SHELLY FREEDENTHAL
Murals Survive at PJTC from the Eaton Fire
I am writing this two weeks after the January 7th Eaton Fire that devastated Altadena, parts of Pasadena, and a huge swath of the San Gabriel Mountains. In addition to the 7,000 homes that were lost, the over 100-year-old Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center was burned to the ground. PJTC, which sat on the edge of Eaton Canyon, was not a stranger to fire. In 1993 the Kinneloa Fire burned the outer doors to a meeting room named Wohlman Hall, as well as the door to my classroom. PJTC has been a center for hundreds of Jewish families over decades in the San Gabriel Valley. I am a member, a neighbor, and taught at Weizmann Day School, housed at PJTC, for 27 years.
As the firefighters work to fully contain the fire and smoke lingers everywhere, the general loss of a feeling of normalcy and safety prevails. As I write, I am unable to return to my still standing home near the synagogue. I am one of the lucky ones who have a home to return to.
During my tenure at Weizmann, as both a kindergarten and an art teacher for students in kindergarten through 8th grade, I conceived, planned, and guided the completion of five large scale murals placed around the facility. Beginning in 1995-1996 we did an abstract ceramic mural where each student and staff member made a textured tile which were then painted blue and white. This first mural hung near the lunch area behind the classrooms on the north side of the campus.
In the late 1990’s we created a more complex all mosaic mural called “Symbols of Peace”. Students helped in the design phase as well as the creation. Before it was installed at PJTC the six sections were exhibited at Kidspace/The Armory.
In the early 2000’s I combined clay and mosaics in a mural illustrating the seven days of creation. In 2012, as part of an effort to renew the play yard, we made a mosaic tree filled with ceramic leaves, birds, flowers, and animals. In all projects, students from kindergarten through the oldest students participated in a deep, meaningful way.
Given the level of destruction of the buildings (even reported in the New York Times), I believed these artworks were destroyed. Imagine my surprise when my good friend and colleague, Shelly Freedenthal visited the PJTC campus a week after the fire and sent the attached photos of three murals that survived the devastation intact! I felt buoyed, as a ray of light in this bleak, dark, anxious time.
Considering the destruction of the entire three building campus, this was truly amazing. These collective artistic endeavors—gifts from former Weizmann students to the future—survived. Weizmann Day School was a community day school housed on the PJTC campus for 36 years. It closed in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic.
What can we glean from this? Art lives? Art transcends devastation? Or that the past is not totally destroyed, even when it feels like it has been?
Maybe it is enough to be appreciative of the beauty and art that surrounds us. Maybe art is one of the things that helps us begin to heal from all of the losses.
Another mural has been uncovered at PJTC in the destruction. In an old section of the east facing building that was upstairs from the Preschool offices and had been used as a resident apartment for a much missed former Facility Manager Robert Brown, the fire burned through drywall, and a brick wall collapsed. Behind these barriers an unknown mural was revealed, etched into the remaining wall. No one in the community knew anything about it.
I hope that these murals will be incorporated into the PJTC rebuilding effort, as one of the few surviving pieces of the congregation’s storied past. They are memory made manifest in clay and mosaic. As such, this miraculously enduring gift from those many Weizmann students can live on and inspire future people. I imagine an adult visiting the rebuilt campus in decades to come and remarking, “ I made that blue jay when I was in 3rd grade”.
Ellen Dinerman is a contributing writer to Jlife Magazine.
