Fanny Brice, Bronco Billy Anderson, Theda
Bara, Al Jolson, and Douglas Fairbanks, also came to Hollywood and
helped start the motion picture industry; and
   WHEREAS, In the 1930s and 1940s and after the Second World War,
California welcomed refugees from Nazi persecution, who then
contributed to our state's business, cultural, and academic life.
These members of the Jewish community were joined by tens of
thousands of second generation families moving west to enjoy the
prosperity and growth of California in the postwar period and they
took advantage of California's advanced public university system,
moving rapidly into the middle class and the professions; and
   WHEREAS, A new wave of Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution and
political instability in the former Soviet Union and Iran began to
arrive in California in the 1970s and 1980s. After Tehran, Los
Angeles is now the city with the second largest ethnic Iranian
population in the world, the majority of which is Jewish; and
   WHEREAS, In the decades after the Second World War, the remaining
barriers to Jewish educational, economic, and social advancement fell
rapidly as California society led the way in tolerance of diversity
and a commitment to an open society. Jewish institutions, such as the
Skirbal Cultural Center and the Museum of Tolerance, have become
central institutions in California's cultural life; and
   WHEREAS, California has been home to the Jewish community since
the arrival of the earliest European settlers. Successive waves of
Jewish immigrants have come to California to find a better life.
California's openness has allowed the Jewish community to enjoy a
degree of freedom and prosperity unrivaled in history; now,
therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby designates May 2009
as Jewish American Heritage Month; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this
resolution to the author of this resolution for appropriate
distribution.