California synagogues, Hillel houses and families evacuate amid raging fires

SACRAMENTO — In the aftermath of the November 8 mass shooting in Thousand Oaks, California, Rabbi Barry Diamond of Adat Elohim was consumed by the news of the massacre in his community. As the head of the largest Reform congregation in the Conejo Valley, he was asked to speak at a vigil the city’s leaders had organized.

Driving home from the somber event, he saw billowing smoke in the distance.

“I knew it was a bad omen,” he said.

Along with congregation president Sandy Greenstein, the rabbi made a beeline for the synagogue.

“Sparks were already flying on the temple property,” Diamond said, adding that across the street, houses were burning.

Diamond ran to the back door and initially grabbed two of the congregation’s four Torahs — one which survived the Holocaust and was entrusted to the temple, the other a newly dedicated scroll that congregants helped write.

With flames quickly rolling in, additional Torahs, crowns, and the Book of Esther, all stored in the ark, were also grabbed. After snatching his office laptop, Diamond said, “We walked into the courtyard and there were huge flames toward the back of the sanctuary building.”

The ivy covering the walls and fence of the synagogue was on fire. Cantor David Shukiar formed a crew and returned to the temple to put out the flames and make sure there were no smoldering embers that could spread.

Even as the raging fires sweep across California, its affected Jewish communities are warmly embraced by umbrella organizations, working to tend to displaced congregations, Hillels on campuses, and individuals — who, like Diamond, each have heroic stories of their own.

The deadliest in California history

The fires still blazing across the state are the deadliest in drought-ridden Californian history: As of Tuesday morning, the statewide death toll stands at 42 and hundreds more are reported missing.

According to an AP report, more than 8,000 firefighters have battled three large wildfires burning across nearly 400 square miles (1,040 square kilometers) in northern and southern California. Some 300,000 people have been placed under evacuation orders as out-of-state crews continue to arrive to take on a series of fires made all that more dangerous by gusty, blowtorch winds.

The devastation is so complete in some neighborhoods that “it’s very difficult to determine whether or not there may be human remains there,” said Sheriff Kory Honea of the northern Butte County.

In the wake of the ongoing disaster, California Gov. Jerry Brown said the state is requesting aid from the federal government. Brown’s request for a major-disaster declaration from Trump would make victims eligible for crisis counseling, housing and unemployment help, and legal aid. So far, President Donald Trump has blamed “poor” forest management for the fires.

Back at Thousand Oaks’ Adat Elohim congregation, the immediate danger averted, colleagues began reaching out to Diamond.

The Jewish Federation of Los Angeles, he said, has been providing tremendous support to his temple as well as other congregations, day schools, and Jewish camps that have all been impacted. In the coming days, counseling and food banks are anticipated to be provided.

“Everyone is spread apart,” the rabbi said. “We are taking time to focus on the communal needs as well as individual needs.”

Adat Elohim staff met virtually to plan the upcoming course of action. Currently, an email system has been set up so everyone can be accounted for; regular updates are posted on Facebook. All the Torah scrolls were safely stored in Newport Beach where Diamond’s father lives and will be cared for by Temple Judea in Tarzana until they can return home.

In between dealing with the multitude of issues including the safety of their congregants, finding out how many have been displaced, addressing the needs of the one confirmed congregant who lost a home, collecting funds, and when the Temple will reopen, Diamond and cantor Shukiar had planned an online Friday night service via Facebook live from the home of the cantor’s parents.

“Twenty minutes before getting started, we had to evacuate the area,” Diamond said.

The next day on Saturday evening, Shukiar posted on the synagogue’s Facebook page that the grounds of the synagogue had been burnt, but that “the temple is in great shape.” He noted that the homes in the area of the synagogue were “burnt to the ground.”

Double the trauma on campuses

Like Diamond, Kristy Collins, Hillel Director at Chico State University, has heard from Jewish professionals at Hillel at Berkeley, Davis, San Diego, as well as Hillel International.

“Their messages are all the same,” Collins said. “You’re in our thoughts. We hope you are okay.”

The Jewish Federation of the Sacramento Region, which serves the Chico area, is helping collect material goods such as clothing, towels, animal food and bottled water along with financial donations that will be earmarked for recovery efforts.

“We’ve been watching this tragedy unfold and feel compelled, as a Jewish organization, to help those in need,” said executive director Willie Recht. “We did the same when fires broke out in Santa Rosa last year. It’s just what we do.”

The combination of the shooting and the fire is a double trauma for Collins’s students who are from Thousand Oaks. She spent Thursday helping them come to terms with the tragedies, while also monitoring news of the fire blazing nearby.

“As the director, I am trying to keep my emotions at bay,” she said.

There were no classes scheduled for Monday due to Veteran’s Day weekend and many students had already headed home. Collins temporarily adopted four Jewish students who were left behind, three of whom ended up at her home in Chico where she lives with her husband and two young sons. Once the winds shifted, they evacuated to Lincoln, a suburb east of Sacramento where Collins’s parents live.

Fellow Chico resident David Spector is now holed up in his condo in Butte County with a packed suitcase by the door.

His home is dangerously close to the Camp Fire — the worst of the three wildfires ravaging the Golden State. That fire has so far burned 111,000 acres and more than 6,700 homes, displaced 50,000 people, and claimed at least 29 lives. The city once known as Paradise is completely decimated.

Spector first noticed a fire when he left for work on Thursday at the North Valley Indian Health Clinic. During the 10-minute drive, plumes of smoke began to rise higher and higher. Having experienced and escaped wildfires before, Spector, a dentist, chose to see patients with afternoon appointments.

“People urged me to go home, but I was resistant,” he said. “Then they said, ‘You have to go home now.’”

In the few hours since he had arrived, the sky turned black. “It looked like hell,” Spector said.

He evacuated to Sacramento, making the usual two-hour drive in four. As in Southern California, freeways had been sealed off and he was forced onto congested surface roads.

When he returned home on Friday, Spector received a telephone message from Rabbi Sara Abrams of Congregation Beth Israel — the only synagogue in the college town of approximately 92,000 that serves about 70 families.

“I want to send you a message of peace on this night of darkness and in these days of fire,” the rabbi said. “This is Rosh Chodesh, the first day of the month of Kislev, which is the month of light. And it’s the month of incandescent light, the light that’s in the darkness… We, in this time of difficulty, have to keep the incandescent flame, the flame of the candle, alight in our hearts.”

Family on the run

Elsewhere in Southern California, the “incandescent flame” was less metaphorical.

Fires continued to rage, chasing 22-year-old Matt Stein, his parents, and his girlfriend — all of whom live in Newbury Park, situated within the municipality of Thousand Oaks — from one safe haven to another.

Where they had sought refuge just an hour earlier, the Woolsey Fire had arrived in full force, so far claiming more than 80,000 acres, tens of thousands more than the 4,500 acres currently lost to the Hill Fire.

Later that night, he and his girlfriend were awakened by his parents at 3:30 a.m. with the words, “We have to leave now.”

Exhausted from a harrowing 24 hours, Stein could only think to grab some clothes and his cell phone charger. Within 10 minutes, six adults and two family dogs were out the door, searching for, and eventually finding, a motel room.

“From the freeway, we could see Agoura and Oak Park completely on fire,” Stein said. “If we left any later, we would have been trapped.”

In the motel parking lot, Stein could see that the fire had jumped the freeway, surrounding them on three sides by a circle of flames. In that surreal moment, all he could hear in his head, Stein said, was the Johnny Cash song, “Ring of Fire.”

Agencies contributed to this report.