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Night fell on the Pasadena Temple.
The community was bracing for strong winds. Hebrew school had previously been canceled. But no one was prepared for a fire to break out and destroy the synagogue.
Lawrence Harris and his wife, Ruth, a longtime cantor, rushed to Pasadena’s Jewish Temple and Center, trying to salvage what they could as embers began to rain down. They saved 13 Torah before fleeing.
When Harris returned the next day, the fire was still smoldering as he approached. The roof of the synagogue collapsed and most of the walls were destroyed. Burnt citrus nuts were clinging to the branches.
However, there was still one wall in the banquet hall.
Harris climbed onto the bricks and nails and looked out at the mural carved into the width of the wall. It was hidden behind a brick wall for decades. Semitic men and women walked through the desert with their animals. Some people played musical instruments. In the center was a palm tree. This is a Biblical symbol of victory. The image was faint, but it shone brightly in the sunlight.
An etched mural stands alone in Pasadena’s Jewish Temple and Center after it was destroyed in the Eaton Fire. (Wally Scully/Los Angeles Times)
(Wally Scully/Los Angeles Times)
As word of the mural’s discovery spread, some members wondered if the image could partially depict the 40 years Jews spent wandering in the desert testing their faith in God. It felt profound to make this discovery at a time when communities are facing new displacement.
“I don’t know how, but the fire took away the plaster and the stone slabs, and this mural remained intact,” Harris said. “And there’s nothing else in this whole thing [area] All that remains except for that mural. ”
“I think this is trying to teach us a lesson,” member Monica Levine said of the mural and her belief that it represents overcoming hardship. .
The synagogue has served the Pasadena area for more than 100 years, moving to Altadena Drive in 1941, taking over a former warehouse space. Christine Galloway, a long-time member with a background in archeology, believes the mural may date from the 1920s and may have been transferred to the wall via tapestry. However, its origin remains a mystery. So far, not a single member has been able to recall its history.
“How on earth did this survive?” Galloway, 48, said in disbelief. “The sight is so full of hope and joy…and it’s right in the middle of these ashes.”
Galloway, a professor of Hebrew history, and his colleagues believe these depictions are reminiscent of Biblical scenes such as the Exodus from Egypt, but it is unclear exactly what is depicted.
Eaton Fire destroys Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center.
(Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)
Galloway considered the Pasadena Temple his second home after moving to the area from the East Coast in 2011. Her children grew up there. Her oldest sons are some of the last members remaining in the space after playing basketball there the Monday night before the fire, and her youngest son will celebrate his bar mitzvah there later this year. It was planned.
The loss of the synagogue weighed heavily on Galloway and her family. But the discovery of the mural brought solace during one of the community’s darkest times.
“This feels like a phoenix rising out of the fire,” she said.
The Eaton Fire destroyed thousands of buildings and burned more than 14,000 acres in Pasadena and Altadena. The earliest footage of the fire, not far from the Jewish center, showed residents of a nursing home being tragically evacuated and a McDonald’s burnt to the ground.
At least 20 members, including the temple’s rabbi who lives minutes away, were left homeless.
Rabbi Joshua Levine Greater was evacuated when the Eaton Fire broke out. The next day, he drove back to the area and saw that many parts of the house had survived the flames, leading him to believe that his home would too. Then I realized that my house was completely burnt down. This is one of five houses burned in the neighborhood.
“It’s tragic,” he said. “Losing the home I lived in for 22 years and the synagogue I loved for the same amount of time is a double shot.”
The community is still deciding where to hold services in the long term. A few days after the fire, a local Catholic high school offered space to the clergy. The rabbi told the members:
“Our community is broken, both mentally and physically. It’s okay not to be okay.”
Grater, who is currently in downtown Los Angeles, has not yet seen the mural. But he believes the discovery embodies Jewish ideology.
“We are a historical people. We know that in Jerusalem and the Land of Israel, there is mural upon mural and stone upon stone,” said Grater, 54. . “The fact that this was a hidden mural is a very Jewish idea.”
The temple’s kindergarten was gutted and the synagogue, which once held 1,000 people, was destroyed. Thousands of books were also lost.
A few days after the fire, Amy Whitman Richardson took her daughter Quinn to see what was left. Whitman Richardson, 45, grew up in the temple as part of a three-generation family of believers. At her daughter’s bat mitzvah last year, she reflected on what she herself celebrated a few years ago and imagined what it would be like to see her children’s future children there years from now. did.
“I’ve been in the temple since I was born, and so have my children,” she said as she surveyed the wreckage. “I haven’t processed it yet.”
The sunlight was beginning to fade, casting shadows across the space. However, the mural remained illuminated. Mother and daughter walked arm in arm towards the scene.
Whitman Richardson watched the scene in awe.
“It’s a small miracle.”
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