About the Ken Jewish Community

What is the Ken?

The Ken Jewish Community is the place where Latin Jewish families find friends for life who share their beliefs, values and traditions. Through a wide range of educational, leadership, social, performing arts, and sports programs and activities, its members strengthen their Jewish identity, build a connection with Israel, and maintain their Latin culture.

In the more than twenty-five years since its founding, the Ken Jewish Community has established itself firmly within the landscape of Jewish communal institutions in San Diego, occupying a distinctive space as the sole organization serving the Latino Jewish community in the area.

History of the Ken

During the early 1980s, a substantial number of Jewish families immigrated to the United States from Mexico City and Tijuana to address economic and security concerns. When their social grouping outgrew the backyards of their homes in Chula Vista and other East County neighborhoods where they had settled, the families determined to find a more permanent place for their community to congregate. Having secured this first home in Chula Vista, the community took steps to formalize its identity and operations – creating a governing board, recruiting members, and hiring a sheliaj to oversee the youth programs which have been the central offering of the Ken since its inception.

During the intervening years, membership has grown and the Ken has called several locations home. In 2008, as a result of a capital campaign conducted in collaboration with the San Diego Jewish Academy, the Ken secured space on the SDJA campus, enabling the organization to unify at one location its youth program activities, other indoor and outdoor activities, and administrative offices.

Although the youth movement has long been and will continue to be the central effort of the Ken Jewish Community, with a new facility and a revised governance structure approved at the General Assembly of 2008 the Ken continues to expand its program of offerings for various age-segments of its constituency.