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Wilshire Temple to co-run a new center with Korean community

July 21, 2014

The Wilshire Boulevard Temple held a groundbreaking ceremony Sunday to announce the Karsh Family Social Service Center.

The Wilshire Boulevard Temple announced Sunday during an expansion ceremony its plans to co-run a new center with the Korean community.

The temple, which was designated as a National Register of Historic Place in 1984, is the city’s oldest Jewish congregation. It plans to complete the Karsh Family Social Service Center, a place for low-income residents to participate in and freely enjoy social welfare programs, in Feb. 2016.

The temple is a representative place in Los Angeles’ Koreatown, and the additional center will be a place in which the Jewish and Korean communities can find harmony and prosperity, said Rabbi M. Beaumont Shapiro.

Shapiro said the temple is currently in talks with Korean nonprofit organizations about operation and business.

“KYCC will administer a variety of community programs with the Wilshire Temple when the center is finished,” said Song Jung-ho, executive director of Koreatown Youth and Community Center. “We expect Wilshire Temple to maintain a cooperative relationship with the Korean community.”

The Karsh center will feature, among others, an ophthalmic clinic, a psychiatric clinic, a food bank, a clothing consignment center, an ESL program and computer education programs offered in English, Korean and Spanish.

Another Korean organization, the Korean Health, Education, Information & Research, will also participate in the new center.

“KHEIR plans to run a dentist clinic program inside the center,” KHEIR Chief Executive Erin Park said. “Wilshire Temple is a symbol of Koreatown, and I think it will become a place that leads social welfare while showing cooperation between the Jewish and Korean communities.”