Answer to Their Prayers

WEST HILLS —  Led by a specially equipped “Torah mobile,” a 700-family Jewish congregation moved with exuberance Sunday into its new, $7-million worship-and-educational complex on West Hill’s Valley Circle Boulevard, a stretch of the West Valley rim now known as Synagogue Row.

The Shomrei Torah congregation, which had been housed in a small synagogue on Shoup Avenue, had been looking forward to this day since 1979, when it bought the 10-acre site. They moved the temple’s 14 Torah scrolls from the old synagogue to the new in a van nicknamed the Torah mobile and decorated with a giant, blue skullcap and prayer shawl.

With the blowing of shofars--ram’s horns heard mostly on the High Holy Days--members carried the scrolls into the new synagogue’s banquet hall. Waiting for them were 800 people singing, clapping and touching the scrolls’ cloth covers as the procession went by.

“We dreamed the dream,” said Rabbi Elijah “Eli” Schochet, addressing the crowd. “We sometimes wondered if it was only a dream of the heart rather than a dream of the mind.

“But we are here, we are here, we are here!”

The westerly move of the congregation is in line with the Jewish community’s strong shift toward the southwestern corner of the San Fernando Valley and into Ventura County’s Conejo Valley.

Shomrei Torah now has as neighbors Temple Solael, a Reform Jewish congregation five blocks south on Valley Circle Boulevard, and Temple Aliyah, another six blocks south.

Both Temple Aliyah and Shomrei Torah are affiliated with Conservative Judaism, which resembles Orthodox Judaism to the extent that it adheres to tradition and ritual, but it’s closer to the liberal Reform wing in accepting women rabbis and adapting Judaism to modern life.

“Maybe there will be some competition among the three of us, but it will be a healthy one--we already have good cooperation,” said Schochet. “There are thousands of Jewish families in the far West Valley who have not been exposed to the wonders of Jewish tradition and celebration.”

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At a final, nostalgic service Sunday morning in the old synagogue, which seats only about 200, many men wore phylactories, small leather boxes containing Scripture, strapped to their arms and head in a practice characteristic of traditional Jewish piety.

“We are traditional in flavor and ambience,” Schochet said. “We have a very high Hebrew literacy rate and many young people wear skullcaps both inside and outside the synagogue.”

If there was a touch of sadness in the move, it was that Sandra “Sonny” Raffle, who was tapped in 1990 to lead the fund-raising campaign with her husband, Erwin, died two months ago Sunday of a brain tumor.

At a dinner-dance Saturday night, Erwin Raffle delivered an address on video concerning the synagogue’s history and his and his wife’s devotion to it. He spoke about how, early on, the congregation moved from one leased facility to another, meeting at times in the Raffles’ backyard.

“Our kids grew up wondering why every family didn’t have a Torah in their closet,” he said.

And of his wife, Erwin Raffle said, “Her illness made it impossible for her to see the building . . . so it’s a bittersweet experience.”

A video of Sandra Raffle was also shown. A striking woman with an attractive smile, she reflected on the all-consuming nature of volunteerism in synagogue and Jewish life.

“Involvement is a word that Judaism must have invented,” she said, joking that only among Jews can one be made to feel guilty that a day lasts only 24 hours. “I found there are no office hours for leaders.”

The Shomrei Torah complex, so far only partially landscaped, includes a pair of two-story educational buildings and the 26,000-square-foot main building. The sanctuary, with 356 permanent seats, will not be finished until August, but Sabbath services will begin on a regular schedule next weekend in the banquet hall. When finished, the sanctuary, hall and chapel will be used together to accommodate 1,500 people for High Holy Days services in September.