Bush Street Temple

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The former Ohabai Shalome Synagogue ( Hebrew בית הכנסת אוהבי שלום) is located at 1881 Bush Street in San Francisco . The building still preserved today, which is no longer used as a sacred building, is a listed building (San Francisco Landmark # 81). It was created in 1895 on behalf of the Ohabai Shalome Jewish community ( Hebrew אֹהֲבֵי שָׁלוֹם; in English: lover of peace ) built to designs by the architect Moses J. Lyon and consecrated on September 15, 1895. The building is the oldest synagogue in San Francisco that still exists today.

prehistory

The community of Ohabai Shalome was established in 1864 as a split from the community of Emanu-El , one of the two Jewish communities of San Francisco at the time. Its members built a first synagogue on Mason Street in 1865. Since in the course of time many members of the community moved to other areas of the city, moving the synagogue was considered and a plot of land was sought for this purpose.

The building

The planning and execution of the construction was commissioned by what is believed to be the first licensed Jewish architect in San Francisco, Moses J. Lyon, who created an eclectic building that combined Moorish , Venetian, Romanesque and Gothic elements.

The loggia was modeled on the Doge's Palace in Venice, the two towers in the facade were reminiscent of minarets . The architect's aim was to create a unique, monumental building that could not be confused with a church.

For the most part, Lyon used processed redwood as building material , which was shaped inside with the help of trompe-l'oeil techniques such as marble.

The building survived the earthquake and subsequent fires of 1906, but was damaged in a storm in 1915. Therefore, the two towers were redesigned afterwards.

Sold to the Buddhist community and used as a Zen center

After a series of setbacks for the Ohabai Shalome community , the community sold the building to the Japanese Zen Buddhist Teruro Kasuga, who set up a mission for the Sōtō-shū school there. This lasted until 1942, the year in which the Japanese or Japanese citizens of San Francisco were interned . A Christian group then occupied the building, but had to return it to its original owner in 1946.

These use the building until 1973 and 1975; then they gave it up and sold it to an urban development company.

After the abandonment of the building

On April 18, 1976, the building was listed as a historical monument, renovated in 1978 and 1979 and then served briefly under the name Pacific Hall as a municipal event and cultural center, later as a Japanese Go Club. An attempt by the local Jewish architect and history fan Felix M. Warburg in the early 1980s to convert the building into a Jewish cultural center could not be realized due to a lack of financial means.

Eventually the building was awarded to the Japanese American Religious Federation (JARF) in 1996 , which acquired it in 1997 for the symbolic price of one dollar. In collaboration with the architect Steve Suzuki, the building was renovated; an adjoining plot of land was included in the construction. Since 2003, it has been an assisted living facility for older people of Japanese origin called Kokoro .

When the foundation stone from 1895 was removed on September 21, 2002 as part of the renovation, there were more than 40 documents in it that suggest that the foundation stone of the community's first synagogue from 1865 was included in it in 1895.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b http://www.noehill.com/sf/landmarks/sf081.asp
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Synagogue page on examiner.org
  3. ↑ Brief account of the community history on the page of the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at the Bancroft Library
  4. ↑ Appleton's hand-book of American travel. Vol. 2: Western tour. Appleton, New York 1870, p. 128.
  5. ↑ cf. the December 4, 1894 article in the Francisco Chronicle under the heading: “They want a lot: Ohabai Shalome eager to build. The Mason-Street Congregation Is Anxious to Erect a New Synagogue. "
  6. ↑ a b c d Chiat (1997), p. 409.
  7. ↑ Colleen O'Brien in the San Francisco Business Times, March 28, 2004
  8. ↑ Self-presentation of the home

literature

  • Marilyn Joyce Segal Chiat: America's Religious Architecture: Sacred Places for Every Community. Wiley, New York 1997, ISBN 0-471-14502-5 , p. 409.

Web links