Blog
More than anything, we are a community. The families who have celebrated births, weddings and b'nei mitzvah through successive generations are the heart and soul of our congregation. We invite you to share your favorite memory here. Please email your blog post to mcurtis@wbtla.org. We reserve the right to edit blog entries for suitability.Steve Breuer's Special Memories
Steve Breuer worked at Wilshire Bouelvard Temple for almost 50 years, serving as director of the Religious School, director of the camps and executive director.
In most of my lifetime, our Sanctuary has been a very special place for me. On that pulpit I was bar mitzvah, confirmed, and married. As a congregant, I heard sermons from Rabbis Magnin, Wolf, Fields, and Leder from which I can still quote. As Executive Director, I worried about filling those seats with happy congregants.
Three distinct memories speak to the unusual role of the Temple whose sanctuary it is.
When Saint Basil's church, across Harvard Boulevard from the Temple, burned down, the years of good relations between Rabbi Magnin and the local Cardinal resulted in a unique solution. Mass was held in our Sanctuary every Sunday for the years during which the new church was built.
In 1963, upon the assassination of President Kennedy, I joined almost two thousand congregants at a Friday evening service, the crowd all the more remarkable for there being no announcement of a special memorial. We were just people seeking and finding solace in our spiritual home. And I cherish, with pride as the director, the memory of the memorial service, one year later. Our youth group presented to a large congregation, reading the entire service, which featured Charlton Heston reading Robert Frost.
I recall interfaith services organized by Rabbi Wolf, including the call to worship by a muezzin whose minaret was our choir loft. But the most dramatic interfaith event came under the auspices of Rabbi Fields, who invited the Dalai Lama to speak in the Sanctuary. Hundreds of saffron-robed Buddhist monks filled the first rows of the Sanctuary overflowing with many of the Dalai's followers and many congregants. The pulpit was removed and the Dalai sat on a tall chair right in front of the arc, entertained first by a gospel choir and then by Native Americans dancing before him in full regalia on our pulpit.
These are but a few echoes within that majestic space and in my own memory.
--Steve Breuer
In most of my lifetime, our Sanctuary has been a very special place for me. On that pulpit I was bar mitzvah, confirmed, and married. As a congregant, I heard sermons from Rabbis Magnin, Wolf, Fields, and Leder from which I can still quote. As Executive Director, I worried about filling those seats with happy congregants.
Three distinct memories speak to the unusual role of the Temple whose sanctuary it is.
When Saint Basil's church, across Harvard Boulevard from the Temple, burned down, the years of good relations between Rabbi Magnin and the local Cardinal resulted in a unique solution. Mass was held in our Sanctuary every Sunday for the years during which the new church was built.
In 1963, upon the assassination of President Kennedy, I joined almost two thousand congregants at a Friday evening service, the crowd all the more remarkable for there being no announcement of a special memorial. We were just people seeking and finding solace in our spiritual home. And I cherish, with pride as the director, the memory of the memorial service, one year later. Our youth group presented to a large congregation, reading the entire service, which featured Charlton Heston reading Robert Frost.
I recall interfaith services organized by Rabbi Wolf, including the call to worship by a muezzin whose minaret was our choir loft. But the most dramatic interfaith event came under the auspices of Rabbi Fields, who invited the Dalai Lama to speak in the Sanctuary. Hundreds of saffron-robed Buddhist monks filled the first rows of the Sanctuary overflowing with many of the Dalai's followers and many congregants. The pulpit was removed and the Dalai sat on a tall chair right in front of the arc, entertained first by a gospel choir and then by Native Americans dancing before him in full regalia on our pulpit.
These are but a few echoes within that majestic space and in my own memory.
--Steve Breuer
Posted on 2009-10-21 14:09:39
