RELIGION / JOHN DART : New Sites for High Holy Days Rites

What do the Pantages Theater, Airtel Plaza Hotel and Warner Center Marriott Hotel, Shepherd of the Hills Church and three Mormon churches have in common?

They will all resound to the call of the shofar, or ram’s horn, blown at Rosh Hashanah services on Monday evening and Tuesday morning to signal the beginning of the Jewish year 5755 and the start of the High Holy Days.

Several synagogues in the San Fernando Valley area--as well as Jewish congregations elsewhere--are not spacious enough to seat everyone who wants to take part in the opening and closing services of the prayerful 10 days of moral self-examination.

Stephen S. Wise Temple, whose more than 2,900 families make it the largest synagogue in the Western states, will hold services in four locations this year--two at its Bel-Air complex off Mulholland Drive, one at Bel Air Presbyterian Church and a fourth at a new venue, the Pantages Theater in Hollywood.

Stephen S. Wise Temple had conducted additional High Holy Days services for 30 years at the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple, but the closing of that Wilshire Boulevard landmark forced the Reform congregation to find another site to serve the Jewish community living east of the Beverly Hills area.

Senior Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin will lead Rosh Hashanah services at 8 p.m. Monday and 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Pantages. Yom Kippur services will also be held in the theater at those times on Sept. 14 and 15.

The shofar, a hollowed-out, foot-long ram’s horn, is blown repeatedly during Rosh Hashanah evening and daytime services and was compared by the medieval Jewish sage Maimonides to a moral wake-up call for Jews. One long blast on the horn ends the culminating Yom Kippur service.

Synagogue attendance reaches its yearly peaks during Rosh Hashanah morning and on Yom Kippur, also called the Day of Atonement--at both the evening-before services and at the series of culminating services on the final day.

At Kol Tikvah, a Reform congregation in Woodland Hills, for instance, Executive Director Florence Klatzko said Friday that she expects a total of about 3,000 worshipers at those times for two services in the grand ballroom at the Warner Center Marriott Hotel and a third service at the synagogue on Ventura Boulevard.

Temple Ner Maarav, a Conservative branch synagogue in Encino with about 500 member families, is using the ballroom at the Airtel Plaza Hotel near the Van Nuys Airport as well as its own building for three services.

“Seats might still be available in our social hall, but not at the hotel and not in our sanctuary,� Senior Rabbi Aaron Kriegel said late this week.

Some synagogues, such as Temple Beth Hillel in Valley Village, contain High Holy Days services entirely within their own place of worship--but barely.

“We’re maxed out, filled up,� said Paul Kipnes, an assistant rabbi at the Reform synagogue led by Rabbi James Kaufman.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, popularly known as the Mormon Church, is making at least three facilities available for Jewish services.

* Temple Beth Torah of Granada Hills, a Reform congregation, is holding both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services at the Mormon church in Reseda.

* Temple Beth Haverim of Agoura Hills, a Conservative synagogue, will be worshiping in the newly built Mormon center in Thousand Oaks.

* Valley Outreach Synagogue, an independent congregation, will hold all its High Holy Days services at the Mormon center in Granada Hills.

The newly named Shomrei Torah Synagogue--the 700-family product of a merger of Congregation Beth Kodesh and Temple Beth Ami--will not hold any High Holy Days services at its facility in West Hills. Instead, Senior Rabbi Eli Schochet will lead the largest services for Shomrei Torah at Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch, and Rabbi David Vorspan will lead rites at the former Temple Beth Ami sanctuary in Reseda. A third service--for non-members--will be held at the Vineyard Church in Reseda, a representative said.

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Temple Beth Emet of Burbank, a congregation in the Reform tradition and led by Rabbi William M. Kramer, who also is a historian, will observe its 36th High Holy Days at the nearby Pickwick Center.

The Valley-based Makom Ohr Shalom, a synagogue emphasizing the mystical-meditative side of Judaism, normally meets in an Encino church, but will hold its High Holy Days services at UCLA’s Ackerman Hall.