At least five people are dead and tens of thousands have evacuated or been told to evacuate Los Angeles County as wildfires that reportedly span more than 25,000 acres continue to rage in southern California, fuelled by life-threatening winds.
The destruction “is just devastating at the moment,” according to Noah Farkas, a rabbi and the president and CEO of the Jewish Federation Los Angeles.
“Fires devastate so much more than just property,” Farkas told JNS. “They devastate memories, connections to places. It’s hard to go back to a park where you used to play with your family and have that just be gone.”
The fire feels like prior ones in many ways, but “in other ways, it’s totally unprecedented because it’s everywhere at once,” Farkas said. Still, he thinks that the Federation and some of its related agencies can handle the local Jewish community’s urgent needs.
“We’ve been operating at this heightened tempo for so long after Oct. 7,” he said.
Daniel Sher, associate rabbi of Kehillat Israel, a Reconstructionist synagogue in the Pacific Palisades, spoke through tears in an Instagram video, in which he described his home going up in flames.
The Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center burns (Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images
“I cannot begin to describe the feeling that I’m currently holding, as I hear from so many beloved community members, who’ve lost their homes, while my family has found out we’ve lost our home,” he said in the video.
“Our community that we love so dearly is in disarray,” he added. “But I do know that we will continue to care for one another, to reach out to one another and we will rebuild.”
The Chabad in the Pacific Palisades stated that it was able to save six Torah scrolls. “Times like these remind us how essential it is to come together, and we want to do everything we can to support one another,” it added.
Jason Moss, executive director of the Jewish Federation of the Greater San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys, told JNS that the Pasadena Jewish Center and Temple, a more than 100-year-old Conservative synagogue, and the adjacent, 40-year-old B’nai Simcha Jewish Community Preschool were destroyed in the fires.
“We lost an institution that people grew up at and had life experiences at, got married, had baby namings, built community and built relationships,” Moss told JNS. “All of it’s gone.”
“As of yesterday, the Jewish community of the San Gabriel Valley has been changed forever,” he said.
Many local Jewish congregations have offered to host the Pasadena Jewish Center and Temple until it can find a new home, according to Moss.
“The community works closely with one another, so it doesn’t surprise me that this support is coming in,” he told JNS.
Yossi Segelman, executive director of Our Big Kitchen LA, told JNS that his nonprofit, which prepares hot meals for needy people in the community and beyond, now has a waitlist of 100 people looking to volunteer.
“The response of the Jewish community has been absolutely incredible,” he said. “It’s such a mitzvah.”
