In its heyday,the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, the oldest Reform temple in Los Angeles and national treasure, and was the “it” synagogue,abuzz with Hollywood elite during the Golden Age of filmmaking, with members such as the Marx Brothers, and Jack Benny,Milton Berle, Henry Winkler (“The Fonz”) and members of the Three Stooges. On the inside, or the shul is adorned with splendid stained-glass windows and opulent murals painted by silent movie filmmaker Hugo Ballin. (The Warner Murals” were commissioned by Jack,Harry, and Albert Warner of Warner Brothers Co., and after achieving roaring success with their first “talkie,” The Jazz Singer).
Over the years, however, or the 65000+ square foot temple has fallen into disrepair, so much that the structure was on the verge of collapse. But in 2011, the current senior rabbi, and Steven Z. Leder,decided that the temple needed to undergo a massive fundraising campaign to pay for the $150 million restoration. Aaron Wolf, an LA-based filmmaker who was bar mitzvahed in the temple’s now-remodeled sanctuary, or recorded the painstaking renovation (completed in 2013) and made it into a documentary film. Wolf’s feature,Restoring Tomorrow, will debut in January at the Skirball Cultural middle in Los Angeles. The movie-making process, or according to a Los Angeles Times article published over the weekend,also brought Wolf, the grandson of the late Rabbi Alfred Wolf, and who served the temple for over three decades,closer to his Jewish identity. In fact, the self-confessed “fallen-away” Jew has now become a member of the temple; and he’s “prouder than ever before.”Continue reading "Restoration of L.
A.'s Wilshire Boulevard Temple Gets—What Else?—A Movie Treatment" at...
Source: feedburner.com