By Jim Stevenson, Special to JTNews
The crowd in the
street outside Olympia’s small wooden synagogue swelled to
500, and two motorcycle policeman lumbered up on their
machines as Temple Beth Hatfiloh’s rabbi and board members
appeared at the doorway, Torahs in their arms. Then the
members of the congregation broke into song.
It was moving day
at Temple Beth Hatfiloh.
Small portable
chuppot moved up to offer symbolic protection from the
profane outside world, Rabbi Seth Goldstein chiseled the
mezuzah from the Temple’s doorposts, while a klezmer band
struck up a tune, and the ritual procession danced off to its
new home three blocks away.
The new brick
synagogue building, former home of a Christian Science church,
was purchased by TBH in mid-2003, but the 160-family
congregation did not take possession until this summer, when
the top priorities were to repair the building’s roof and
complete some interior renovation. Other work – including
earthquake retrofitting – will be completed over time.
Reflecting on the
move, Rabbi Goldstein remembered that Hillel once described
God as ready to come to our house if we come to His house.
Synagogues are
"places to connect but God enters only if we enter because the
people create the holiness. By dwelling together in the
community we cause the divine presence," he said. "Only if
we come will God be with us. That is our commitment."
The former TBH
synagogue dates back to 1938 and was not unique historically,
since it was built on a model used in many other Western
communities. But several surviving members of the founding
families remember the old building’s construction, and more
than 30 members of three founding families – the Beans, the
Hollanders and the Goldbergs – were on hand for the Sept. 12
ceremonies.
Longtime temple
member Ben Bean, a 15-year-old boy at the time the old temple
was built, remembered the pride he and others in Olympia’s
Jewish community felt in their new home.
"But this new
building has meant the same excitement we felt 66 years ago,"
Bean said.
As the Torahs were
installed in their new ark, Rabbi Goldstein proclaimed the
transfer complete.
In conclusion, he
noted that the temple’s name means "house of prayer."
"May we also hope
that our new home will be a beit midrash – a house of
study – a beit sefer, a house of knowledge, beit
kehilah, a house for the community, and beit am, a
house of the people."
Speakers at the
ceremony, which preceded an open house in the new building,
included Olympia Mayor Mark Foutch, Jewish Reconstructionist
Federation Regional Director Devorah Servi, and Virginia
Britt, a member of the First Church of Christ Scientist.
"I don’t believe I
can remember a more lively, active group in this building,"
she said after members of the congregation sang and
chain-danced through the sanctuary as the Torahs were brought
into the new synagogue.
Mayor Foutch, who
is not Jewish, said he was uplifted by the spirit of community
but was struck most of all when "two black-uniformed and
booted motorcycle cops rode up to us, and it was a sign of
safety and reassurance and equal protection under the law –
and why not? That may be easy to say in Olympia; in other
times and other places it was not and is not a given – and we
should celebrate that!"
In a mitzvah-significant
coda to the September 12 ceremonies, TBH President Bernie
Friedman and Bean presented one of the temple’s four Torahs –
a gift from the Bean family years ago – to the small Olympic
B’nai Shalom havurah in Port Angeles.
Phyllis Darling,
B’nai Shalom President, thanked the Olympia congregation.
"We know it is
possible to have a temple without a building, but you cannot
have a temple without a Torah," she said.
Temple Beth
Hatfiloh held erev Rosh Hashanah services in its new
home three days later.