By Annie Blair
The history of the CJC Ark is closely connected to the story of our Torah. The Torah was purchased first in the fall of 2000. The search was thorough, requiring patience and commitment on behalf of the CJC Board of Directors and members who took on the task and literally traveled the miles. Without the generous donation from Samuel Alster, the father of Laura Alster Martin, the acquisition would not have been possible.
Facilitating the effort to find a Torah was Grant Ross, a long-time CJC member. With purpose and perseverance, he finally located a perfect match in Los Angeles – a reconditioned Sefer Torah. During the spring of 2001, a celebration to welcome the Torah was being planned and ideas for an Ark were proposed to the Board. This is where the story of our Ark began. Debe Bloom shared her memory of the events in a phone conversation with Annie Blair in the fall of 2019.
Debe and Rick Bloom lived in Pacifica for eight years and were both active members of CJC. They moved to Ojai in 2007. During the time that they lived on the Coastside, Debe and Rick made frequent trips to the San Fernando Valley in Southern California to visit Debe’s fraternal twin sister, Carol Lee Marinoff, especially after Carol had taken ill.
One of these visits coincided with the purchase of the Torah. Knowing that Debe and Rick were visiting Carol, Grant Ross asked them if they would pick up the Torah in Los Angeles. They borrowed a car and headed to the Pico District in Santa Monica to meet the Sofer at his studio. With the Torah in hand, Debe and Rick returned to Carol’s house. She was asleep, so they put the Torah on her dining room table. When she awoke and saw it, she said, “Oh there’s a Torah on my table!” Debe asked her if that was okay and Carol replied, “It’s an honor to have a Torah in my home.” From that moment, Debe always wanted the Torah to be in Carol’s ‘home’ which was ultimately to become the CJC Ark. Debe and Rick flew back to San Francisco with the Torah, in its blue velvet cover, sitting in Rick’s lap on the plane. According to Debe,“That, too, was an honor.”
When Carol passed away in January 2001, Debe and Rick wanted to honor Carol’s memory with the gift of an Ark for CJC. They created the Carol Marnioff Fund from contributions they received as wedding gifts. Maggid Jhos Singer performed a wedding ceremony for Debe and Rick in June 2001 following their marriage the previous year.
Months passed without successful leads for building the Ark until Debe met Peter Fahler; an artist and craftsman based in Berkeley. He enthusiastically accepted the commission in May 2002 to design and construct the Ark. Debe described him as having “passionate care” as he studied up on the practices of Judaism and different woods considered sacred, such as Cherrywood and various African woods. He finally chose a combination of African Bubinga Rosewood and Eastern Hard Maple.
In a letter to CJC, Peter wrote,* “The design requirements were very broad. Historically, Arks are as varied as the communities who have them.” With suggestions from CJC members and Maggid Jhos Singer, several options began to emerge. The image of a “Torah holding a Torah” was one idea for the Ark as was the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. “The Queen of the Nile” was another image considered for its design. The Ark needed to be portable with a frame created as an integral part of its construction. Ultimately, the shape of a Torah scroll was chosen which, inadvertently, also honored the twins, Debe and Carol.
In September 2002, the completed Ark traveled from Berkeley to Pacifica, wrapped in furniture pads in the back of a pick up truck. It graced the Bima for the first time at High Holidays in St Edmund’s Episcopal Church. In Debe’s words, “It was a community who worked together to facilitate bringing the Torah and the Ark to the Coastside.”