OUR HISTORIC SANCTUARY building was dedicated on Sept. 26, 1948, which that year corresponded with the 22nd of Elul. (This year, the 22nd of Elul falls on Sept. 7–8.) In honor of the occasion, some of us have been delving into its history and features.
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| (As usual, click/tap on an image to enlarge it.) |
Below the jump, you will find a list of interesting facts about the building.…
• Not our first rodeo. This is actually Mishkon’s second sanctuary building. The first one was constructed on the lot where our school/office building now stands, but we outgrew it in the 1930s. To accommodate the influx of members, we purchased two adjacent lots in 1939 and hired a local Jewish architect.
• Façade. The architect, Herman Charles Light, proposed a distinctive façade with a judicious blend of three architectural styles:
- white columns of the Classical Revival style;
- arched windows akin to the Gothic style; and
- wood paneled doors that evoke the Colonial style.
Each of these elements evokes certain connotations of historical continuity and spirituality.
• Distinctive columns. This building’s columns provide one of the few remaining examples in Los Angeles of the Classical Revival style that was commonly used in the design of Jewish houses of worship through the 1940s. Its façade expresses the pride of our members at the time: a dignified presence on Main Street that was also modest. These plaster columns were substantially restored about 25 years ago.
• First big change in plans. We held a groundbreaking ceremony in 1941 and construction began. During that year, the basement level was dug out, the foundation walls were poured, and the steel girders that span the width of the sanctuary floor were put in, as well as their supporting posts. However, after the USA went to war in December of that year, the resulting scarcity of materials and labor forced the building project to be put on hold.
• Second big change in plans. The original building permit in 1941, as well as a 1945 application to resume construction after the war, described a building that is very different from what we see here today. Both documents specified that the skeleton and exterior walls were to be made of brick; and they named Light as the architect. However, construction did not actually resume until 1947. At that point, a third permit application specified that the exterior framework was to be made of wood, with exterior walls of stucco. On the form, the space for an architect’s name was now left blank, while the space for a licensed engineer was filled in instead.
• Military expertise. According to synagogue lore, shortly after the war the leadership decided to save money by dispensing with the architect and relying instead upon a building contractor who was the step-son of a past president. The contractor had just returned from the war, where he had constructed military bases in the Pacific. Naturally, the navy veteran drew upon what he had just been building to create his plans. So the sanctuary — as it still stands today — is said to have been based on a standard military-base theater.
• Purposely unfinished painting. During the recent repainting of the sanctuary, we left two spots purposely unfinished. One is the set of small rectangles that provide evidence that several murals—original artwork from 1948—lie intact on our Eastern wall, underneath layers of paint. The other unfinished spot is much larger, on the south wall, extending from near the floor up into the ceiling. That’s where we recently discovered and arrested a termite infestation in some structural members. That portion of the wall was opened up for inspection and treatment. Plans are already underway to replace or repair the damaged wood within the next few months. Both of these unfinished spots evoke the rabbinic custom of leaving in raw condition a small piece of one’s house or place of business, in remembrance of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem almost two millennia ago. And as Rabbi Joe Black commended in a 1999 song, it can be a spiritual practice to “leave a little bit undone,” as a reminder of our mortality.
• The Ark of holiness. The design of our Ark echoes the Classical Revival style of the building’s façade. In this case, the Ark is framed by fluted columns that are made of sheet metal that was expertly shaped and then painted to look like wood. They were restored a year ago.
• Bimah furniture. On our bimah, the main furniture is made with mahogany veneer that has been stained and varnished, matching the lower face of the bimah itself, as well as the adjoining exit doors and door frames.
• Stained-glass windows. Our sanctuary building features 14 art-glass windows; an expert has called them “fine examples of mid-century American stained glass.” Their simple alternating pattern with minimal hand-painted details allowed for them to be commissioned together at a reasonable cost. Religious decorative motifs include Stars of David, Torah scrolls, and tablets of the Ten Commandments. Unfortunately, the 6 windows on the south wall, which are exposed to the most sunlight, are now quite weathered and visibly deteriorating. A plan has been developed for their partial restoration (including their frames) at a cost of $25K; it awaits a champion and a funding source. Believe it or not, constructing replicas from scratch would be even more expensive.
• Theater seats. Our theater-style seats are original. They were manufactured in Michigan and shipped here to Venice—where they were welcomed as a step up from the wooden pews in Mishkon’s first sanctuary. In 1949, when Mishkon needed to secure a mortgage to finance this new sanctuary, the bank insisted upon a separate document to pledge these seats as part of the loan’s collateral. Although the seats were securely fastened to the floor, they were not considered a permanent fixture. That document, which referred to these seats as opera chairs, said that there were 726 of them. This past year, that number was reduced to 550, and our gaining some open space for congregating in the back of the room has proven to be of great value to us. Meanwhile, the architectural historians consider these remaining seats to be a historically significant, character-defining feature of our building.
• Roof structure. The vaulted arch ceiling is of a type known as a tied truss. The main supports for the roof are the arches made of 5"x12" timber that is comprised of smaller pieces of wood laminated together to make the arch shape. Joining the two ends of each arch is a steel tie rod that crosses the room and ensures that the arch does not flatten out under the weight of the roof. This type of truss was not uncommon for a century or so, until it was surpassed by newer technology in the 1950s. However, its design contributes to the inspiring and airy feeling of our sanctuary. (Each end of the visible roof trusses is supported by a normally hidden wooden post that is about 16' tall with a cross-section of 8"x10" and sits inside a pilaster that is visible from the outside. The ends of the tie rods are also visible from outside.)
• Restrooms. Architecturally, our sanctuary building reflects its working-class immigrant community origins. This is especially true of the small restrooms. The materials used reflect the congregation’s limited financial resources after World War II. An exemplar is the ceramic tile that you see on the walls of the restroom: they were factory “seconds” that were preferred as being less expensive than regular ones. Thus the architectural historians consider those decorative tiles to be a historically significant, character-defining feature of our building.
• Front doors. As noted above, the wood paneled doors were originally in the Colonial style. They were made of dark-stained wood and featured rosettes (the circules within the heavily framed squares). The hardware (handles) were mounted vertically.
• Looking down Navy Street from the portico. The beach at the end of Navy Street is a mere one thousand feet away from our front steps. Nowadays many of us thrill at spotting the ocean from our portico; yet if we use our imagination, we can also envision what our predecessors saw when they stood in this same spot. In 1939, when Mishkon purchased the land upon which this sanctuary would be built, the bottom of Navy Street led right onto Lick Pier—one of the amusement piers in Venice and Ocean Park. It was relatively small at 800 feet long and 225 feet wide. Its main attraction was an enormous dance hall (3–4 times the area of our present sanctuary)—a ballroom where famous big bands used to play, such as Harry James, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Artie Shaw. By the time our sanctuary opened in 1948, that venue was called the Aragon Ballroom. It was where, in spring 1951, where a 4-week engagement of Lawrence Welk and his big band turned into a 4-year stint. Local TV station KTLA broadcast a weekly show live from the Aragon Ballroom featuring Welk’s band—which Welk eventually parlayed into a national variety show on ABC, which was broadcast from Hollywood. Later, in the mid-1960s, that space became a roller-skating rink. In 1967, it became a club that hosted bands such as the Grateful Dead, Buffalo Springfield, the Doors, Iron Butterfly, and Pink Floyd, before the pier burned down in May of 1970 while thousands of the local denizens watched. It was the end of an era.
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| 1929 |
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| Pier entrance, 1944 (The neon sign overhead was clearly visible from Mishkon’s front steps.) |
• Custom proverb. In 2000, our school building needed a new roof membrane, but the congregation had not saved up for this major repair. Bill Frumovitz z"l and his wife Adrienne generously agreed to pay for it. In return, they asked for a dedication plaque that would both honor their parents and feature an appropriate rabbinic saying. Unfortunately, our rabbi, Dan Shevitz, could not find a fitting quotation about roofs in the Talmud or anywhere else. But then he reasoned, “Well, I’m a rabbi—so if I say it, it should qualify as a rabbinic saying.” Whereupon he composed a saying that satisfied the donors. It is featured on the plaque that memorializes the donation in 2001, which is displayed on the back wall of the sanctuary, on the north side.
• Fateful attraction. Mishkon is rightfully proud and privileged that Rabbi Naomi Levy served this congregation for 7 years, as the first woman rabbi to lead a Conservative synagogue west of the Mississippi River. It is worth noting that our historic sanctuary played a role in her decision to accept the job offer. Here is her later description of how she came to serve as Mishkon’s rabbi, upon visiting for her interview in 1989 (emphasis added):
That night, I walked up the steps to the temple and shook hands with the members of the search committee; then we sat down to talk.… We met for over two hours; then I asked to see the sanctuary.… The moment I set foot inside, I knew in the depths of my being that I had come home.
—To Begin Again: The Journey Toward Comfort, Strength, and Faith in Difficult Times (NY: Knopf, 1998), p. 11.
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