By Joel Magalnick, Assistant Editor, JTNews
After seven years of praying in a basement, the cornerstone has been laid for Pierce County’s only Orthodox presence to have a synagogue of its own. On Sun., Aug. 29, approximately 200 people attended a Torah completion ceremony and groundbreaking for Chabad of Pierce County at its new West Tacoma home.
“It was just a very, very uplifting experience,” said Rabbi Zalman Heber, who opened the South Sound Chabad center when he arrived in Tacoma from New York in 2003. “There was a certain festivity in the air that the Jewish community hasn’t seen in a long time here.”
The completion of Chabad’s Torah marks what is likely the only such ceremony in at least 70 years — if ever.
“It’s really monumental, historically, from that perspective,” said Earl Vernon, a Chabad member and member of the building project committee.
Following the completion of the Torah, in which supporters came up and wrote the final letters with the assistance of scribe Moshe Klein, the entourage danced with the Torah on a five-block walk to the city’s Professional Development Center, where Chabad holds High Holiday services and large events, for a dinner buffet.
In his remarks to the audience, Heber said that when he first arrived in Tacoma people questioned whether there was a need for a Chabad.
“By just looking at all of us gathered here together, it is obvious, that just a short seven years later, the question no longer remains.”
Vernon, one of those people who became attracted to Chabad, first affiliated five years ago when he learned that because his mother had been Jewish, though not practicing, that made him Jewish according to halachah. He said the new synagogue “means that I have a place to pray, as well as my wife and family, which is significant.”
Tacoma has one other synagogue, the Reform Temple Beth El. The only organized Orthodox presence in the city prior to Chabad’s arrival was Congregation Talmud Torah, which evolved into a Conservative synagogue in the late 1930s. That synagogue subsequently merged with the then-Reform temple to become Beth El in the 1950s.
But given the size of the crowd at the event, there is clearly a demand for a more observant presence, despite the lack of services more available in Seattle such as supermarkets with kosher sections, a bevy of Jewish agencies, and a mikvah.
“It’s just what this area needs,” Vernon said, “some infrastructure to maintain a healthy Jewish community, and building a synagogue is a good start.”
Vernon challenged Jews in Seattle to help in supporting the buildup of Tacoma’s Jewish community.
The photo opportunity of Heber in a hard hat and shovel alongside his father, Rabbi Shmuel Heber, Rabbi Shalom Ber Levitin, director of Chabad of Washington State, Chabad supporter Mark Friedman and state attorney general Rob McKenna was in many ways symbolic. More than anything it marked the completion of the permitting process by the City of Tacoma to allow the tearing down of a five-car garage on a lot behind the property that currently houses the Chabad to build a nearly 8,000-square-foot synagogue. They are still working on completing financing terms.
“The City of Tacoma should really be praised for granting us the land-use permit to build the building, because there was opposition to the project,” said Vernon. “They stood up for our constitutional rights, they stood up for cultural and religious diversity in Tacoma, and so it’s a good project.”
Some neighbors had opposed the project during a public hearing in Sept. 2008, with some of the complaints having tinges of anti-Semitism. The presence of elected officials at the event — Tacoma city manager Eric Anderson, Pierce County Councilmember Tim Farrell, Gig Harbor Councilmember Derek Yong, and Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor — showed the official support for the project. And many neighbors came out with cameras during the ceremony, with some joining in on the celebration.
“We hope that the neighbors embrace this project and see the benefits to the greater community,” Heber said.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to build a strong Jewish community in the west end of Tacoma,” added Vernon. “I think that’s the ultimate end goal.”