(RNS) — Like many of their neighbors, leaders of the Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center watched in horror this week as wildfires destroyed homes, businesses and entire neighborhoods in Southern California, with the destruction playing out on social media and television news.
On Wednesday (Jan. 8), their temple, too, was counted among the losses.
“We are unable to access the neighborhood to confirm, so can only watch the news along with you, and hold each other tightly,” the temple’s leadership wrote in a letter on the center’s website. “We want to assure you that last night, we were able to rescue all our Torah scrolls from the sanctuary, chapel, and classrooms. They are safely in the home of one of our congregants.”
Many of those congregants had also lost their homes to the fire, according to the synagogue’s leaders. The temple’s cantor told The New York Times that she raced to the building to save the Torah scrolls before fleeing. “The smoke was so dense that we had to get out of the building,” she said.
The Pasadena Jewish Temple was one of a number of houses of worship lost to the infernos raging in and around Los Angeles — fires that have killed at least five people, destroyed 2,000 buildings and forced 130,000 residents from their homes, according to the Los Angeles Times. Included in the losses are a mosque, a Catholic parish and several Protestant churches, according to news reports.
The burned-dow …