Beth Shalom's New Synagogue Opens

By Paul Kozakiewicz

Congregation Beth Sholom came together May 18 to celebrate the grand opening of its new 24,000-square-foot synagogue.

The event was billed as "Beth Sholom: A Welcome Home." The celebration featured a family event at Mountain Lake Park, Torah march and ceremonial ribbon cutting. There was also a reception with food and music, docent-led tours of the new building and a silent auction benefiting Congregation Beth Sholom's Jewish Family Preschool.

Over the last two years, Beth Sholom held its religious services and member programs at other facilities in the City.

The opening of Beth Sholom's new home is a highlight in the 104-year history of the congregation, the first major conservative synagogue in northern California. Designed by award-winning architect Stanley Saitowitz, from the San Francisco firm Natoma Architects, the modern buildings' visually-distinctive exterior features a large arcing bowl, which reflects the shape of the 630-seat main sanctuary. The windowless concrete exterior of the bowl is intended to recall the Western Wall in Jerusalem, with its color and form matching the stones of the ancient temple.

Besides the new synagogue, the structure also contains a meeting room, with kitchen, and church offices. A separate structure containing the school is slated to be rebuilt.

Approval from the SF Planning Commission came in September 2005 and the groundbreaking for the new facility was on Sept. 10, 2006.

Leaders at the synagogue testified during hearings that the old building, which had housed the synagogue since the 1930s, was structurally unsound.