Artifacts at destroyed Pasadena temple survive Eaton Fire, signaling a new beginning

The tale of what was saved from the fire leads to Abraham Katzman.

It was he who welded the six-point Star of David to the black gate at the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center. It was he who built bookcases and erected a drywall barrier hiding a mural in what became the custodian’s apartment.

Both the gate and the artwork survived the Eaton Fire.

Linda Katzman, 76, of San Diego saw a photo of the gate, still upright amid the rubble of the Jan. 7 wildfire. Her sister Nancy Schiffman posted about it online. A nephew and his wife lost their Altadena home in the fire, and in the days after, Katzman read posts about how the intact gate has become “a symbol of resilience for everyone who was touched by this wonderful community.”

Another artifact that survived the flames was only revealed because of it: a faded mural featuring a palm tree standing over figures of people, some animals and pottery can be seen on one wall left standing on temple grounds. It was forgotten until revealed after the fires where 30 synagogue families lost their homes and about another 45 displaced for the foreseeable future.

Phil Callahan, past president of the synagogue, told the Jewish news group “Forward” that the mural’s existence is a mystery and no one had an idea it was there. But Katzman remembers.

“I recall him coming home one day and telling us about this mural, which he discovered in a back room behind the custodian’s living quarters,” Katzman said. “He was asked to expand the room and put up bookshelves. In the process, he discovered and covered over the mural with plaster board.”

Abe Katzman thought the building was formerly a casino with a men’s club upstairs. His daughter, in junior high then, remembers she was upset she didn’t get to see the mural.

“When I saw the photo recently of its remains, it gave me a strange feeling that I had to wait all these years to finally see this,” Linda Katzman said.

Temple officials said Kristine Garroway, a professor of Bible at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, will try to find out who made the mural and when.

Congregants have suggested the artwork could depict Jews wandering in the desert, an apt reminder of the journey before the temple now.

Katzman said she remembers her father thought the mural was about conquistadores instead, since the building featured some Spanish influences. A brightly-colored mosaic created by another congregant also emerged unscathed on temple grounds.

Either way, the survival of both the gate and the mural feels like a message from their father, his daughters said.

“He has his hand in it and we said he always had his presence everywhere,” Katzman said. “If he were alive, he would be so heartbroken but we know he would say it will be rebuilt.”

Donations are being accepted at www.pjtc.net or through a GoFundMe. The congregation is in the process of securing temporary space and has received several heartfelt offers to host, spokesperson Jessica Donath said.

Abe Katzman was born in Staten Island in 1915. He met his bride Florence, probably on a blind date, and the two married in their 20s.

Abe and Florence had one daughter, Anne, when they moved to Pasadena in 1947. Two other daughters, Linda and Nancy, would later be born in the Crown City. By then, the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center (PJTC) was in the Spanish-style building and grounds on Altadena Avenue. It wouldn’t be known as PJTC until 1956, the better to reflect the temple and community hub it had also become.

The Katzmans lived in two homes in Pasadena, first on North El Molino Avenue and later on Magna Vista Street, less than two miles from the temple.

Her father practically lived at the temple, Katzman said.

As owner of a small sheet metal shop, General Sheet Metal and Roofing, on North Lake Avenue and Washington (a gas station sits on the site today), Katzman was called upon to make repairs and improvements to the temple’s four buildings as needed.

“When the separate building housing the preschool needed complete renovation, he spent every Sunday morning while we were in Sunday School singlehandedly working on that project,” Katzman said. “When he finished the final coat of paint in the nursery, a spark from an electrical outlet caught the finished building on fire.”

Her father was able to put out the flames, uncomplaining when fire damage repair was added to his to-do list.

“PJTC was a second home for all of us,” Katzman said.  “The loss of the temple was personally the most devastating part of the fire’s destruction.”

The family business was truly mom-and-pop, with Florence helping with the books and Abe running the shop.

“He was very intelligent and outspoken, very generous of his time helping with anything he could,” his daughter remembered. “Anytime there was a need in the community, he always stepped up. (Mom) was kind and very sweet, and patient with my Dad.”

In 1990, the temple honored Abe and Florence Katzman for their 44 years of service. Before that, they recognized Abe as its Congregant of the Year. Their daughters would later move away, but Abe and Florence would remain in Pasadena until their deaths in 1995 and 2001.

With both the gate he fashioned and the mural he discovered surviving the fire, Katzman said for all the sadness around the city these days, telling the story of her father strikes a hopeful note, a new beginning.

Perhaps, she said, he “was communicating on some level that he will always be a part of that temple which he loved so much. I only hope that the gate is retained and incorporated into the new temple once it is rebuilt. In that way, Abe Katzman’s memory will continue to be a blessing.”