To Open Sundays but Not on Jewish Sabbath : Bank Says ‘Never on Saturday’

Advanced Savings intends to open a branch this month at La Brea Avenue and Beverly Boulevard with a special appeal for the Orthodox Jews who live nearby--Sunday banking.

“We’re respecting the particular rules for the Sabbath of that particular area,” said Jim Wilson, vice president and director of marketing for the savings and loan association, which went into business in May, 1984, and claims about $25 million in assets.

He said plans call for the branch to shut down early on Friday afternoons, stay closed all day Saturday and operate on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at least in the beginning.

“If it’s successful, we may expand those hours, or if nobody comes, we may be closed Sundays, but we definitely will be closed on the Sabbath,” Wilson said.

A branch of Encino Savings a few doors away offered Sunday banking for a year, but the policy was abandoned when it became clear that demand was minimal, according to John Gelff, senior vice president.

“We found most of our Orthodox clientele was used to doing their banking Monday through Friday,” Gelff said.

Advanced Savings brings the number of savings and loan associations in the neighborhood to four. Bank of America also has a branch there.

Wilson said Advanced decided to go into the area because its chairman, Emil Fish, a building contractor, lives nearby.

Fish is vice president of Shaarei Tfilah, an Orthodox congregation on Beverly Boulevard, where Alan Goldstein, president of the congregation, welcomed the idea of a Sabbath-observant bank.

“I’ll be very glad to see that finally happen,” Goldstein said. “If he stays open on Sunday and closes on (the Sabbath), I certainly will applaud it from the pulpit. It’s good for Jewish observant people, to offer them the convenience factor.”

Observant Jews are less likely to be attracted by the baked hams and other products offered by a Honeybaked store that will share the new small plaza, on the site of an old gas station.

Dennis Ferguson, Honeybaked’s district manager, said the Michigan-based firm expects to do well at its new location despite the concentration of strictly observant Jews in the surrounding residential blocks.