Can't We Ever Go Home?

Celia is a happy child, living with her family in the Bronx in 1911. In her supportive community, relatives and friends abound. But when her father uproots the family with a move to California, Celia's life changes forever-and not necessarily for the better. Out West, one tragedy after another befalls Celia's family, until Celia and her younger sister find themselves in a previously unthinkable situation: their father is dead, their mother is gravely ill, and the girls become wards of the newly opened Jewish Orphans' Home of Los Angeles.

Life in the orphanage isn't as bad as Celia imagines. The founders wanted to create a benevolent sanctuary for orphaned Jewish children, and the home lives up to its mission. Celia is fed and clothed, goes to a local public school, attends synagogue services, and has adventures. Mother visits when she can, but those brief reunions are increasingly bittersweet. More than anything, Celia longs for her family and a true home of her own.

Through Celia's story, "Can't We Ever Go Home?," light is shed on the lives of hundreds of children who passed through the Jewish Orphans' Home of Los Angeles.