Click a name to jump to their portrait
– Shoshanna and Cedric Hart
– Kyle Young and Ben Winnick
– Dr. Stacie Cook and LCDR Jeff Cook
– Fernando Zweifach Lopez Jr.
– Yaniv and Liron Scherson
– Eve Rosenberg
– Chaya and Shmuely Ertel
– Ruth Platner z”l
– Debbie Macdonald and Nancy Kossan
– Jessica Pressman and Brad Lupien
– Julie Avanzino and Dr. Chad Valderrama
– Rabbi George and Alison Wielechowski
– Toni and Lee Leichtag, of blessed memory
Click their portrait to read their story
Today’s Jewish families in San Diego, like those elsewhere, reflect the rich diversity of a community.
The participants in This is San Diego Jewry represent this broad cross-section: white, African-American, Asian-American, Latinx; straight, LGBTQ+, and nonbinary; Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, Renewal, and unaffiliated; Jews by birth and Jews by choice; those married to fellow Jews, as well as to non-Jews and partners with no religion.
Shoshannah and Cedric Hart with Baby Ezra
Kyle Young and Ben Winnick
Dr. Stacie Cook and Lieutenant Commander Jeff Cook with Ari and Olive
Some participants are involved in one of San Diego’s 20 or so synagogues. Others express their Jewishness through smaller gatherings, such as havurot, and participation in other Jewish organizations. Some find meaning in the civic sphere-through political activism, volunteerism, and philanthropy.
Fernando Zweifach López Jr.
Yaniv and Liron Scherson with Noam and Amit
Eve Rosenberg
What binds all San Diego Jewry participants are their pride in their connection to Judaism, their hunger for community and their desire to see the continued vibrancy of Jewish life, in San Diego and beyond.
Chaya and Shmuley Ertel Family
Ruth Platner z”l
Debbie Macdonald and Nancy Kossan
Jessica Pressman and Brad Lupien Family with Jonah and Sydney
The Hive at Leichtag Commons is pleased to showcase Jews of San Diego in their multifaceted splendor and to invite visitors to this exhibit to consider the meaning of their Jewishness, or other identities, in their own lives.
Julie Avanzino and Dr. Chad Valderrama with Olivia
Rabbi George and Alison Wielechowski with Lennon and Gideon
Toni and Lee Leichtag, of blessed memory
History of San Diego Jewish Community
Like other North American Jewish communities, San Diego’s has experienced major geographic and demographic shifts over the decades. In the 1950s and 60s, a much smaller San Diego Jewish population was concentrated in the southern and eastern part of the city and county—in La Mesa and Del Cerro, near San Diego State University.
A decade later, with the founding of the University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla, and of the neighboring Salk Institute, named for its founder, Dr. Jonas Salk, the American Jew who discovered the polio vaccine, many San Diego Jews migrated north and west to the new educational and research hub.
The growth of the San Diego Jewish community in the 1980s and 90s, thanks in part of immigration from South Africa, Israel, Mexico, and the former Soviet Union, led to more movement north along the coast—to Del Mar and the Carmel Valley. And since the 2000s, many Jewish families have created homes and communities for themselves even farther north and east: in Solana Beach, Encinitas, Carlsbad, Vista, Poway, and Escondido.
Writer: Robert Nagler Miller
Photographer: Jordan Daniels
Meet the Photographer
Our Thanks
The Hive at Leichtag Commons wants to thank the San Diego community for welcoming this exhibition with open hearts and for participating in creating a strong, diverse and thriving Jewish community. We also would like to thank everyone who volunteered to be a participant in the exhibit.
A huge thank you to the writer, Robert Nagler Miller, for telling the stories of the San Diego Jewish community and weaving them into this exhibit.
We were honored to work with our co-sponsors of This is San Diego Jewry
