A Place to Gather all the People

Written by Writings & Sermons by others — 5 March 2019

A bit of context before I begin.  From the first week of November till mid December I was on my Alyth sponsored Sabbatical learning for this community from ten American Synagogues and eight Jewish organisations in Boston, New York, Los Angeles and Phoenix.  I had the opportunity to write and deliver to the Alyth leadership a detailed report of some 7000 words of what I learned and I would like to share some of that with you this morning.

In 1862 the first Synagogue in Los Angeles was founded – Congregation B’nai Brith.   It began as an Orthodox synagogue though by 1885, under the leadership of Rabbi Emmanuel Schreiber it had become Reform in practice, formally joining the American Reform Movement, the UAHC ten years later.   The congregation was ambitious and grew in size of membership and breadth of Jewish activity.  Its current main sanctuary, located at 3663 Wilshire Boulevard in West Los Angeles, was dedicated in 1929.  The Synagogue soon become known, like our shul, for its location – though Wilshire Boulevard Temple does have rather more Hollywood ring to it than Alyth Synagogue.  And Hollywood it was.

It was the Shul to which the Hollywood Jewish royalty belonged.  The interior murals were painted by a team led by the artist responsible for the sets of the Ten Commandments and were donated by three brothers:  Jack, Harry and Abraham Warner – yes, the Warner Brothers.   The cost of painting the Shema on the oculus of the dome above the sanctuary was donated by Irving Thalberg, head of production at M-G-M.  Louis B Mayer (the Mayer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) donated the stained-glass windows and the founder of Universal Studios, Carl Laemmle, donated the bronze Havdalah spice box inspired chandeliers.

I got to go to a Friday night service at Wilshire Boulevard Temple which was nice – actually not amazing like some of the others I attended but yes, nice, friendly and haimsche.  The sanctuary in which the service was held took some finding as the Synagogue now has two campuses.

 

That’s not all – Wilshire Boulevard Temple also has a children’s camp site in the Malibu Hills and an adult conference centre nearby.  There is a sports complex on the roof of one of the Synagogue campuses, a primary school and a kindergarten, an elder care centre, a 55,000sq foot concert hall and events centre. The Jewish duty of Tikkun Olam is not overlooked – the Wilshire Boulevard Temple campuses include a free eye clinic, dental clinic and a food bank.  That’s ambitious for you!   Before I went many people in Los Angeles told me with much awe how much money the Synagogue’s Senior Rabbi, Steve Leder had raised since 2012 to make all this possible:   $118 million, from his own congregation.

A good part of me thought, how could this be right – that kind of money would save European Judaism for a generation.  The other part though – building for your community for the future can’t be wrong and theirs is a very large community.  More than twice as many Jews live in Los Angeles as in the whole of the United Kingdom.  Unless the Synagogue builds for the needs and development of its congregation and surrounding community, it cannot meet its mission of being in their own words:  “a center for Jewish spirituality and celebration, a place for lifelong learning and friendship and home to an engaged congregation where every person can make a difference.”

In fact pretty much every one of the ten congregations in which I spent time were continually renewing their buildings to develop with their congregations.   In Mishcan Tefillah congregation in Brookline, Boston they had created a lovely lounge leading into their small, modern but cosy sanctuary.  It provided a good coffee machine, Jewish magazines to read, comfortable places to sit as you waited for the service to start or even during it when you just wanted to sit and chat a while.

Ikar, a new congregation in East Los Angeles, is on its way to their own building.  In the meantime, they too have made sure that there are informal spaces just off the sanctuary that they create each week in a school hall.  A place to get a cup of coffee or tea and to chat, to take a child out for a short while during the service, to meet a friend and then bring them into the service with you.  They know that not everyone is going to turn up at the same time or manage the whole two hours of the service, so they have built for this need.

Congregation Beth El in Sudbury, Massachusetts so built their sanctuary that it leads straight out into a garden, so during the Amidah you can pray your personal prayers outside, it’s a beautiful setting so makes the shul very special for its members.

Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley, Massachusetts is the congregation Peter and Beverley (z’’l) Olsberg  joined when they emigrated to the USA because they felt it was the most Alyth like in the city.   TBE, as it is known, has also created a lounge off the beautiful sanctuary, and also lots of places for people to sit together informally, a community kitchen with chairs at all heights and again a great coffee machine for all to feel free to use.

In this sermon I can only mention a few of the ways in which the Synagogue buildings I prayed, met in and learned in had made sure their buildings supported the ambition of their congregations to take their holy work into this century.   None of the effective congregations I visited had failed to do this.

The need to build for a congregation to gather, to meet God and to make Shabbat special is established first in this week’s Torah potion Vayakhel.   It begins with the words “Moses gathered the whole of the Israelite community and said to them – these are the things that the Eternal has commanded you to do.” (Exodus 35:1 & 4) Number one – make sure Shabbat is a day of rest.  Number two – make sure that you build a great community home for Shabbat and all the rest of the purposes for the Jewish community to gather to take place.

The opening word of the portion, Vayakhel a gathering of people together for a purpose, only occurs two other times in the Torah – once when the people gather to build the Golden Calf, the ultimate expression of materialism – and once when Korach and his followers gather to ferment rebellion against Moses and Aaron, the ultimate expression of moaning and complaining.   A community gathering together for the holy purpose of building is highly significant – leaving off gathering to complain, leaving off gathering to indulge themselves with the idolatry of materialism.  When this Alyth community gathers together to build for its future, and all who have the heart of a giving person, as the words col n’div libo indicate, participate in that, it is not an act of selfishness but an act of time honoured holiness mandated yearly by our Torah.

Another aspect of ambition that I saw in pretty much every one of the ten congregations, Reform and Conservative, that I spent time in, reflects our response today to words that appear many times in Torah.  Moses addresses col adat b’nei yisrael, every single person of the children of Israel.

 

Not only the men, not only the adults, not only the able bodied, not only the young, not only the hearing, not only the mentally healthy, not only the neuro-normative.  I labour this point because in American congregation after congregation I saw the work that had been put into ensuring that services and other facilities were not only truly accessible but also it was clear and obvious that this was the case.

 

Most congregations had posters at the entrance to their buildings and sanctuaries which clearly explained the many ways that they could help and equipment to lend – from large print Siddurim, to accessibility ramps everywhere, to fiddle toys for those who find focussing attention hard, to hearing loops, to kiddush tables with clearly labelled foodstuffs for those with dietary needs, to the choice of all gender loos, to mezuzot at wheelchair height and somewhere to sit while helping to prepare kiddush.   And all of this proudly announced and made available – not hidden so that you don’t know that the Synagogue wants you to be able to attend and participate.   Col adat b’nei Yisrael were clearly welcome.

This is Shabbat Shekalim, the Shabbat that takes us into the month of Adar in which Purim occurs.   We read the special portion that says that everyone counts in the Jewish community.

Just as every Jew counts to the Jew hating Haman so that he and his like can try to destroy us, so every person and their needs should count to the Jew loving Jewish community, so that we can support each other.  May we all be among those whose heart makes us volunteer to be part of building the Jewish community and its communal homes.   We don’t have to spend $118million to do so – but for just 5% of this you would be amazed what Alyth could do!