{"id":244394,"date":"2011-07-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-11T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/house-calls-making-a-religion-of-historic-preservation\/"},"modified":"2011-07-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-11T07:00:00","slug":"house-calls-making-a-religion-of-historic-preservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/house-calls-making-a-religion-of-historic-preservation\/","title":{"rendered":"House Calls: Making a religion of historic preservation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"House<\/a>Temple Ohr Shalom\u2019s restoration answers to God<\/p>\n

By Michael Good |<\/strong> Columnista SDUN<\/p>\n

Restoring an historic property is something of a spiritual calling, and for the congregation of Ohr Shalom Synagogue, it was that and more.<\/p>\n

Not only did synagogue members have to worry about electricians and plumbers, nervous neighbors and pesky building inspectors, balancing the need for wheelchair-access bathrooms with the need to preserve historic architecture and, most important, raising money to pay for it\u2026. they also had to answer to God, perhaps the toughest critic of all.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Scott Meltzer must have felt a little like Moses in the wilderness at times, except Moses didn\u2019t have to contend with drywall contractors. Or building permits. Or the Historical Resources Board. But finally, after years of fundraising, planning, permitting, and construction, the restored building has been dedicated, and pretty much all that\u2019s left is to install the donor plaque, which is right now on a truck somewhere between the East Coast and San Diego.<\/p>\n

God seems pleased\u2014well, at least, there\u2019s a sort of glow about the place. And the building has received a secular blessing: SOHO, San Diego\u2019s Save our Heritage Organisation, has bestowed on it a Sacred Places Award. All that\u2019s left is to finish paying for it. (By the way, it\u2019s not too late to make a donation!)<\/p>\n

Churches have steeples, mosques minarets, but temples don\u2019t have a particular architectural style. This gave William Wheeler, the architect who, back in 1926, designed the temple at the corner of Laurel Street and Third Avenue, a lot of freedom, of which he took full advantage. This was the era of revival architecture\u2014Spanish Revival, English Tudor Revival, Egyptian Revival\u2014but Wheeler was inspired by another revival style, Mediterranean Revival, which architect Alfred Alschuler had employed for Temple Isaiah in Chicago. Like the Egyptian style, Alschuler\u2019s take on Mediterranean Revival, with its Byzantine, Moorish flavor, was prompted by an archeological discovery\u2014not King Tut\u2019s tomb, but an ancient synagogue in Tiberias (in Palestine). Though Wheeler isn\u2019t Jewish, he threw himself into the project with a sort of religious fervor. We don\u2019t know if he prayed, but he certainly read his Bible.<\/p>\n

In a San Diego Union-Tribune<\/em> story from 1925, the designer of the Balboa Theater and many other now-historic structures explained how he planned to capture, through architecture, As for the latter question, in nothing less than the creation of the earth. Like Michelangelo, he started with the ceiling: \u201cBeginning at the top of the dome the first day is expressed by these words: \u2018And God said, \u201cLet there be light,\u201d and there was light.\u2019\u201d Wheeler came to the interview prepared with Scripture, which he offered as inspiration for the various pictures and symbols he planned to work into the dome. There were fish and birds (the fifth day), the sun, moon and stars (day three), and the Garden of Eden (the sixth day). God appeared as a hand\u2014as in Ecclesiastes. But he also appeared as a pillar of fire, or a pillow of clouds (from Exodus).<\/p>\n

After completion in 1926, the building was modified over the years (the dome required repairs after only a decade), and some elements, such as the elaborately textured and painted walls\u2014and the original dome\u2014didn\u2019t survive. In fact, the passage of time wasn\u2019t particularly kind to the structure, and by the start of the 21st century, the place was in serious need of repair, and maybe a little divine intervention. In 2001, Temple Beth Israel, which had been the original tenant, moved on to new digs in University City. That\u2019s when Ohr Shalom got involved, eventually buying the two original buildings (Wheeler also designed the now-attached social hall). An adjacent school, which was built much later, was also part of the purchase, and is now a charter school run by another organization.<\/p>\n

Susie Meltzer, past president of the synagogue and a member of the building committee (and Rabbi Scott Meltzer\u2019s aunt), explains that from the beginning they knew the place needed a little work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a six-year process, in terms of planning,\u201d she says, as we take seats in the pristine sanctuary, where sounds are muffled, adding to the aura of quietude. \u201cThere were meetings with the congregation, just like when you\u2019re remodeling your house.\u201d<\/p>\n

But when you remodel your house, you usually don\u2019t have a building committee and a few hundred interested parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a challenge,\u201d she admits. \u201cBut we wanted the congregation to have input. There were specifics about the sanctuary. They wanted to bring the bema (the pulpit) closer to the congregation. They wanted a center isle. Even though it\u2019s not part of the Jewish tradition, they wanted an isle for weddings. The social hall, the same thing. How are we going to use the social hall? Where are we going to put the bathrooms? What about a second floor? Do we want to invest in a second floor?\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the latter question, in for a second level for offices and classrooms, incorporating it into the original building footprint. They created a new entrance as well, where the two buildings had earlier been joined, making a place for that in-transit donor plaque.<\/p>\n

Many of the other changes were less glamorous but essential: new electrical, plumbing, heating, painting, carpeting and earthquake retrofitting. They also opened up a light well behind the north-facing stained glass windows, which had previously been enclosed in shadow. Fortunately, the original windows were intact, although they required extensive restoration. As with the dome, Wheeler wanted the windows to tell a story\u2014in this case the story of the Jewish people. With a little prompting, Meltzer points out the symbols and explains what they mean. Some 86 years after the fact, Wheeler\u2019s message still comes through.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe menorah\u2014the seven-stemmed candlestick\u2014is the symbol of the Jewish people,\u201d Meltzer said. \u201cThere are two of them in the south window, flanking a dove with a branch. The dove\u2014that was a symbol from Noah\u2019s ark. \u2026The wine glass is a Jewish symbol. We say prayer over wine. And the Torah scroll, that\u2019s what\u2019s behind the ark at the front of the sanctuary.\u201d She points out other symbols as well: a citron fruit that \u201cyou have to order today from Israel.\u201d It\u2019s a symbol of Sukkoth, a fall holiday. \u201cBecause we were an agricultural society, Judaism incorporates seasonal holidays,\u201d Meltzer explains. \u201cFor Sukkoth, you should live out of doors in the fall, and you should harvest fruit. And people actually build a little fall tabernacle, and it\u2019s just outside under the stars and families still do that. And the snake, I assume it\u2019s a symbol of the Garden of Eden. The ram\u2019s horn\u2014that\u2019s a symbol of our High Holidays. The sacrifice of Isaac, where he sacrificed a ram instead of his son. These seem to be pretty traditional Jewish symbols.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, Meltzer takes me to the front of the sanctuary, to the ark, where the Torah is kept. There are several behind the carved wooden doors. The Torah, including the Pentateuch, or first five books of the Bible, is written on animal skins, rolled up onto wooden scrolls, with carved handles, and wrapped in velvet. Some of the books have an embossed silver cover, decorated, of course, with symbols. They\u2019re very old, but still used regularly.<\/p>\n

If any religion was built for restoring historic places of worship, it\u2019s Judaism. There\u2019s a reverence for history built right in. And after all those years of wandering, sometimes figuratively, sometimes not, there\u2019s also a longing for permanence, for home. The congregation\u2019s pride in its new home is evident in the care taken to restore it. When the synagogue was built in 1926, Rabbi Meltzer explains, Temple Beth Israel\u2019s congregation was itself on the move, to the north, from downtown. By the time Temple Beth\u2019s new synagogue was built in University City, the congregation had moved out to the suburbs. But Ohr Shalom\u2019s members are young, diverse (including Jews from Argentina and Mexico) and urban\u2014many live right in the neighborhood. Rabbi Meltzer wants Ohr Shalom to be recognized as part of the Uptown community. He\u2019s hoping that the refurbished social hall, with its commercial grade kitchen, will be used for community events (it\u2019s available for rent) and the 86 year-old-building will become even more a part of the Banker\u2019s Hill community, which has enough other historic places of worship that it could just as easily be known as Sanctuary Hill. In the 1920s, when Ohr Shalom was built, many San Diego neighborhoods were closed to Jews, people of color and foreign birth, and back then, a sanctuary really was a sanctuary\u2014from prejudice and persecution.<\/p>\n

Susie Meltzer asks if I\u2019ve ever attended a Jewish service, and extends an invitation. For anyone into historic preservation and history, Ohr Shalom deserves a visit. There\u2019s much to contemplate here, gazing at the stained glass windows, where one of San Diego\u2019s more famous architects has hidden a treasure trove of ancient symbols and woven an old, old story in glass. Maybe there is something sacred about restoring an historic building. And maybe\u2014sometimes\u2014God really is in the details.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Temple Ohr Shalom\u2019s restoration answers to God By Michael Good | SDUN Columnist Restoring an historic property is something of a spiritual calling, and for the congregation of Ohr Shalom Synagogue, it was that and more. Not only did synagogue members have to worry about electricians and plumbers, nervous neighbors and pesky building inspectors, balancing […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":244395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"House Calls: Making a religion of historic preservation","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}