Faithful unite to help temple members
GLOUCESTER - Flames and wisps of smoke continued to rise among the charred ruins of the Temple Ahavat Achim yesterday morning while members of the synagogue gathered for their Saturday service in the shelter of a neighboring church.
A Unitarian church housed their ceremony, and a temple from a nearby town provided prayer books and a Torah, the first five books of the Bible. That was all the 200-plus temple families needed to maintain the faith that has risen from destroyed temples before.
"We've got everything we need," said the Rabbi Samuel Barth. "It would have been a huge mistake not to do this."
The fire that consumed the nearly 30-unit apartment complex on Middle Street Friday night, killing one man, also claimed the historic temple, which was built as a church in the early 1900s. And yet as firefighters struggled to stop the blaze from spreading to neighboring buildings, a community of religious groups gathered at the Independent Christian Church, Unitarian Universalist in support of the synagogue.
Governor Deval Patrick made an appearance after the service, shaking hands and giving hugs. He consoled families as they sat together in an after-service gathering of food and refreshments.
And, late yesterday afternoon, firefighters entered the ruins of the temple crawling on hands and knees over the shaky decks of the synagogue, to retrieve The Torah and religious artifacts. The firefighters realized their importance in the Jewish community. Tradition calls for the items to be buried. "It would be as if we were returning a loved one to the ground," said Mark Adrian Farber, a past president of the temple.
Middle Street lies in the historic heart of Gloucester and has some of the oldest religious buildings in the country. And each time tragedy occurs, their religious communities seem to set aside their spiritual differences to help one another.
It happened in 1979, when the Trinity Congregation Church on Middle Street burned and some parishioners gathered at the temple while others went to the Independent Christian Church, Unitarian Universalist building on Church Street.
And after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, residents gathered for an interfaith service in the temple.
The Unitarian church had sold the temple building to Temple Ahavat Achim in 1951, before uniting with a Universalist congregation in the Church Street building.
And so parishioners offered their church for the Jewish services yesterday, providing a sanctuary for those who had come to worship and found their temple in ruins.
"It's a community of mourning, and hope. It's what people do," said the Rev. Wendy Fitting, of the Independent Christian Church, Unitarian Universalist. "When there's tragedy, they come together."
The massive rubble of what was once a historic temple left members in awe. Many walked the hundred feet from Church Street to see the scene, a full city block of charred ruins and debris. Firefighters were still trying to douse the smoldering rubble. A cloud of thick smoke permeated the air, and all that was left of the temple was the front wall, its door burned open.
"It's still on fire; they're letting it burn," said Mitchell Cohen, a past president of the temple and a member of its building committee. He said he had arrived about 3:30 a.m. yesterday, only to see firefighters give up on his temple and instead struggle to save neighboring buildings.
A firefighter who had called him, "told me on the phone the temple was lost."
But Farber said, "The building itself is not a sacred place, but the community gathering of Jews praying together, that's what's important."
The Gloucester-area Jewish community is relatively small, but close-knit. The earliest settlers, including the Linskys, Cohens, and Alpers had small temples scattered throughout the area, according to temple members. But it was at the Middle Street site where they had established deeper, more regional roots, they said.
"It's such a warm synagogue, with people coming from all over," said Victoria Linsky, who remembers when the synagogue was created. "It was such a solid, historic building, with tremendous spirit."
The temple was once led by the Rabbi Myron Geller, a leader in establishing conservative Judaism laws.
The area's Jewish community was also the subject of a book, "The Jewish Community of Cape Ann: An Oral History," by Sarah Dunlap.
"We're a community of people whose home is gone, but we're a community that will survive, and we'll rebuild," said Phil Cutter, a member of the temple for more than 30 years.
In place of the regular service, Barth had members share their memories of the temple.
Allen Feldman, a past president of the temple and the synagogue and head of the Stonebridge Montessori School, took about 20 children to a family room to discuss what happened.
Barth gave no sermon yesterday. "It was there, in what people had to say to each other," he said.
Globe staff writer Matt Viser contributed to this report. 