Our Classical Reform Service at Third & Laurel

by Emily Jennewein, President

This was the introduction to our second stop on the Three Temple Tour, a Classical Reform service held at Third & Laurel on Friday, January 27. 

Our host, Ohr Shalom Synagogue, has lovingly restored this temple that was originally built in 1926 as the second home of Congregation Beth Israel. In fact, Ohr Shalom’s President, Al Shelden, who is here this evening, led the group that won a Preservation Award from the Save Our Heritage Organization last May for the restoration of this sacred place.  For 75 years – until 2001 – this historic structure was Beth Israel’s sacred dwelling, and the center of Jewish life in San Diego.

Tonight we will welcome back some very special guests who will be sitting on the bimah with Rabbi Michael Berk, Rabbi Arlene Bernstein and Rabbi Michael Satz.

We are thrilled to welcome Cantor Sheldon Merel. For 11 years, Cantor Merel’s beautiful tenor voice graced this sanctuary. He was a pioneer who expanded the role of Cantors in the Reform Movement. At his retirement in 1991, Cantor Merel became Cantor Emeritus of Beth Israel, but his contributions to our High Holy Days services have continued to this day and well into his retirement.



I am also pleased to welcome back Marline Gendelman, who directed the Bill & Sid Rubin Preschool for 20 years.  When Marline re-opened the preschool in 1977 she had 11 youngsters enrolled, and Marline herself acted as bookkeeper, secretary, snack provider, and sometime-custodian.  When Marline retired, she had built the preschool to full capacity with 65 children and a staff of eight. 

Also sitting on the bimah this evening will be Director of Education Emerita – Helene Schlafman, another wonderfully innovative force in our congregation.  Eemah – as everyone calls her – created our Madrichim Leadership Program more than 40 years ago and it became a model nationwide.  Over the years, hundreds of Beth Israel teens have been trained to assist in our religious school and camps. Eemah was our first woman director of education, a position she held for 20 years.  She was instrumental in creating a number of summer camps for Beth Israel, and the Beth Israel Day School.

For making this evening a seamless walk down memory lane, I’d like to thank the ALEINU Committee and its chair Jerry Sampson, our Facilities Coordinator Lynn Sampson, Maintenance Director Nick Reilly, and our Program Director with distinction for 27 years, Bonnie Graff. We are also grateful to Organist Bob McLeod, Choirmaster Nancy Jones Johnson, Beth Israel's Shabbat and Festival Choir and volunteer singers who have joined us to make music for many years.  

And we’ll also welcome to the bimah our host, Rabbi Scott Meltzer of Ohr Shalom, to whom we are most grateful for allowing us to journey back to our former home tonight, to worship here, and to re-live so many glorious memories of Congregation Beth Israel.

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You’re holding in your hand a service from the old Union Prayer Book, first published in 1894, newly revised in the 1940s, and used throughout the Reform Movement until 1976 when the Gates of Prayer was introduced.  Just a few congregations today still follow the liturgy that we’ll use for tonight’s service.

Tonight’s service is meant to be authentic, to take us back in time. So please be prepared for the unexpected and don’t be on auto-pilot. Our Reform Movement has evolved over time. But tonight we’ll venture back and we’ll hear the dignified, formal oratory in use in the 1940s, especially the male-oriented language of that day.

The music of a Classical Reform service – conducted without benefit of a Cantor, by the way – featured majestic Choral music, powerful and dignified congregational hymns, organ accompaniment, and musical responses to liturgy read by the Rabbi and Congregation. Though the hymns would have been published in a separate Union Hymnal, you’ll find some of the music for this evening in the back of our special Prayer Book.

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Now, let us be transported back to the 1940s to worship in the Classical Reform style – using the liturgy and music of the Reform movement – during the period in which Beth Israel convened at Third and Laurel.