Where We Worship
Temple serves Hawai'i Jewish community
By Zenaida Serrano Espanol
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| Rabbi Avi Magid and 13-year-old David Pershin of Kailua read a passage from the Torah during a Friday night service at Temple Emanu-El synagogue in Nuëuanu.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser |
Our affiliation: The Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the national movement for Reform Judaism, based in New York
Where we are: 2550 Pali Hwy., in Nu'uanu
Our numbers: 280 families
Our rabbi: Avi Magid
What we believe: "We believe that it's possible to live a fulfilling, religious Jewish life in the 21st century," Magid said. "We do that through the study of our holy texts, through the power of communal prayer and by performing acts of kindness."
Our history: The Jewish community in Hawai'i goes back to the middle of the 19th century, Magid said. "It began to flourish in an organized way at the end of World War I and then became permanently organized at the end of World War II."
The community organization, Magid said, transformed into a congregational organization in 1948, formally taking the name "Temple Emanu-El." In Hebrew, "Emanu-El" means "God is with us," Magid said. "Emanu" translates into "with us," and "El" is the way of saying the name of God, he said.
The congregation had several different stops, Magid said, starting at Fort Street Mall and moving a handful of times to various locations, including a Jewish community center on Young Street behind the former Cinerama Theatre and a site on O'ahu Avenue in Manoa. In 1960, the congregation moved from the building in Manoa to the current temple, which they built, in Nu'uanu.
What we're excited about: Jewish High Holy Days begin with Rosh Hashanah on Sept. 17. The holiday marks the start of the Jewish New Year and is marked by solemnity, including prayer in the synagogue and the traditional blowing of a shofar, or ram's horn.
Another important event for the temple is a fund-raiser that involves the Honolulu Marathon. Magid and about a dozen other temple members have volunteered to walk the marathon for pledges.
The marathon will be Dec. 9, which is also the first night of Hanukkah, the eight-day festival of lights.
"We have a really wonderful and quickly growing Jewish preschool," Magid also said. The 18-year-old preschool is one of a very small number of preschools in Hawai'i that are nationally accredited, he said. About 35 children attend the preschool and not all of the youngsters there are Jewish, Magid noted.
The temple has a new relationship with the University of Hawai'i. Magid and former UH President Kenneth Mortimer arranged earlier this year to use Temple Emanu-El as a presentation site for UH professors. They are anticipating about five to six presentations to take place in the coming year, all of which will be free and open to the public. The topics have yet to be decided.
The idea is to highlight the best and the brightest of UH, Magid said, while also promoting intellectual discourse in the community at large.
Temple members are also looking forward to the visits of three scholars: Rabbi Angela Warnick, whom Magid described as the first "hapa" rabbi (she's part Korean), will visit from Washington in February; Rabbi Amiel Hirsch, executive director of World Union for Progressive Judaism, who is formerly of Israel, will visit from New York in March; and Richard Elliott Friedman, a professor at University of California-San Diego and author of "Commentary on the Torah," will visit in June.
What's special about us: Temple Emanu-El "has basically always served as the face and the place of the Jewish community" in Hawai'i, Magid said. The synagogue is one of only three established Jewish temples in Hawai'i, he said.
Contact: Call 595-7521 or fax 595-6306. The temple is also working on its Web site, www.shaloha.com, which is scheduled to launch by the end of this month.
If you would like to recommend a church, temple or faith organization for a Where We Worship profile, e-mail faith@honoluluadvertiser.com, call 535-8174 or write: Where We Worship, Faith Page, The Honolulu Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802.
