A historic Pasadena synagogue is one of the many casualties of the California fires

At least 10 people have been confirmed dead as firefighters work to contain the fires blazing across Southern California. More than 30,000 acres of land have burned, along with more than 10,000 structures across Los Angeles County.

Among the structural casualties is the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, home to a congregation that has worshipped in Pasadena for more than a century.

Melissa Levy, the temple’s executive director, says the community has banded together in the face of tragedy.

“We're going to keep going,” Levy says. “The building is destroyed, but we're already rebuilding and continuing to connect with community and from there we'll rebuild the physical spaces.”

How are you feeling the loss of the synagogue?

“It's devastating and honestly also quite surreal… Our synagogue has been a series of mergers over the past 100 years, and so we bring not only our own history but the history of many other synagogues to us.

“It's gone, but people are what make a community. So as much as the building is gone, it's not gone. We've been working together. There are so many congregants who are volunteering their support — they're opening their homes. They're making phone calls. We have plans this weekend for Shabbat at a local school, and we have plans for next weekend at a different local synagogue and religious school will continue.”

Can you tell us about the efforts to save sacred Torahs housed in the temple?

“It was the first thing that came to mind for all of our staff members, including one of our facility staff members who happened to be nearby. He's not even Jewish and he knew that as long as it was seemingly safe to do so, the priority before leaving campus was to get those Torahs out to safety. The first thing he did was grab them from both of our arks.

“Our cantor then worked with our former rabbi, who lives very close to the area and lost his home as well. They managed to get them into trunks of cars and off the campus. I was told that as they were doing that, ash was flying down into the parking lot – lit ash from the fire. I can't imagine what that's like, to have ash flying down on you as you're trying to save these sacred scrolls.”

How are members of the congregation and community faring?

“So far, we've learned that 16 of our members have lost their homes. We also have been in touch with our direct neighbors who we are very close with and who feel a sense of responsibility to protect us on a daily basis. All but one of them lost their home as well, so we have a lot to rebuild.

“But we're here. We're gonna help each other through it.”

How is faith helping you respond to this tragedy?

“The Torah portion we just read last weekend was about wandering in the desert, so it's fresh in all of our minds. We know that our people are resilient. We're strong and we will keep forging forward. My faith is about the people and about the culture and the tradition.

“While having a space is helpful, you can make that space anywhere as long as your people are with you. We are — and we'll continue to be — together. That's the faith that I have.”

What memories from the synagogue will you be carrying with you?

“There's really two themes to all of the memories that are flooding through my head. The first one is all the life cycle events; all the birthdays, and bar and bat mitzvahs, and baby namings, and anniversaries that we've shared and celebrated together. It's not something that you celebrate alone. At the same time, all of the times of sorrow: the funerals and the memorial services.

“There's just this common theme of being together and holding each other. Those are the memories I'm going to hold, the ones where we were making a difference and where we were holding each other in happy times and in times of sorrow.”

Hafsa Quraishi produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Michael Scotto. Quraishi adapted it for the web.