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From the ashes of a Pasadena synagogue, a hidden discovery – Jobsmaa.com

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Night has fallen on the Pasadena Temple.

The community faced strong winds; Hebrew school was canceled earlier. But no one was prepared for it Fire to explode Tear down their synagogue.

Lawrence Harris and his wife Ruth, a longtime cantor, competed Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center Flames began to rain down trying to salvage what they could. They saved 13 Torahs before fleeing.

When Harris returned the next day, the fire was still burning as he approached. The roof of the synagogue collapsed and most of the walls collapsed. The fruit of charred citrus trees clung to their branches.

But in the banquet hall, one wall still stood.

Climbing over the bricks and nails, Harris took in the scene: a mural etched into the wall, stretching across its width. It was covered by a brick wall for decades. Semitic men and women walked in the desert with animals. Some played musical instruments. In the center was a single palm tree – a symbol of victory in the Bible. Although the image was faint, it shone brightly in the sun.

A carving was faintly visible on the recently uncovered wall.

After being destroyed in the Eaton Fire, the Pasadena Jewish Temple and an inscribed mural stand alone in the center. (Wally Scalige/Los Angeles Times)

(Wally Scalige/Los Angeles Times)

As word of the fresco's discovery traveled, some members thought the painting depicted the Jews' 40-year wandering in the desert as a test of their faith in God. To make this discovery now, as society faces a new displacement, is deeply felt.

“I don't know how, but the fire took away the stucco, took away the sheet rock, and left this mural unscathed,” Harris said. “And there's nothing else throughout it all [area] All that remains is the mural.”

“I think it's trying to teach us a lesson,” member Monica Levine said of the mural and her belief that it's a representation of overcoming adversity.

The synagogue served the Pasadena area for over 100 years before moving to Altadena Drive in 1941, occupying a former warehouse space. Christine Galloway, a longtime member with an archeology background, believes the mural may have been from the 1920s and may have been transferred to the wall with tapestry. But its origin remains a mystery. So far, no member has been able to recall its history.

“How in the world could it have survived?” Galloway, 48, said in disbelief. “The scene is so hopeful and happy … and it's in the middle of all this gray.”

Galloway, a professor of Hebrew history, and others believe the depictions evoke a biblical scene like the Exodus from Egypt, but aren't sure what is being shown.

A burning building

Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center Burns During Eaton Fire

(Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)

Galloway has considered the Pasadena Temple her second home since moving to the area from the East Coast in 2011. Her children grew up there. After playing basketball the Monday night before the fire, her older sons were the last members in the space, and her youngest son is scheduled to have his bar mitzvah celebration there later this year.

The loss of the synagogue weighed heavily on Galloway and his family. But the discovery of the mural provided solace in society's darkest times.

“It's a phoenix that feels like it's risen from the fire,” he said.

The Eaton fire destroyed thousands of structures More than 14,000 acres burned in Pasadena and Altadena. Not far from the Jewish center, some early footage from the fire depicted the brutal escape of residents of an elderly home and a McDonald's gutted by flames.

At least 20 members lost their homes, including a temple rabbi who lives minutes away.

Rabbi Joshua Levine Greater left when the Eaton fire broke out. The next day, when he returned to the area, he found it so safe from the flames that he believed his house would be as well. He then finds his house destroyed – one of the five houses in his neighborhood burnt down.

“It's tragic,” he said. “Losing our home of 22 years and the synagogue we loved at the same time was kind of a double shot.”

The community is still deciding where its services will be held in the long term. Within days of the fire, the local Catholic high school offered space to the clergy. The Rabbi addressed the members:

“Our society is spiritually and physically broken. It doesn't matter if it's broken.”

Grater, who currently resides in downtown Los Angeles, has yet to see the mural. But he believes its invention embodies Jewish ideology.

“We are people of history. We know that in Jerusalem and the land of Israel you have murals and stones upon stones,” said Graeter, 54. “It's a very Jewish idea that it's a hidden mural.”

The temple's preschool burned down and the synagogue, which once held 1,000 people, was gone. Thousands of books were also lost.

Days after the fire, Amy Whitman Richardson brings her daughter, Quinn, to see what's left. Whitman Richardson, 45, grew up in the temple — part of a third-generation family of devotees. At her daughter's bat mitzvah last year, she reflected on her own celebration years ago and imagined what it would be like to see her child's future children in the years to come.

“I have been in the temple since birth and so have my children,” he said, surveying the ruins. “I still haven't processed it.”

The sunlight was beginning to fade and the place was covered in shadow. But the mural lit up. Arms around each other, mother and daughter walked towards the oddity.

In awe, Whitman Richardson came into view.

“It's a minor miracle.”

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