L.A. wildfires destroy numerous houses of worship. Clergy and congregants vow to persevere

Flames were already attacking the campus of Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center when the cantor, Ruth Berman Harris, and three companions rushed in to rescue its sacred Torah scrolls.

Flames were already attacking the campus of Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center when the cantor, Ruth Berman Harris, and three companions rushed in to rescue its sacred Torah scrolls.

Physically, that’s now all that is left of the 80-year-old synagogue, destroyed by wildfires that also destroyed a mosque, a Catholic parish and a half-dozen Protestant churches. Many members of these congregations were among the thousands of Angelenos who lost their homes this week. As the threat of new fires persisted, clergy were left with the huge challenges of offering comfort and pondering paths toward rebuilding and recovery.

“There’s absolutely nothing except for a few walls and the empty space,” said the Pasadena Jewish Center’s executive director, Melissa Levy.

Nevertheless, hundreds of its congregants have gone to the site “to say, ‘Goodbye’” to the places where they celebrated milestones in their faith and family lives, Levy added.

Navigating road closures to rescue Torah scrolls

Berman Harris — along with her husband, another congregant and a custodian — managed to get the Torah scrolls into their cars and whisked away to safety before the synagogue was engulfed in flames Tuesday night.

“It’s the heartbeat of any Jewish community,” she said of the Torah. That’s why, despite road closures, she rushed in to try to save the scrolls after a congregant who lives near the temple called her to say the flames were getting closer.