by Amelia Hobson and Ava Hart (ABC4)
The leader of Kol Ami is speaking after a fast-moving fire threatened their synagogue over the weekend.
On July 12, a grass fire started near Tanner Park in Salt Lake City, burning four acres and prompting brief evacuations. While the fire was extinguished without damaging any structures, it still came too close for comfort for many in the community.
Rabbi Samuel Spector of Congregation Kol Ami says that the fire was burning near their synagogue. “Yesterday, I was driving past the synagogue when I saw smoke, so I pulled over to see if there was a fire on our property. I saw it was just beyond our property in Tanner Park.”
Spector immediately stopped and, with other members of the community, turned on the property sprinklers in case the fire spread closer.
Additionally, he says they were prepared to remove their Torah Scrolls, explaining that the Scrolls are sacred religious texts and that each synagogue’s Scrolls carry historical significance as well.
“Our Torah scrolls are our holiest possessions, and these are each over 100 years old, and they are handwritten documents. It takes about a year to write it out,” he said. “If a Torah Scroll is damaged, you bury it in a Jewish ceremony. During the time of the holocaust, when the Jewish community was being destroyed, there were people burying their Torah scrolls in the hopes they could recover them later.”
Because of the sacredness of the Torah scrolls, Spector explains that Rabbis are taught to remove the scrolls if possible during a fire.
“We kind of put in our measures of what we do in case there’s a fire,” he continued. “I was a rabbi in Los Angeles and, unfortunately, wildfire is something they deal with a lot in Los Angeles. At our synagogue or other synagogues, rabbis would come into the synagogue and remove the Torah scrolls in anticipation.”
Fortunately, firefighters were able to put out the fire before it reached the synagogue. Spector added, “It was a little too close for comfort, just about a block away.”
