At least one synagogue destroyed as unprecedented wildfires rip through Los Angeles

The wildfires ripping through the Los Angeles area Tuesday destroyed at least one synagogue and had other local Jewish leaders wondering if their spiritual homes would still be standing in the morning.

The Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, a Conservative synagogue whose campus dates back to the 1920s, was among the hundreds of structures ravaged by the Eaton Fire overnight. The main sanctuary could be seen on live television engulfed in flames, stunning news reporters and onlookers.

Fueled by roaring winds, the fires began Tuesday morning in the Pacific Palisades, a tony coastal suburb that is home to a large Jewish population and at least two synagogues: Kehillat Israel, which is Reconstructionist, and Chabad of Pacific Palisades.

As of 11 p.m. Tuesday, the Palisades Fire had consumed nearly 3,000 acres, destroying swaths of the city’s residential areas. Rabbi Zushe Cunin, director of the Chabad, said he believed his complex was still intact, though many of his community members had lost homes. The status of Kehillat Israel — whose congregation moved into the building in 1997 — was unclear.

“Don’t know about the synagogue yet,” Cantor Chayim Frenkel wrote in an email just after midnight Wednesday. “It was built to stand a fire like this, but we’re not sure.”

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