When Leslie Sachs threw a Chanukah party nine years ago, she couldn’t believe how many people came. The New York native had moved recently from Berkeley, where there was a large Jewish presence, to El Granada near Half Moon Bay, where there seemed to be none at all.
The 80 or so people who showed up at the party established that there were, in fact, Jews in her new hometown. “Everyone thought they were the only Jew living on the coast,” she said.
Sachs was shaking her head in disbelief once again this month, as the now-established congregation, called the Coastside Jewish Community, celebrated the purchase of its own Sefer Torah.
While the community consists of 50 paying member-families, there are 250 in its database, with some of those coming just for High Holy Days. Sachs describes the congregation as a mix of Reform and Renewal, “with adjustments for our coast-side lifestyle.” For example tashlich, the ceremony to cast one’s sins into the water on Rosh Hashanah, is held every year on the beach.
For the past three years, for all b’nai mitzvah and on High Holy Days, a congregant had to drive to San Francisco to borrow a Torah from Sinai Memorial Chapel.
That’s past history.
The congregation was able to buy the Torah thanks to the generosity of Sam Alster, the father of board member Laura Alster-Martin. He said if the congregation could raise enough money for half the cost, he would match it.
Next, several board members went to Los Angeles to select the Torah.
“We purposely got a smaller-sized one because we wanted it to be accessible for all ages,” said board member Sara Russell. “We wanted it not to be so heavy for children and older congregants.”
The Torah they chose dates back to around World War I and comes from Poland. It was hidden during the Holocaust and, afterward, rescued by Jews living in Israel. Then it was bought by a scribe in Los Angeles, who made it kosher.
“We’re ecstatic to be able to have a Torah because it is the most important piece of a Jewish community,” Russell said. “It’s also terribly exciting for the area, because Half Moon Bay has never been home to a Torah. This is the first time a Torah has made its home here.”
One congregant who is a jeweler donated her services to make the yad (pointer) for the Torah, using a stone that came from Jhos Singer’s mother, who passed away in the fall. Singer, an apprentice rabbi who is spiritual leader of the congregation, is also part-time spiritual leader at Chochmat HaLev in Berkeley.
Singer’s mother had been given an unset emerald, her birthstone, for her 75th birthday, and Singer was unsure of what to do with it.
Now, she said, no matter how long she stays at CJC, “it’s like that will always be there. It’s like mom was a caretaker of it for a period of time.”
At least 100 people came to the Holy Family Episcopal Church, where the Coastside Jewish Community holds services, to celebrate this landmark event. The celebration also marked the graduation of eight religious school students.
The religious school has a unique approach: Singer asks that parents attend religious school classes with their children.
“It’s not a mandate, but I expect parents will attend religious school with their kids, and they do. It’s the sweetest thing in the world to see parents sit on the floor with their kids, learning together. I’m so touched by that, and I think it’s really effective.”
At the Shacharit service, the shofar was blown, and then, according to Sachs, there was a “drums and clarinet explosion outside,” as Alster, who made the Torah possible, began a parade into the church with the Torah.
Outside, a Berkeley-based band called Edessa, played Middle Eastern and Eastern European-inspired tunes.
Alster carried the Torah under a chuppah whose poles were held by four teens who’d celebrated their b’nai mitzvah in the community. Founding members and current board members of the congregation stood on either side of the bimah and passed the Torah back and forth.
A Torah service was held; the portion of the week was Behaalotkha.
Singer said she felt the portion was particularly fitting because it had to do with the Jews moving, with clouds preceding them.
“There are times when the Torah should push or pull you ahead into whatever it is — like social action, care-taking of the community, or deepening Jewish values — and then there are times it should wrap around you and take care of you,” said Singer. “That image of clouds was what we’re about at CJC.”
After the service, the parade resumed with dancing outside, and then a celebratory lunch.
To her surprise, Sachs, who was holding the Torah, was guided to a chair with the Torah and held aloft.
“We were dancing in big hora circles with the Torah, and then they lifted me with the Torah in a chair and danced me around. That was really sweet.”
Singer, who has served the community for one year now, said the Torah has “very much infused a great vitality into the community. It’s really thrilling to know that we’ll be reading from our own Torah during these High Holy Days. We’ve now got a Torah for Simchat Torah. It deepens all the communal practice.”