Synagogues Check Into Bigger Sites for Holy Days

Services may be held at hotels. Or under the fluorescent lights of a community center. Or even in a Baptist church, with the wooden cross respectfully covered.

Unable to accommodate the crowds of worshipers who turn out to celebrate the High Holy Days, some Ventura County synagogues are holding services for Rosh Hashana--which begins at sundown Sunday and celebrates the Jewish new year--at seemingly nontraditional venues.

“It’s a time for connection,” said Rabbi Yakov Latowics of Chabad in Ventura. “They want to connect with their people even if they aren’t particularly religious. A lot will show up on the holy days who won’t be in synagogues the other year-round.

“You end up with a proportionately much larger crowd, and a large synagogue can’t handle the crowds,” Latowics said. “It’s one of the reasons we used to go to hotels.”

During the introspective period, which begins with Rosh Hashana eve, Jews seek forgiveness from God, reflect on ways to improve themselves and contemplate the meaning of their lives. The period culminates with Yom Kippur on Sept. 30, when it is believed that God decides a person’s fate for the following year.

The practice of using venues outside synagogues is common for Jewish groups that don’t have 8large enough facilities.

Chabad of the Conejo, an Orthodox Jewish group, has reserved the Hyatt Westlake Plaza, the largest hotel in eastern Ventura County, for the High Holy Days. More than 700 attended Chabad’s services last year at another hotel. This year the group expects more than 1,000 worshipers.

Chabad of the Conejo draws from three synagogues in Westlake, Oak Park and Agoura Hills, which together would only accommodate 400 worshipers.

“The Jewish community is booming and our reputation is just spreading,” Chabad’s Rabbi Moshe Bryski said. “As it was, last year you couldn’t get through the front doors.”

Larger quarters for services are especially important in eastern Ventura County and parts of the San Fernando Valley, where some rabbis have reported more than doubling their synagogue memberships within the past decade.

Noticing the increase, the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, which disburses grants to Jewish groups, conducted its first population survey in 1996.

The council found more than 38,000 Jews lived in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Moorpark, Westlake, Agoura Hills and Newbury Park.

A week before the High Holy Days, the 262-room Hyatt Westlake Plaza had booked 70 rooms for Rosh Hashana and about 80 for Yom Kippur, hotel officials said.

“It kind of turns into a little Jerusalem in the hotel lobby,” Bryski joked.

Holding services at the hotel will be especially helpful for Orthodox Jews who want to observe all the rules surrounding the High Holy Days, Bryski said. Kosher meals will be available, and Orthodox Jews who rent rooms don’t have to worry about driving to services.

Starting the ignition on the car can be interpreted as lighting a fire, an act contrary to the strict observance of the High Holy Days, said Arnel McAte of the Jewish Community of the Oaks in the Ojai Valley.

A synagogue must contain the Torah--the Jewish Scriptures--but the buildings that hold the services aren’t as important as the services themselves, Latowics said. In fact, when Jews wandered the wilderness, they created portable structures for synagogues.

“There is a law that one should face east if you can,” Latowics said, “but there is also an expression in the Torah, that regardless of what direction you’re facing, your heart should be directed toward heaven. That’s the most important thing. It’s not so much the geographical location as a state of mind.”

In Ojai, Jewish Community of the Oaks is renting a Baptist church to celebrate the holidays. Its sanctuary can’t accommodate all those who want to attend services, said community President McAte, who estimated that the membership grew about 15% in the past year.

The group is renting the Southern Baptist Church across the street from its own 1,300-square-foot synagogue so services can accommodate up to 100 worshipers. Jewish Community’s sanctuary will be used for children’s events.

Some may be bewildered about Jews celebrating a solemn service in a place with a crucifix, a Christian symbol. But McAte said that won’t be a problem. The building has one cross at the front that can be covered with sheets or some type of other cloth decoration.

“It was very easy to respectfully cover it up,” McAte said. “It doesn’t really matter where you worship,” she said. What matters, “is that you’re together.”

In Simi Valley, Congregation B’nai Emet expects about 480 worshipers--or more than double the numbers who normally attend the temple on Industrial Street. That is why services will be held at Rancho Santa Susana Community Center.

Behind the cinder-block walls and under the fluorescent lights of the community room, Michael Hollander expects that services will be just as holy as if they were held in the temple.

“We certainly make our normal sanctuary a holy place and that’s within the walls of an industrial park,” said Hollander, the congregation’s vice president of membership. “It’s not the venue. It’s the people.”