When Fire Ruined Their Sanctuary, A Jewish Temple Was Taken In By A Surprising Neighbor
This article was originally written by Victor Beigelman for aplus.com. The following is an excerpt.
Eighteen months ago, a fire sparked from a malfunctioning refrigerator in the kitchen of Temple Beth Sholom in Santa Ana, Calif., causing severe smoke and water damage to the sanctuary and holy ark. Inside the ark were the congregation’s six torahs, including a 275-year-old scroll from the Czech Republic that was rescued from a Nazi warehouse after World War II.
Overnight, Rabbi Heidi Cohen and her congregation’s hundreds of members were suddenly without a building to conduct their services, schooling, social work and beyond. “Have torah, will travel,” Cohen said jokingly. “We had every intention of continuing our services and raising the money we needed to rebuild our temple.”
Read Beigelman’s full article at aplus.com.
