Another Orthodox Community

Tom Waldman’s very fine article concerning the Orthodox Jewish Community in the North Hollywood area (View, June 11) failed to mention to your readership the existence of a new, growing Orthodox Jewish community in the West San Fernando Valley, in Woodland Hills.

Growing around the Beit Hamidrash Synagogue, located at 22733 Oxnard St., established in 1985 with 60 families as members, this community provides an alternative to the various problems encountered in the aging neighborhood of North Hollywood and to the overcrowded facilities of the Shaarey Tzedek Congregation and Emek Day School.

A full-time Jewish day school is starting this year, with a first grade, under the able leadership of Rabbi Dov Aharoni Fisch of Israel and New York, with plans for expansion to eight grades within the next two years. The synagogue facility provides comfortable seating on Shabbos with larger facilities available for the High Holy Days at the nearby Oakwood apartment complex.

The synagogue is particularly now the focal point in the West Valley for outreach to the community with Jewish Studies classes, college activities and community events such as public Passover seders and Israel Independence Day celebrations. With 75,000 Jews within walking distance of Beit Hamidrash, the limits of Orthodoxy are truly stretched across the Valley.

ALAN SHAPIRO

Woodland Hills

Shapiro is president of Beit Hamidrash congregation .