Dear Temple Adat Elohim Family,
Our hearts are with each of you as our area begins to recover from the devastating fires this past weekend. We know that some of you suffered losses, and we grieve with you. We hold you in love as we all start to heal from this disaster.
TAE staff are forever grateful to the first responders who ensured that our buildings did not suffer any structural damage — and to Temple Judea for taking in our Torahs — but we do have some clean-up to do. We continue to assess the remediation steps needed to ensure all congregants’ health and safety and therefore at this time we have decided to close the campus at least through the afternoon of Friday, November 16. There will be:
- No preschool through Friday, November 16
- No religious school for 7th-10th graders tonight (November 13)
- No religious school for 4th-7th graders tomorrow, November 14
- No women’s Torah study on November 15
- No other meetings or classes on campus through November 16
A decision has not yet been made about Shabbat services on Friday evening but we will livestream them again this week regardless of their location and will send out information about how to join the broadcast later in the week.
As we had previously shared, if you or your loved ones need fire recovery information, services, or assistance of any kind, you may call the Los Angeles Jewish Federation’s Emergency Hotline at (323) 761-8100 from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. You can also obtain assistance from:
Some of you may be struggling with how to talk about the fires with your children. Some helpful resources include:
- How to Explain Bad Things to Children by Rabbi Rebecca Rosenthal
- On Loss and Meaning from The Jewish Healing Center in San Francisco’s Rabbi Eric Weiss and Ellen Goldsmith.
We will continue to provide updates about when the campus will reopen and other recovery resources as they become available. In the meantime, we wish you peace.
Rabbi Barry Diamond
Cantor David Shukiar
Executive Director Aliza Goland
Board President Sandy Greenstein
Early Childhood Center Director Donna Becker,
Religious School Director Marcy Goldberg