Synagogue Meets Needs of Area Orthodox

The oldest and largest Orthodox synagogue in the San Fernando Valley now has a place befitting its leadership role among traditional Jews in the North Hollywood area.

Spending $2.5 million in renovations during the last two years, Shaarey Zedek Congregation nearly doubled its space for prayers, classes and social events--and just in time for the 10-day High Holy Days period starting Sunday evening.

Nevertheless, tired of being confined for months in a 60-foot-long trailer, congregants began meeting last April in half-finished sections of the building with nothing but concrete floors. Even by midweek, plastic sheets covered seats and carpeting in many parts of the synagogue on Chandler Boulevard.

The 850 people holding tickets for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur services will nearly fill the expanded sanctuary. Some will undoubtedly show up without reservations.

“They come!” said Associate Rabbi Aron Tendler. “No one is ever turned down, although they might have to stand.”

Tendler will succeed Rabbi Marvin Sugarman, 66, a year from now as the congregation’s spiritual leader under a five-year plan of transition in Rabbinic leadership.

When Sugarman became rabbi of the 80-family Shaarey Zedek in 1967, at that time the only Orthodox synagogue in North Hollywood--in an area now called Valley Village--”I looked at it as a temporary stepping stone. But since then I have enjoyed an extraordinary community,” he said.

With Sugarman and Tendler often leading the way, the region has become a haven for Orthodox Jews of various ethnic backgrounds. “We have become a self-contained community,” Sugarman said.

Through the cooperation of public officials more than a decade ago, a triangular, freeway-bordered section of the Valley was created within which Orthodox Jews are permitted to carry anything from a baby, a wine bottle or keys across public areas on the Sabbath.

Designating freeway fencing as borders as well as stringing synthetic cord over underpasses, the eruv, in Hebrew, is bounded by the Hollywood Freeway on the east, the Ventura on south, the San Diego on the west and the Ronald Reagan and Golden State freeways on the north.

“In the last five to seven years, about 1,000 Orthodox families have moved into the area,” Tendler said. As expected, nine other relatively small Orthodox synagogues have formed--united by language, black-hatted Hasidic allegiances or Sephardic Jewish traditions from the Mediterranean countries.

That can produce rivalries in some areas, but Sugarman maintained, “We have always welcomed each new synagogue to the community with open arms.”

Shaarey Zedek has grown as well, adding 20 new families this year to bring membership up to 320 families. The number is large for an Orthodox synagogue because congregants are expected to walk to services on the Sabbath in keeping with Jewish law.

A large number of members are couples under 45 years old, said media consultant David Silver. “A few are entertainment executives at Disney, Sony and Warner Bros.,” he said. “Another is one of the head writers for ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.’ ”

Tendler and Sugarman--like the majority of Orthodox rabbis--do not affiliate with the Southern California Board of Rabbis. “They don’t often make room for minority views,” Tendler said.

But both rabbis are active in the 60-member Rabbinical Council of California, which sets Orthodox standards for kosher food, Jewish arbitration courts and divorces.

To meet the many exacting requirements of Jewish law, the reconstructed Shaarey Zedek building includes features designed to ease adherence--such as a skylight with removable glass above the center of the sanctuary. When a couple prefers to have its wedding indoors, the opened skylight satisfies the letter of Jewish law to have the ceremony under the sky.

When a Jewish couple buys new glassware or dishes, those vessels for eating are to be rinsed first in the rainwater collected in the synagogue’s mikva, or ritual bath. At the newly reconstructed synagogue, members can access the water from the outside by opening a door for that purpose.

Also, a rather ordinary looking clock in the main sanctuary is kept accurate to the fraction of a second via radio-signal synchronization.

The ostensible purpose is to assure that morning, afternoon and evening prayers are said no sooner or later that the prescribed windows of time for each, the rabbis said.

But the clock may benefit congregants suffering through a hastily prepared sermon. “God forbid that a rabbi speaks any longer than necessary!” Tendler said.