A house in Napa County burns in the Glass Fire, Sept. 29, 2020. (Napa County Sheriff)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cA very loud alert went off on all our phones,\u201d said Kramer, senior associate rabbi of Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa, California, which had prerecorded the opening Yom Kippur service.<\/p>\n
Kramer said Rabbi George Gittleman and cantorial soloist Erica Wisner also had to evacuate, along with a number of the Reform synagogue\u2019s congregants, because of the wildfires raging in Northern California.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of those people are just unsure of their home status right now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Glass Fire had consumed more than 45,000 acres by Tuesday evening and was threatening restaurants and wineries in Napa County, The New York Times reported.<\/p>\n
Some 80,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate from affected areas.<\/p>\n
Kramer\u2019s family jumped in the car and headed for the freeway. They had plenty of company: The road was so packed, she said, it took 45 minutes to go a half mile. As of Tuesday, they were sheltering with friends in Petaluma, about 15 miles away.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe same place I sought refuge in 2017,\u201d she said. \u201cSo it\u2019s very surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a sadly familiar experience for Kramer and her congregation.<\/p>\n
In 2017, a week after Yom Kippur, the Tubbs Fire started its assault on Santa Rosa, eventually killing 22, destroying 5,600 structures and wiping out the Reform movement\u2019s Camp Newman. Shomrei Torah became a hub for Jewish community aid, serving as a shelter, soup kitchen and command center for volunteers eager to help the community.<\/p>\n
Now the Glass Fire is hitting many neighborhoods that weren\u2019t affected by Tubbs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is really burning in the areas that didn\u2019t burn in 2017,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Kramer is keeping in touch with her congregants, but she isn\u2019t expecting an end to the situation soon.
The Glass Fire began Sunday as a small fire before quickly ballooning to threaten over 10,000 structures, according to Cal Fire. Eighty homes had been destroyed in Napa and Sonoma counties.<\/p>\n
In the eastern part of Santa Rosa, the mandatory evacuation line stopped right across the street from the Sonoma County Chabad Jewish Center, according to Rabbi Mendel Wolvovsky.<\/p>\n
In spite of being so close to the evacuation zone, the rabbi said he didn\u2019t expect to have to leave himself.<\/p>\n
Instead, Wolvovsky was concentrating on providing food and shelter for the displaced while keeping an eye on fire news.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ash keeps raining and the smoke is still thick,\u201d he told J. on Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
With the Glass Fire threatening east Santa Rosa near Congregation Beth Ami, nearly all the congregants and staff were evacuated as a precaution. Among them is Rabbi Mordecai Miller, who conducted Yom Kippur services via Zoom at his daughter\u2019s Los Altos home.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks like everyone is evacuated,\u201d Miller said. \u201cThere are a few who remained in the warning zone; they will wait until it\u2019s mandatory evacuation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miller said he has spent much of his time since the start of the Glass Fire making check-in calls to congregants. The synagogue itself is fine, though it has been essentially shut down since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n
Beth Ami, like all other North Bay Jewish institutions, has become accustomed to coping with wildfire emergencies. Several congregants lost homes in the Tubbs Fire.<\/p>\n
Congregation Ner Shalom in Cotati, about halfway between Petaluma and Santa Rosa, had not yet been directly threatened by the Glass Fire as of Tuesday afternoon. But Reb Irwin Keller, its spiritual leader, said some of his congregants live in the fire zone and have been forced to evacuate.<\/p>\n
Some did so in the middle of Yom Kippur services.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the unexpected benefits of holding High Holidays on Zoom is that people who were evacuating continued to be [supported] in ways they wouldn\u2019t otherwise,\u201d Keller said. \u201cIf this was any other year, they would have had to abandon Yom Kippur. Instead they moved, went to a safe place and came back to the Zoom room.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keller said he had urged congregants enduring the stress of evacuation to forgo fasting on the Day of Atonement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt to me that we needed all our wits about us,\u201d he said. \u201cNobody needed to get an evacuation order while not physically ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
This makes four years straight that Keller and his fellow Sonoma County residents have had to cope with catastrophic wildfires. He says by now everyone has a plan on what to do when fire threatens. However, the coronavirus has thrown some of the playbook out the window.<\/p>\n
When the Tubbs Fire devastated the same region, Keller recalled, \u201cWe had 40 people that first night sheltering in the synagogue. Now you can\u2019t have 40 people in the synagogue. And at the same time the countywide preparedness is so much better. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll be overwhelmed because people have had years to make their contingency plans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even counties outside the danger zones were affected.<\/p>\n
In Marin County, Marc Dollinger was all set to host the fifth outdoor service of the High Holiday season on Monday in his San Rafael backyard. The professor of Jewish studies at San Francisco State University, with his wife, Marci, had used the space to host The Kitchen\u2019s Rosh Hashanah eve service, both days of Rosh Hashanah and Kol Nidre.<\/p>\n
But when Dollinger, one of the co-founders of the indie congregation in San Francisco, stepped outside on Yom Kippur morning, he knew he\u2019d have to change plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs people were driving here, I walked outside and smelled smoke,\u201d he said in a phone call Tuesday. Smoke had wafted into the county from nearby wildfires, creating unhealthy air conditions.<\/p>\n
So Dollinger improvised in a season that has required more improvisation than any before. He invited the leaders and hosts of the service \u2014 including Kitchen rabbis Noa Kushner and Jessica Kate Meyer \u2014 into his living room, where the Yom Kippur service went on, broadcast to more than 400 households via livestream.<\/p>\n
Each participant from The Kitchen had been tested for coronavirus prior to the service. The team moved furniture out of the sunny, hardwood-floored living space, replacing it with instruments, sound equipment and a Torah ark.<\/p>\n
Dollinger called the service \u201cextraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are living the liturgy\u201d this year, he added. \u201cWho shall live and who shall die.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dollingers had hosted services in their living room before, as Rodef Sholom\u2019s \u201cShabbat Unplugged\u201d used to bring up to 50 people to \u201csing Hebrew songs until late,\u201d Dollinger said.<\/p>\n
He said Kushner and Meyer captured the \u201csearingness\u201d and the intensity of the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me it was my most spiritual, meaningful Yom Kippur ever,\u201d Dollinger said, something he attributed to the unprecedented circumstances and to \u201cwhat The Kitchen delivered.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd,\u201d he added, \u201cthe fact that I got a front-row seat.\u201d<\/p>\n
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