[Shutterstock]

The observances at All Saints Church, an Episcopal parish downtown, and at two Catholic parishes, St. Andrew in Old Pasadena and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on East Orange Grove Boulevard, include remembering, by name, people who died in the past year. Clergy and staff at all three also described continuing support for people affected by the Eaton Fire, which began Jan. 7, 2025.

Remembering “isn’t just a private experience, but it’s something, again, that we practice together,” said Rodell Jefferson, director of public relations and communications at All Saints Church.

All Saints, at 132 N. Euclid Ave., observes All Saints Sunday as its parish feast day, when it traditionally honors relatives and friends who have died within the past year, according to the church’s announcement. At every service Nov. 1, a memorial book containing the names of loved ones will be placed on the altar, and worshippers are invited to look in it for the name of the person they love.

A spoken service begins at 7:30 a.m. in the chapel and is also offered on Zoom. At the 10 a.m. Eucharist, which will be livestreamed, the Coventry Choir and Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Weicheng Zhao, the church’s director of music, will offer Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem. Incense will be used at that service, and incense-free seating is available outside on the lawn.

At 9 a.m. in the Guild Room, Jeannie Cobb will lead an introduction to the Requiem, a work the church’s announcement notes Fauré himself called a “lullaby of death.”

From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sweetland Hall will host a Día de los Muertos art and culture workshop and exhibition of work by local artists and musicians, including a talk by church member Oscar Alcántara on customs such as ofrendas. All are invited, and the church asks guests to RSVP at carrilloc@sbcglobal.net.

At 5 p.m., a bilingual Spanish-English Día de los Muertos service will include prayer, music and an ofrenda where worshippers may place photos, mementos or names of loved ones who have died. Bishop Naudal Alves Gomes, a former primate of the Anglican church in Brazil who now serves as a bishop missioner in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, will preach, and the Rev. Tim Rich, the church’s priest-in-charge, will preside.

An ofrenda set up primarily through the leadership of the church’s Latino and Hispanic ministry already stands in the sanctuary, where people can leave flowers, photographs and other small items, Jefferson said. When people name someone, he said, they are “calling up a particular person with a particular life, a person that was loved, a person who loved and was loved in the world.”

At St. Andrew Catholic Church, 311 N. Raymond Ave., All Saints’ Day will be celebrated at the parish’s eight regular Sunday Masses, beginning with the 5 p.m. Saturday vigil. “Well, it’s a little bit different this year because All Saints Day falls on a Sunday,” said Father Marcos Gonzalez, the pastor, who said the parish normally adds Masses for the feast.

On Monday, Nov. 2, St. Andrew will hold its annual All Souls’ Day Memorial Mass in the evening, after the regular 8:15 a.m. Mass. The names of everyone in the parish who died over the past year will be read and included in the prayer of the faithful, and the Mass will be sung to Fauré’s Requiem by the parish’s full choir, Gonzalez said. He said he sends a personal invitation to every family that had a death this year.

The Mass is “a kind of a trilingual celebration because we have English and Spanish and then the mass parts are all in Latin, which binds everybody together,” Gonzalez said. Ofrendas and similar customs are fine as cultural traditions but are not part of the Catholic liturgy, so they are not part of the Mass, he said.

Attendance has grown every year, and the Mass is always full, Gonzalez said. “It amazes me how moving that is for people,” he said. “There’s no obligation for them to come, and yet everybody comes.”

The parish prayed at last year’s All Souls’ Mass for everyone who died and who was affected by the Eaton Fire, has prayed for them ever since and continues outreach to affected families, Gonzalez said. “We have, I think, 26 families in our school who lost their homes,” he said. “So we’re still working with them and a lot of them are rebuilding now, but it’s going to take quite some time.”

At Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church, 2640 E. Orange Grove Blvd., the parish will celebrate All Saints’ Day at five Masses, beginning with a 5 p.m. Saturday vigil, said Father Michael Ume, the pastor. On Monday, Nov. 2, Masses will be celebrated at 8:15 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., he said.

The hours between the two Monday Masses give people time to go to cemeteries to visit their loved ones, Ume said. “So then they come back in the evening for another mass.”

Through November, the parish will display a banner in the church with the names of everyone who died since last November and is asking people to bring photographs of loved ones for display in a niche, Ume said. “So people can see their loved ones who passed away, we continue to pray for them.” On Monday, he said, children at the parish school will create a Día de los Muertos altar.

Since August, Assumption has held a monthly bereavement group for people who have lost loved ones, homes or anything else, Ume said. “We have one for women, we have one for men, because sometimes people grieve differently,” he said. Two members are close to finishing their homes, he said. “So we rejoice with them.”

Visitors are welcome at all three churches, clergy and staff said. “You don’t have to be a member of All Saints to participate,” Jefferson said, adding that people may bring a memento “or nothing at all, just bring them in your hearts.” At Assumption, the first thing visitors should know “is that they are welcome,” Ume said.

Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, so clocks go back one hour Saturday evening. The City of Pasadena’s Día de los Muertos celebration runs from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, at Villa Parke Community Center, 363 E. Villa St., and community ofrendas are on display through Nov. 7 at the Hastings, La Pintoresca and Santa Catalina branch libraries.

Need to Know: All Saints Sunday at All Saints Church, 132 N. Euclid Ave., is Sunday, Nov. 1, with a 7:30 a.m. spoken service, also on Zoom; a 9 a.m. introduction to Fauré’s Requiem in the Guild Room; the Día de los Muertos Art & Culture Workshop from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Sweetland Hall, with RSVPs to carrilloc@sbcglobal.net; the 10 a.m. Eucharist with Fauré’s Requiem, also livestreamed; and the 5 p.m. bilingual Día de los Muertos service. Call (626) 796-1172 or visit allsaints-pas.org/all-saints-sunday-november-1-2026. St. Andrew Catholic Church, 311 N. Raymond Ave., celebrates All Saints’ Day at 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31, and on Sunday, Nov. 1, at 6:30 a.m. (Spanish), 8 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11 a.m. (Spanish), 12:30 p.m., 2 p.m. (Spanish) and 5 p.m.; on Monday, Nov. 2, Mass is at 8:15 a.m. and the annual Memorial Mass is in the evening. Call (626) 792-4183 or visit saintandrewpasadena.org. Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church, 2640 E. Orange Grove Blvd., celebrates All Saints’ Day at 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31, and at 7:30 a.m., 9 a.m. (livestreamed), 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, with All Souls’ Day Masses at 8:15 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 2. Call (626) 792-1343 or visit abvmpasadena.org.

[photo credit: Diamond Way Buddhist Center Los Angeles]

An Altadena Buddhist center will offer a free guided meditation session Sunday, Oct. 25, introducing participants to a practice within the Karma Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.

The gathering is scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. at Diamond Way Buddhist Center Los Angeles, 3636 Canyon Crest Road. Doors will open at 11:45 a.m., and beginners are welcome.

The session will feature Guru Yoga meditation, which organizers describe as a principal practice within the Karma Kagyu lineage, one of the major traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.

According to the center’s event announcement, Guru Yoga emphasizes the relationship between practitioners and their Buddhist teachers. The practice involves meditation intended to help participants recognize the nature of the mind through identification with qualities represented by the teacher.

The program will begin with a short introduction to Diamond Way Buddhism, followed by guided meditation conducted in English.

The Altadena center belongs to Diamond Way Buddhism, an international nonprofit network of lay Buddhist centers established through the work of Lama Ole Nydahl.

The organization follows the Karma Kagyu tradition and identifies Trinley Thaye Dorje, the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, as its spiritual leader.

The center holds regular public meditation sessions on Sundays and welcomes people without previous meditation experience.

Visitors are asked to text (323) 683-7235 the day before attending to confirm that the program remains scheduled.

Drivers should travel north on Lincoln Street and turn left onto Canyon Crest Road. The center cautions visitors not to enter Canyon Ridge Drive, which is a private road.

Visitors should continue along Canyon Crest Road to the center’s sign, then follow a steep driveway to the property. Parking is located across from the center.

The free guided meditation will take place Sunday, Oct. 25, from noon to 1 p.m. at Diamond Way Buddhist Center Los Angeles, 3636 Canyon Crest Road, Altadena, CA 91001. Doors open at 11:45 a.m. For information or schedule confirmation, call or text (323) 683-7235, email losangeles@diamondway.org or visit diamondway.org/la. The event announcement is available at Meetup.

[photo credit: Lake Avenue Church]

The 4 p.m. performance in the church’s Worship Center will draw on different strands of American music, from show tunes and hymns to orchestral works and gospel songs. The event is presented by the church’s Worship & the Arts ministry and is scheduled to end at 5:30 p.m. 

A 100-voice choir will anchor the program, according to Bob Sloat. An Irving Berlin medley will include “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” “Blue Skies,” “Always” and “God Bless America.” 

The announced classical selections include Aaron Copland’s arrangement of “At the River” and “Hoe-Down” from his ballet “Rodeo.” Alice Parker’s “Hark I Hear the Harps Eternal” and “America the Beautiful” are also on the program, Sloat wrote. 

A gospel medley will bring together “Old Time Religion,” “Down by the Riverside,” “Standin’ in the Need of Prayer” and “Do Lord.” The lineup also includes a handbell choir, orchestra selections, soloists and an audience sing-along, according to the newsletter. 

Another featured instrument will be Lake Avenue Church’s 7,000-pipe Casavant organ. The Los Angeles Conservancy says the organ sits above the curved chancel and was a focus of the sanctuary’s acoustic design. The fan-shaped Worship Center blends features of a concert hall and a church sanctuary. 

Admission is free, but one organizer cautioned that attendees should arrive early because the parking lot may get full quickly. 

The church stands at 393 N. Lake Ave., just north of the Foothill Freeway. Metro’s A Line serves nearby Lake Station. The church says on-campus parking is limited. Its directions also identify the Gateway Plaza structure at 300 N. Lake Ave. for Sunday services and large events, although the published Sunday shuttle schedule ends at 1 p.m. 

More information is available through Lake Avenue Church’s event calendar or by calling its main office at (626) 844-4700. 

NEED TO KNOW — Event: America Sings! When: Sunday, Oct. 25. Time: 4 to 5:30 p.m. Cost: Free. Where: Lake Avenue Church Worship Center, 393 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena. Parking: On-campus spaces are limited; Gateway Plaza, 300 N. Lake Ave., is listed for large events, but the regular Sunday shuttle ends at 1 p.m. For more, call (626) 844-4700 or visit https://lakeave.org/events.

Yom Kippur begins at sundown, with observant Jews fasting and seeking forgiveness for their sins on Judaism’s most solemn day of the year.

According to Jewish tradition, Yom Kippur is the day Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the second set of commandment tablets — he had smashed the first — and announced God’s pardon to the people for worshipping a golden calf.

Observant Jews believe that God inscribes the names of the righteous in the Book of Life on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, and seals the book on Yom Kippur, 10 days later. For that reason, the traditional greeting among Jews on Yom Kippur is Gemar Chatima Tova, which means “good final sealing” and conveys the wish: “May your name be sealed in the book of life.”

Yom Kippur services begin with the Kol Nidre, an ancient prayer that literally means “all vows” or “all promises.” The last service of the day ends with the sounding of a ram’s horn called a shofar.

Yom Kippur concludes at sundown Monday, ending the 10-day period on the Jewish calendar known as Days of Teshuvah, which is variously translated as repentance, return and change, and the Days of Awe. Many Jews fast on Yom Kippur and spend much of the time in synagogues.

While most congregations require membership and tickets for High Holy Days services, several organizations will conduct free services, including Laugh Factory Hollywood where a 90-minute Kol Nidre service is set for 6 p.m. Sunday, a two-hour service at 11 a.m. Monday and a 90-minute Neilah service at 6 p.m. Monday.

Donations will not be accepted. Instead, the club encourages attendees “to support a charity or cause that is meaningful to you.”

Advance registration at the club’s website, is encouraged, as space is limited.

The services will be streamed on the club’s website, laughfactory.com/hollywood, and its YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/TheLaughFactory.

“People around the world are facing the threat of war, severe economic challenges, and a growing sense of isolation and division,” Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada said in a statement. “Our High Holiday services are about bringing people together to pray with one voice for hope, healing, and peace. These are values that can inspire and uplift us all.”

Free services will also be held at Chabad locations throughout Los Angeles County.

As is customary, law enforcement organizations will conduct increased patrols around Jewish institutions during Yom Kippur services, augmented by private security.

Organizers say four funding entities will work on site with an estimated 200 underinsured homeowners and that recovery funding has been allocated for more than 100 residences

A displaced Altadena church and its rebuilding partners are set to launch a centralized recovery platform Sunday and connect underinsured Eaton Fire homeowners with funding and legal help, less than three weeks before a disaster case-management program that survivor advocates say serves more than 1,500 people is scheduled to shut down.

LIFT International Church, an Altadena congregation displaced by the January 2025 Eaton Fire, is hosting the event, which organizers call “Come Back Home.”

The planned two-hour press conference and community gathering is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sunday at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1757 N. Lake Ave., near the Pasadena-Altadena boundary.

Organizers say the initiative targets the financial, administrative and technical barriers that continue to keep Eaton Fire households from rebuilding. Four funding entities are expected to work on site with at least 200 underinsured homeowners. Disaster-recovery funding has reportedly been allocated for more than 100 residences. More than 160 families previously supported by LIFT were invited, organizers said.

Organizers also say partner groups will launch a centralized platform linking survivors to state and municipal resources and grants that they now must track across multiple agencies and organizations.

Advertised services include gap-assistance grants, guidance on legal filing deadlines, consultations and pro bono referrals through the Altadena CDC’s ALLY platform, which is separate from the new centralized platform.

The event comes as the federally funded Disaster Case Management Program was scheduled to end Sept. 30. The state has said the closure is the result of FEMA not providing required funding. One local coalition said roughly 109 positions and more than 1,500 survivor case-management relationships are at risk.

Rebuilding in Altadena remains uneven. County data reported Sept. 8 showed that more than 2,300 of 5,858 Altadena parcels where homes were destroyed — about 40% — had no rebuilding application on file. The same data showed 1,535 single-family homes under construction and 140 residential parcels with a completed single-family home or accessory dwelling unit.

The press conference portion is expected to address recovery and advocacy. Joy Chen, executive director of Every Fire Survivor’s Network — formerly the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, which says it now serves more than 10,000 fire survivors and allies — is scheduled to discuss what survivor groups describe as legislative gains.

The gathering follows federal disaster-tax legislation signed Sept. 11. President Donald Trump signed H.R. 5366, the Doug LaMalfa Federal Disaster Tax Relief Certainty Act, which codifies and extends an exclusion from gross income for qualifying wildfire-relief payments and addresses disaster casualty-loss rules. How the law applies to any individual settlement is a question for tax advisers.

Several state measures have passed the Legislature but are not yet law. AB 1795, the Smoke Damage Recovery Act, passed and was awaiting the governor as of Sept. 1, according to a California Department of Insurance release. Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Pasadena, said in an official release that SB 742, SB 877, SB 878, SB 1090, SB 1098 and other measures had reached Gov. Gavin Newsom by Sept. 1. The governor had until Sept. 30 to sign or veto them.

SB 492 did not pass. The measure, authored by Sen. Josh Becker, was introduced in February 2025 as a youth-housing bond act, and the Senate passed that earlier version 30-9 on Jan. 27. It was amended Aug. 29 into a wildfire package and ordered to third reading Aug. 30. The Assembly did not vote on the final text during a Sept. 1 voting window that followed the ordinary Aug. 31 passage deadline, and the bill died without reaching the governor.

Announced participants in Sunday’s gathering include Every Fire Survivor’s Network, Samaritan’s Purse, Hope Crisis Response Network, Mennonite Disaster Service, HPP Cares and San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity.

Pastor Anthony McFarland, an announced co-host who lost his home in the fire, according to organizers, founded the church with Micheline McFarland in 2000, when it was known as Abundant Harvest Christian Center, LIFT says. The church says it opened a crisis center after the fire providing food, clothing, toiletries and counseling.

The cause of the fire has not been finally adjudicated.

Organizers say four funding entities will meet with underinsured Altadena homeowners whose rebuilds have not started

Lift International Church, the Altadena congregation that lost its building in the Eaton Fire, plans to gather funders, gap-assistance grants and legal help in Pasadena on Sunday for households whose rebuilds have not started.

Organizers said four funding entities are expected on site to work with at least 200 underinsured homeowners, and that more than 160 families supported by the church during the past 20 months have been invited.

Recent assessments put the number of parcels without rebuilding applications on file at approximately 2,222, organizers said. Los Angeles County figures reported Sept. 8 put the total higher, at more than 2,300 of the 5,858 Altadena parcels where homes were destroyed, or about 40%.

The initiative, called Come Back Home, is built to clear financial, administrative and technical obstacles to rebuilding, organizers said. Partners will also launch a centralized platform connecting survivors with state and municipal resources and grants, organizers said.

The event offers disaster recovery funding allocated for more than 100 residences, gap assistance grants, legal filing deadline advisories and consultations, pro bono referrals through the Altadena CDC’s ALLY platform, and recovery updates from the Altadena Coalition of Neighborhood Associations, organizers said. Partners include Samaritan’s Purse, Hope Crisis Response Network, Mennonite Disaster Service, HPP Cares and San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity, according to the organizers.

A separate press conference will address coalition recovery and advocacy, organizers said. Joy Chen, executive director of Every Fire Survivor’s Network, is scheduled to highlight legislative achievements protecting wildfire survivors, including utility accountability, organizers said.

Coalition representatives will state a neutral position on Senate Bill 492, which died in the Assembly without a vote on Sept. 1, the final day of the legislative session.

Pastor Anthony McFarland, who lost his Altadena Drive home in the fire, will co-host, organizers said.

Sunday, Sept. 13, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1757 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena. Complimentary refreshments will be served. For more call (626) 797-6056 or visit liftaltadena.org.

Rosh Hashanah 5787 begins at sundown Friday, Sept. 11, and for the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center it will be the second Jewish New Year the congregation observes without a building.

It will also be a quieter one than usual: the first day of the holiday falls on Shabbat this year, and the shofar is not sounded on Shabbat, so the ram’s horn will not be heard until Sunday, Sept. 13.

Two congregations anchor Jewish observance in Pasadena, and they arrive at 5787 from opposite ends of the same difficult year. Chabad of Pasadena, at 1090 E. Walnut St., publishes its holiday programming openly and takes anyone who walks in. PJTC, whose two-acre campus on North Altadena Drive burned in the Eaton Fire on Jan. 7, 2025, has asked that its High Holy Day schedule and locations not be published, citing security concerns.

The silence on the opening day is a matter of Jewish law, not local circumstance. “Well, in terms of how we lead the holiday, it’s led the same way with the exception of not blowing the shofar on Shabbat itself,” said Rabbi Chaim Hanoka, executive director of Chabad of Pasadena. “But short of that, the services and the foods and the like are pretty much all the same.”

Rabbi Joshua Ratner, PJTC’s senior rabbi, said the absence changes what is asked of worshippers. The shofar, he said, is “primal and deep and soulful,” and “its purpose in many ways is to be our spiritual alarm clock.” Without it on Saturday, “it means we have some extra work to do. Extra work, I don’t mean menial work, I mean spiritual work to do,” he said. “It means the onus is on us a little bit to fill that absence with our own intentionality.” He added that the second day carries the obligation instead: “The good thing is we have two days of Rosh Hashanah, so we get to hear it on Sunday on the second day.”

Ratner arrived at PJTC in August 2025, months after the fire, to lead a congregation that had no building to offer him. He has described the displaced congregation as “a mishkan,” a traveling tabernacle. Asked what has changed between last year’s High Holy Days and this one, he said the difference is evidence. “Last year we were in much more of an aspirational space. We thought we could do it, we hoped we could do it. But now we’ve actually lived it and succeeded in doing most of what we were able to do before,” he said. “We don’t have to put things on hold until the building is rebuilt.”

What a synagogue is, he said, has been the year’s lesson: “a synagogue or really any house of worship is defined principally by the people who make up the community. It’s not defined by the walls, it’s not defined by the architecture, it’s defined by the people.”

By that measure the congregation has grown. Membership rose to more than 430 families after the fire, even as 70 member families were displaced from their own homes, and First United Methodist Church of Pasadena has hosted PJTC’s Shabbat services since the fire. For the High Holy Days the congregation has not used Christian or Catholic space; its director of education, Rabbi Jill Gold Wright, has said the congregation has “purposely not used a Christian or Catholic space for the High Holidays.”

The security caution has a documented history. Antisemitic graffiti appeared on a surviving wall at the former site in January 2026. A mural was painted over it in spring 2026 by scenic painter Miriam Hellmann with the group Art Over Hate, religious school students, youth members and volunteers, featuring a large orange California fire poppy, a peacock, a butterfly and Stars of David in the corners. That mural was found defaced on July 24, 2026 with multiple swastikas and a misspelled anti-Zionist phrase. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is investigating both incidents as hate crimes, and county Supervisor Kathryn Barger introduced a motion for a $20,000 reward for information. At a gathering at the site afterward, Ratner said the congregation “will not be intimidated by this or any other deplorable act of vandalism.”

Readers who want to attend PJTC services can do so. The congregation’s High Holy Day programming includes options for members and non-members, registration is requested of everyone, virtual attendance is offered, and information is available at www.pjtc.net. PJTC observes the full arc of the season: Rosh Hashanah Sept. 11-13, Yom Kippur Sept. 20-21, Sukkot Sept. 25 to Oct. 2, and Sh’mini Atzeret and Simchat Torah Oct. 2-4, closing with a community-wide Simchat Torah celebration with dancing, music and food.

Chabad of Pasadena, by contrast, publishes everything and charges nothing. “As mentioned, we don’t charge for tickets, which is different than many other temples,” Hanoka said. “So somebody wants to come in to pray, basically you don’t have to pay to pray, make it simple.” The programming, he said, draws a wide congregation, including people who do not attend synagogue the rest of the year. “It’s people from all walks of life, literally A to Z.”

The one moment the shofar will sound outdoors and in public in Pasadena is at the Caltech Turtle Pond. Chabad of Pasadena’s “A Moment by the Water” is set for Sunday, Sept. 13, at 5:45 p.m. at the Caltech Turtle Pond, a short shofar sounding followed by a brief Tashlich service, with Rosh Hashanah treats and prizes for children; information is at www.ChabadPasadena.com/highholidays2026 and by phone at (626) 564-8820. Tashlich, the symbolic casting of sins into flowing water, normally falls on the afternoon of the first day and moves to the second day when the first is Shabbat. Hanoka said students and faculty from Caltech have traditionally joined the walk. “We often will blow the shofar for people who want to hear the shofar,” he said.

Chabad also runs children’s programs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sept. 12, Sept. 13 and Sept. 21, with honey tasting on the first day, a caramel apple bar and a noon shofar blowing on the second, and a kosher snack and lunch each day. Asked why so much of the effort goes to the youngest attendees on the most serious days of the year, Hanoka was brief. “Because ultimately our future are today’s youth,” he said. “You don’t invest in the youth, then there’s no one to invest in at some point.”

On what a year of fire, litigation and rebuilding asks of a congregation at the New Year, the two rabbis answered differently. Hanoka placed it in the hands of God. “Why God does what he does, I don’t know the answer to. Only God knows,” he said. “How one sees that through the ashes and through the smoke is part of a person’s introspection and part of their faith and belief in God.” “When a person has God, a deep belief in God, that acts as an anchor to the person, no matter what happens their way throughout life.” Ratner framed the accounting as a response to circumstance. The reckoning, he said, “asks us to take stock of the reality of our lives and how we responded to that reality.” “Hope doesn’t have to mean glossing over the loss,” he said. He added that “hope doesn’t require us to cancel out the loss or skip over the loss and the emotional toil of that, but it gives us a way to find some resoluteness as we grapple with that loss in thinking of what comes next.”

Jews have lived in the Pasadena area since 1874, with organizing efforts in 1907 and 1912, and Temple B’nai Israel of Pasadena was incorporated in 1921. Albert Einstein visited the congregation in the 1930s during his periods at Caltech. The congregation bought the North Altadena Drive property in 1941 and completed the building in 1945, was renamed the Pasadena Jewish Community in 1949 and became the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center in 1956. Its archives, 47 linear feet spanning 1932 to 2019, were donated to the UCLA Library in 2019, before the fire, and are now publicly accessible. The campus was among more than 30 historic sites destroyed in the fire.

PJTC has committed to rebuilding on the original site, and its Rebuilding Committee includes president Clark Linstone, former Pasadena mayor Terry Tornek, Todd Levine, architect Jonathan Brier, general contractor Jonah Dicker, Michael Silver and Ratner. Pasadena’s City Council has approved fee exemptions for qualifying Eaton Fire rebuilds. Yom Kippur follows on Sept. 20 and 21.

Lift International Church, the Altadena congregation that lost its building in the Eaton Fire, plans to gather funders, gap-assistance grants and legal help in Pasadena on Sunday for households whose rebuilds have not started.

Organizers said four funding entities are expected on site to work with at least 200 underinsured homeowners, and that more than 160 families supported by the church during the past 19 months have been invited. Recent assessments put the number of parcels without rebuilding applications on file at approximately 2,222, organizers said.

The initiative, called Come Back Home, is built to clear financial, administrative and technical obstacles to rebuilding, organizers said. Partners will also launch a centralized platform connecting survivors with state and municipal resources and grants.

The event offers disaster recovery funding allocated for more than 100 residences, gap assistance grants, legal filing deadline advisories and consultations, pro bono referrals through the Altadena CDC’s ALLY platform, and recovery updates from the Altadena Coalition of Neighborhood Associations, organizers said. Partners include Samaritan’s Purse, Hope Crisis Response Network, Mennonite Disaster Service, HPP Cares and San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity.

A separate press conference will address coalition recovery and advocacy. Joy Chen, executive director of Every Fire Survivor’s Network, is scheduled to highlight legislative achievements protecting wildfire survivors, including utility accountability, organizers said. Coalition representatives will state a neutral position on Senate Bill 492, which died without a vote on the session’s final day.

Pastor Anthony McFarland, who lost his Altadena Drive home in the fire, will co-host.

If you go: the Come Back Home press conference and community gathering takes place Sunday, September 13, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1757 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena. Complimentary refreshments will be served. For more, call LIFT International at (626) 797-6056 or visit liftaltadena.org.

Interfaith congregations will gather at 10 a.m. Sunday at All Saints Church in Pasadena for a National Day of Prayer for Disaster Survivors, an observance meant to stand in solidarity with wildfire survivors and to call for federal funding for long-term disaster recovery, organizers LA Voice and Rebuild.Us said in announcing the event.

The gathering falls 600 days after the Jan. 7, 2025, fires, with more than $15 billion in federal long-term recovery funds reported as still unappropriated for Eaton and Palisades survivors.

All Saints has taken part in Eaton Fire recovery since the night the fire started. More than 180 people sheltered at the church overnight on Jan. 7, 2025, and it remained open the next day as an emergency shelter. Seventy-two families in the congregation lost everything.

LA Voice, a multi-racial, multi-faith community organization, says the wildfires displaced 16 of its member or partner congregations and that its Just Restoration campaign provides direct cash assistance to survivors. Rebuild.Us says it delivers money to vetted frontline groups within 48 hours of a disaster.

The National Day of Prayer for Disaster Survivors is set for 10 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 30, at All Saints Church, 132 N. Euclid Ave., Pasadena, just east of Pasadena City Hall.

For more, call the church at (626) 796-1172 or visit allsaints-pas.org, or call LA Voice at (213) 384-7404 or visit lavoice.org.

[Courtesy images]

Speakers ranging from a member of Congress to high school seniors who helped fund and create the mural pledged the artwork would be restored

Congregants, elected officials and neighbors gathered Thursday evening at the fire-scarred campus of the Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center, six days after swastikas and an antisemitic message were discovered on a community mural that had itself been created to cover earlier antisemitic graffiti.

The July 30 gathering at 1434 N. Altadena Drive drew civic leaders, clergy and community partners to the site where the Eaton Fire destroyed the synagogue in January 2025, leaving just the last major exterior wall standing.

It was the second time in roughly six months that the surviving wall had been defaced with antisemitic graffiti. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is investigating both incidents as hate crimes.

Rabbi Joshua Ratner, PJTC’s senior rabbi, told those assembled that the congregation had “marked one week since our spiritual home was desecrated by a despicable act of antisemitic graffiti,” and said the community “will not be intimidated by this or any other deplorable act of vandalism.”

Los Angeles County Fifth District Supervisor Kathryn Barger said an attack motivated by hate against one community is an attack against everyone present.

“That is why I introduced the motion for $20,000 reward for information to help us find whoever is responsible for these horrific acts of vandalism,” she said.

Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo, who attended along with councilmembers Gene Masuda and Rick Cole and school board member Scott Harden, recalled going to look at the synagogue’s damage the morning after the Eaton Fire and stopping at the temple site.

“But at that moment in time, we made very clear that the impact was not just to Altadena and Pasadena, not just to structures, but to people,” Gordo said. “When we see hate, it’s a human emergency.”

Gordo said the perpetrators had actually brought the community together.

“We’re going to rebuild not just a center, but we’re going to build a beacon of hope for all,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Judy Chu also attended, along with PJTC Cantor Ruth Berman Harris, temple President Clark Linstone and Elizabeth Goldhirsh-Yellin of the Sparks of Kindness Youth Fund.

Altadena Sheriff’s Station Capt. Ethan Marques said detectives “are conducting a thorough investigation.” He added: “We will follow every lead, utilize every available investigative resource, and are working diligently to bring those who are responsible to justice.”

The mural was painted in spring 2026 by scenic painter Miriam Hellmann, working with the group Art Over Hate, after antisemitic graffiti attacking Zionism appeared on the wall in January 2026. Religious school students, youth members, volunteers and other community members painted sections of the work under Hellmann’s direction.

High school seniors Caleb Yellin and Audrey Farahnik helped initiate the project and raised roughly $30,000 through the nonprofit Sparks of Kindness Youth Fund.

The design featured a large, bright orange California fire poppy for regrowth, along with a peacock, a butterfly and other floral and animal symbols. It was divided like stained glass, with Stars of David in the corners and a border incorporating animal symbols associated with the tribes of Israel. Across it ran the message “We are all responsible for each other,” described in some accounts as a rendering of the Hebrew phrase “Kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh” — all Israel is responsible for one another.

That mural was found defaced on July 24, 2026, with multiple swastikas and the phrase “Zionzim [sic] is not welcome,” misspelled in the original.

The Sheriff’s Department’s Altadena Station and its Major Crimes Bureau Hate Crimes Task Force opened the investigation and asked the public for information, listing Detective Hodaya Doherty among the investigators assigned to the case. Anonymous tips may be submitted to Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS (8477) or at lacrimestoppers.org.

Jewish communal organizations and interfaith and civil-rights groups, including CAIR-LA, publicly condemned the vandalism and described it as part of a wider rise in antisemitic incidents.

The congregation, now worshiping at First United Methodist Church, says it plans to rebuild on the North Altadena Drive site.

Among those who spoke were the teenagers who helped bring the mural into being.

“Storms are terrible, but rainbows only come after them,” Yellin said. “Whether we get knocked down once, twice, or a hundred times, this community’s going to rise back 101 times.”