Closing After 31 Years : Members Sing Last Prayers in Synagogue

The ceremonial wine sipped Saturday morning by 19 worshipers at a Van Nuys synagogue had an unusually bittersweet taste.

It was served to conclude the last prayer ever for one of the San Fernando Valley’s oldest Jewish congregations.

Temple Ner Tamid ceased to exist in its 31st year when the worshipers emptied their glasses after chanting the kiddush and filed slowly out of their sanctuary for the last time.

Beset by an aging congregation and dwindling membership, temple members have sold their four-acre Saticoy Street synagogue for $1 million to a private Hebrew school. The congregation will merge next Friday with a neighboring conservative congregation in Encino.

Temple Ner Tamid’s membership had declined from a peak of 405 families--and more than 400 children--in the 1960s to about 220 families this year. The remaining families included only a handful of children.

“We could have lasted another two years, maybe,” said temple member Doris Silver, 68, of Newhall. “The problem was there were no young children to teach. That’s what perpetuates our heritage. If we don’t educate our children, then we don’t have anything.”

Ralph Samuels, Temple Ner Tamid’s first congregational president, said the sanctuary once brimmed with children. The temple was formed when three small congregations from Van Nuys, Pacoima and North Hollywood united in 1955.

More than 1,000 boys and girls celebrated their bar and bat mitzvahs over the years at Temple Ner Tamid, Samuels said. But few of them remained in Van Nuys when they grew up.

“I’m proud that three or four of our kids went on to be rabbis. We kept Judaism alive for our children here. But now, Koreans, Hispanics and other groups live in this area. It’s a matter of changing demographics,” said Samuels, 71, himself now a resident of Chatsworth.

Saturday’s final service followed a Friday evening Sabbath celebration attended by about 250 people. Among them were 29 who had been present for the first service in early 1955.

Some had tears in their eyes as Earl S. Draimin, 69, of Van Nuys stood in the pulpit to reminisce about the temple’s early struggles. He reminded them that the congregation had written and staged musicals to help pay the $100,000 construction cost of the temple in the late 1950s.

He led the crowd in singing several of the old songs. Then he produced lyrics for a final one: “We lived for 30 years through joys and tears. . . . We did it our way.”

Said Sophie Miller, 74, of Panorama City: “It’s very sad. There are a lot of roots here.

“I can remember how we knocked on doors looking for members. The minister of the Presbyterian Church in Panorama City was doing the same thing for his church and he gave us names of Jewish people he’d met,” Miller said. “That was the beginning. Now this is the end.”

Rabbi Ben Zion Bergman, who served Temple Ner Tamid in its final few months, assured congregation members that the closure was not their fault.

“I know you can’t help but be sad,” Bergman said. “But remember that all the efforts that you put in here were not in vain at all. You raised a generation of children here that were loyal to Judaism. You created, and you achieved.”

Bert A. Woythaler, who retired last year after serving 24 years as the temple’s rabbi, said temple artifacts, including its seven sacred Torah scrolls, will be taken to their new home. The temple’s cantor for 23 years, Maurice Glick, will be co-cantor for the new congregation.

Perry Potkin, the congregation’s final president and an organizer of the merger, said next Friday’s Sabbath service will be held at Encino’s Maarev Temple. That day, it will be renamed Temple Ner Maarev, which means “light of the west” in Hebrew. The new temple will have a membership of about 660 families.

“Come early so you can get a good seat, and a parking place,” said Northridge resident Potkin as he stood before his congregation for the last time.

Florence Bernstein, 72, who has attended services in Van Nuys since 1950, said she is ready for the move to Encino.

“I’ll be there. I’ve got my ride all lined up,” she promised.