In California Churches Resolute in Face of Disaster

When a cantor at an 80-year-old Pasadena synagogue realized the California wildfires were drawing near, she had only one thought: Save the sacred scrolls.

The synagogue’s Torah scrolls, she explained, were “the heartbeat of any Jewish community.”

So cantor Ruth Berman Harris and her friends embarked on a race to rescue the scrolls stored at the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center.