Pasadena Jewish Temple marks Eaton fire anniversary on ‘hallowed ground’

There was none of the strong winds that whipped embers into hungry flames at the place where the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center once stood. But on Tuesday night, on the eve of Jan. 7, about 400 people gathered under big white tent on North Altadena Drive, the first time the synagogue’s congregants have been together at the site.

“Tonight is our time to grieve for the loss we endured one year ago,” the temple’s Rabbi Joshua Ratner said. “This space is for all of us to mourn together, pay tribute to those we lost, and acknowledge the depth of our sorrow.”

Ratner, who began his tenure at the temple in July, invited his congregation to rededicate the hallowed ground of their longtime sanctuary in many ways, including collecting colored stones to place at a Tree of Life, collecting testimonials of memories from the old campus, and having congregants grow trees that they can later replant when the synagogue and campus is rebuilt in three to four years.

The communal memorial gathering marks the one-year anniversary of the Eaton fire, which burned thousands of homes and killed at least 19 people.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who received an award at the event, acknowledged the next day’s anniversary will be a difficult one for her, even as she thanked the Jewish community for making her a better leader.

“Tonight, I look at this as a time of hope, of what can be done when we work together,” she said.

Mournful Kaddish were sung to tally the losses: the synagogue and campus, including the B’nai Simcha Community Preschool, which served 400 families, and the original building, which was constructed in 1941. About 15 member families lost their homes in the blaze, and many remain displaced.

“Many people haven’t even been able to handle driving by before tonight,” Melissa Levy, executive director of the temple, said of the temple’s 430 member units, which include individuals or families. The sacred space they knew looks different now, she added, but they can look at it as a clean slate.

Without its buildings, congregants celebrated Shabbat at donated spaces, such as Mayfield Senior School in Pasadena, before renting offices at First United Methodist Church in Pasadena. The preschool has found new quarters at Frostig School down the street from their original site. Jewish holidays were celebrated in members’ homes or rented locations such as Caltech in Pasadena.

Cantor Ruth Berman Harris, her husband and a team of temple members saved the temple’s 13 Torah scrolls the night the blaze exploded. The Torah scrolls are now safely in the keeping of the Huntington Library in San Marino.

According to the Jewish Federation Los Angeles, between 45,000 and 59,000 Jewish households were affected bv the fires, or a total of about 147,000 people. The federation raised just over $9 million for its Wildfire Crisis Relief Fund, with about 70% of that total coming from out of state donors.

Theresa Brekan of Pasadena, is the operations manager for the temple. Her job now includes juggling two sites and any rentals they need for events and programs. Returning to the cleared lot of the temple for the first time since the fires, Brekan said she got chills.

“There were so many memories in this place, and I can still feel the love,” she said.