Pasadena Temple community is bigger than ever, a year after Eaton fire took its synagogue

The Eaton fire tore through the historic Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center one year ago, destroying its synagogue and preschool and thousands of books. A hidden mural initially survived, offering inspiration to congregants, but even that had to ultimately be removed.

Yet amid the loss, in the year since the devastation, the community has not faltered.

In temporary spaces — the auditorium of a Catholic high school, a nearby Methodist church, a back yard — members have continued to gather regularly for prayer and celebration. Laurence Harris, a longtime member and husband of the temple’s cantor, Ruth, who together with her saved multiple Torahs from burning last year, said that the community has grown in the year since.

“Attendance and services have been higher than they’ve ever been,” he said. “I think 400 people are showing up on a Tuesday night to share in the sadness and the mourning of the one-year anniversary, and also the hope for the future.”

On the eve of the anniversary of the fire, the temple members, neighbors and supporters gathered under a blue-lit tent erected in the empty lot that had housed the sanctuary since 1941, remembering what was lost and imagining the future of the space that is expected to be rebuilt in the coming years.

“PJTC never has been defined by walls,” Rabbi Joshua Ratner said. “It is defined by our congregants and by the strength of our shared purpose. Our crisis, our grief, our loss also contains within it the seeds of a rebirth that we consecrate this evening.”

At the time of the fire, the close-knit congregation had about 400 member families, most of whom live in the geographic area ranging from La Cañada Flintridge and La Crescenta to Monrovia and Arcadia.

Temple president Clark Linstone announced that design and construction plans for the rebuild are expected to be completed in the next year. He presented an award to L.A. County Supt. Kathryn Barger, whose district includes Altadena and Pasadena. Barger was credited for lobbying to get the space cleared after the fire, before the Army Corps of Engineers’ debris removal plan included places of worship.

“I’m grateful that you gave me the opportunity to make it happen because what happened here helped every single faith-based church in the area,” Barger said.

While most in the crowd cheered Barger, at least one person was unhappy with her work. As the supervisor left the event, Izzy T., 23, who did not want to use his last name, faulted her for failures to support west Altadena, where evacuation orders were issued too late and where most deaths occurred.

“It’s devastating to see people of a marginalized community in Altadena be completely ignored,” he said.

The night was a mix of jubilant reunions and raw emotion.

In the middle of the room, a group of neighbors who lived around the temple on Meguiar Drive sat together. Most of their homes were lost in the fire.

For Dick and Crystal Davis, 72 and 70, the fire marked the second time they lost their home to flames. In 1993, the Kinneloa fire destroyed their residence in Altadena. They moved south to Pasadena and onto Meguiar in 2000, sure that no fire would find them so far from the mountainside.

The loss was felt deeply during the holidays.

In a letter sent soon after the fire destroyed their temple, leaders of the congregation wrote, “God provides us with the instructions of how to build sacred space - so that God might dwell b’tocham - among and within them.”

“Christmas was hard,” Crystal Davis said, tearfully. “All these people used to come to our house for a block party.”

Judy Hill’s home was one of the four homes that survived on a street of 13. Nowadays, it’s quiet. Hill, 65, and her husband, Fred, 82, are natives of Pasadena and moved to their house five years ago. The anniversary has been difficult to process.

“It’s a lot of PTSD picking up,” Judy Hill said.

Mark Aguilnik, 51, has been a member of the temple since 2020 after moving from Chicago. In the year since the temple burned, he said that he feels closer to the community than ever.

“When you lose something, you realize how impactful it is and you didn’t know how much you loved it until it’s taken away,” he said. “I think that the clergy and the leadership have done an exceptional job at finding space and really making us understand that the synagogue is the community — it’s not a physical structure ... I feel like there’s a better sense of community because we had something happen to us.”

As the programming concluded, visiting Rabbi Edward Feinstein addressed the crowd with a message of hope.

“Loss can break us. Loss leaves us dizzy with grief and with pain and with rage,” he said. “But sometimes a blessing comes our way. And as we reach ourselves out of the darkness of loss, light can reach us.”

Before dinner was served, the band Mostly Kosher played “L’Chaim” from “Fiddler on the Roof.” As the “to life” chorus crescendoed, a spontaneous hora began. The dancers wove through the crowd as others clapped along in raucous celebration.