Edgar Magnin (July 1, 1890 – July 17, 1984) was rabbi and spiritual leader of

Wilshire Boulevard Temple Wilshire Boulevard Temple, known from 1862 to 1933 as Congregation B'nai B'rith, is the oldest Jewish congregation in Los Angeles, California. Wilshire Boulevard Temple's main building, with a sanctuary topped by a large Byzantine revival dome an ...

(previously Congregation B'nai B'rith), the oldest

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

congregation in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Magnin served at the temple for 69 years and was considered one of the most prominent Jewish leaders in the United States, sometimes called the "Rabbi to the Stars" because of his close connections to the

Hollywood film industry The cinema of the United States, consisting mainly of major film studios (also known as Hollywood) along with some independent film, has had a large effect on the global film industry since the early 20th century. The dominant style of Ame ...

Early life

Edgar Fogel Magnin was born on July 1, 1890, in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

.AP
RABBI EDGAR F. MAGNIN
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'',Vernon Scott
Edgar Magnin Obituary
''UPI Hollywood Reporter'', July 18, 1984 His grandparents,

Mary Ann Magnin Mary Ann Magnin (1850–1943) was a Dutch-American businesswoman. She was the co-founder of I. Magnin, an upscale "specialty store" in San Francisco, California. Early life Mary Ann Cohen was born in 1850 in Scheveningen, The Hague, the Netherlan ...

and Isaac Magnin, founded the

I. Magnin I. Magnin & Company was a San Francisco, California-based high fashion and specialty goods luxury department store. Over the course of its existence, it expanded across the West into Southern California and the adjoining states of Arizona, Oregon, ...

department store chain. He was ordained in Judaism's

Reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...

movement by the Hebrew Union College in 1914.

Career

Magnin became the rabbi of Congregation B'nai B'rith in

in 1915. After becoming senior rabbi of the oldest Jewish congregation in Los Angeles in 1919, he distinguished his sixty-nine-year tenure at

through close ties with the motion picture and television industry. Magnin was in charge of the temple during the construction and opening of its

Wilshire Center Wilshire Center is a neighborhood in the Wilshire region of Los Angeles, California. Geography The name "Wilshire Center" is a relatively modern moniker that refers to much of the eastern portion of the Wilshire Community Plan area (CPA), ge ...

building, now listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. The building is known for its distinctive stained glass windows and its immense

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

revival dome. It is also known for Magnin's decision to include biblically-themed figurative murals, now known as the Warner Murals; these were highly unusual, given Judaism's traditional avoidance of figurative synagogue art. Magnin was active in Los Angeles civic affairs and in interfaith dialogue. He was a charter board member of the Hollywood Bowl. Among the many life-cycle events he performed were the wedding of

Norma Shearer Edith Norma Shearer (August 11, 1902June 12, 1983) was a Canadian-American actress who was active on film from 1919 through 1942. Shearer often played spunky, sexually liberated ingénues. She appeared in adaptations of Noël Coward, Eugene O'N ...

and

Irving Thalberg Irving Grant Thalberg (May 30, 1899 – September 14, 1936) was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and ability to select scripts, choose actors, gather productio ...

, and the funerals of numerous entertainment figures and movie moguls. He participated in the inaugural ceremonies of Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan, and served on more than 20 executive boards and advisory councils.

Personal life

He was married to Evelyn Magnin. They had a son and a daughter, radio host and conspiracy theorist Mae Brussell.'Rabbi To Deliver Sunday Sermon', ''

The Stanford Daily ''The Stanford Daily'' is the student-run, independent daily newspaper serving Stanford University. ''The Daily'' is distributed throughout campus and the surrounding community of Palo Alto, California, United States. It has published since the ...

'', Volume 99a, Issue 8, 17 July 1941

/ref> They resided in Beverly Hills, California.

Death

Magnin died on July 17, 1984, in Beverly Hills, California. He is buried at the Home of Peace Cemetery in

East Los Angeles, California East Los Angeles ( es, Este de Los Ángeles), or East L.A., is an unincorporated area in Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 118,786, a drop of 6.1% from 2010, when it was 126,496. For statistical purpo ...

References

External links

Edgar F. Magnin Papers
at

The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, founded in 1947, is committed to preserving a documentary heritage of the religious, organizational, economic, cultural, personal, social and family life of American Jewry. It has be ...

Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin
from the Regional Oral History Office {{DEFAULTSORT:Magnin, Edgar 1890 births 1984 deaths People from San Francisco People from Los Angeles People from Beverly Hills, California Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion alumni American people of Dutch-Jewish descent American Reform rabbis Burials at Home of Peace Cemetery Magnin family