JTA – Two blocks away: a school reduced to ruins. Across the street: rubble. Under the door: ashes. And yet, in Kehillat Israel, things seem to be the same as they were earlier this week, before the fires broke out.
That’s what members of this synagogue discovered when they returned to the building Thursday, after the fire that devastated Pacific Palisades.
An NBC News reporter, who himself attended Kehillat Israel throughout his childhood, accompanies Rabbi Amy Bernstein, Rabbi Daniel Sher and the hazan – cantor – Chayim Frenkel as they take stock of the remarkable survival of their synagogue amid the wave of destruction that razed the Los Angeles neighborhood.
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“It’s surreal,” Sher says.
“Amazing,” adds Bernstein, contemplating the intact hedges of the Reconstructionist synagogue and the security fence that hasn’t melted.
Kehillat Israel’s remarkable survival amid the vagaries of the fires makes it a symbol of hope and resilience for Pacific Palisades, a neighborhood nestled between the beach and the mountains, whose 25,000 residents include a number of Hollywood celebrities.
“It’s now a refuge for the whole community, not just the Jewish community,” Frenkel told journalist Jacob Soboroff in the synagogue’s sunny, modern sanctuary. The building was dedicated in 1997, after Kehillat Israel’s membership – now numbering more than 1,000 families – outgrew the capacity of its previous home.
Among the thousands of structures destroyed in Pacific Palisades were the homes of three members of the rabbinate, as well as those of the synagogue’s rabbi, Stephen Carr Reuben, and hundreds of members of Kehillat Israel.
“You could fill the sanctuary with Jews who lost their homes,” Soboroff says.
“That’s right,” Frenkel replies.
“At least this house is still standing for so many people,” Bernstein said, crying.
“For many of us, this is our home. »
Fires continue in several parts of Los Angeles County and conditions continue to make it difficult to contain them, although firefighters have made progress. Across town in Pasadena, a historic synagogue was destroyed early in the fire. On Thursday, the Pasadena synagogue – which also houses a Jewish center – was still burning, as a GoFundMe campaign began circulating to collect donations to help the community reorganize.
Today, Los Angeles is preparing to experience its first Shabbat since the start of the fires. Synagogues that can are opening their doors to evacuees and organizing meals for all those in need, part of a larger Jewish community relief effort. Congregation Or Ami, located in Calabasas near a new Kenneth fire – quickly contained – announced that it would hold services at Toledo High School, a Jewish school located several miles from the forests that fueled the fires.
On his Instagram page Thursday, Reuben, a former professional percussionist who retired from Kehillat Israel in 2014, said he already had plans for that evening.
“I pray for all of us who are still here and still have our loved ones. I am grateful for everyone who has spent the last two days in California and beyond trying to fight these fires and save lives,” he said from his hotel room, where he showed a single suitcase that contained everything he had taken from home.
“Tomorrow I’ll be playing drums – not mine, because it burned – at Temple Isaiah at 6:15 a.m. in Los Angeles for their jazz service. It will probably bring me some joy and peace. »
