Yesterday was a day that will live in infamy in the short history of West Hollywood, our home since 1980. The City Council, against all reason, decency, and logic, voted to deny an appeal to stop the disgusting destruction and atrocious act of destroying a historic synagogue and schools built by the Warner Brothers, Max Factor, and Edward G Robinson.
Today, its congregants include Holocaust survivors, and its school comforts Ukrainian refugees. This Art Deco Temple will be replaced by a vulgar and mundane ninety-unit apartment building and pool. A pool of tears of Jews.
Today, members of the community familiar with the Temple expressed disbelief and outrage. At the shocking meeting, protesting speakers were allowed only two-minute statements, castrating any in-depth public statements. Many Weho residents now rationally suspect some kind of corruption is in play, by design, negligence, and/or massive stupidity. Appeals to sheer humanity were rudely ignored by the council personnel, stoically spouting irrelevant details and expressions like extras in Orson Welles and Franz Kafka’s The Trial. They made Hannah Arendt’s phrase, the banality of evil, flesh and blood. Weho is now officially on the wrong side of history.
Pitting Jewish congregants against Jewish developers is one of many familiar and similar canards invented to perfection by the leading Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann. The recent book classic, “Eichmann’s Jews” by Doron Rabinovici, documents these insidious and cynical tactics. Pitting the Jews against each other is an intensely evil tactic beyond the pale for a West Hollywood city proclaiming progressive values. By agreeing to destroy this synagogue, they must know chaos and distress will ensue.
Nazis in the US and internationally will delight in Weho’s lurch to racism and anti-Semitism. With the wide rise of vile anti-Semitism, this shocking insensitivity of the city is startling and dangerous.
Hitler said that Jews invented conscience. To the Nazis, conscience was weakness. For West Hollywood, conscience was what the city was all about. Until yesterday.
As a student of racism and anti-Semitism for fifty years, with films on the subject in every major archive including Vad Yashem and the National Archives of the United States, I can declare the proposed destruction of Temple Beth El an extreme travesty.
Study the past. NEVER forget.
— Philippe Mora
Beverly Press article depicts clearly dissipated remarks of the City Council Members.
https://beverlypress.com/2023/07/temple-beth-el-likely-to-be-demolished-redeveloped/
In 2019, around 4,500 Protestant churches closed, marking a concerning trend that has been accelerated by the disaster out lockdowns. This decline in attendance has had a significant impact on churches, as congregations struggle to regain their former numbers. This troubling trend extends beyond any specific denomination, affecting various faiths such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and others.
The incompetent and vile corrupt City Council needs to be impeached and replaced by the rage and fury uprising of The People. By recall or by force of civil disobedience.
“By recall or by force of civil disobedience”??
Or maybe…save a lot of time, energy, and money by participating in a regularly scheduled election.
It’s private property. If someone wants to buy it…..and have it remain as it is….they can do that.
The city has no business buying any church or synagogue or mosque.
No one said the city was buying it. The Original congregation sold it for a pittance with the proviso it remain an active synagogue: not a for-profit rental complex.
This is the most off-base submission in the history of wehoville. It is not destruction, but rather demolition. The Nazis had nothing to do with it. Like it or not, the owners are running a business, and are entitled to make as much money as they can. Yes, a temple is a business that needs to pay their bills. Let’s build condos or apartments for millionaires.
I recall when some church was demolished to make way for a modern fire station on San Vicente. The Nazis had nothing to do with that either. It’s called progress.
To think the author is the Editor of Wehoville showcases there is no unbiased view of city happenings on the website. It is Wehovilles owners right of course, but we just need to know the point of view of content on the site is not neutral.
The author of a dear weho letter is not the editor or me, so you do not know what you are talking about, and despite the fact that I wrote you personally to tell you that was the case you still insist of falsely sending in comments accusing us. But that is your right. My right is to post this to show you are wrong and not allow you to post further lies.
Not sure why you posted this as a reply to me, WehoQueen. It let’s us know the intellect and carelessness of some letter writers. But somewhat in your defense, I can see how some could be misled, as it clearly stated “By (the editor)”, but at the very bottom, almost as an afterthought, it had a quote then someone’s name. It is unclear who wrote it, at best.
the authors name has been placed on top so all of you can clearly see it first.
Just like we saw from Congresswoman Jayapal this past weekend (and we’ve seen from a certain new WeHo Councilwoman in the past) far left progressives are every bit as anti-Semitic as any proud boy on the far right. It’s classic horseshoe theory at work. But at the end of the day I don’t think it’s anti-Semitism that was the reason for the ruling, I bet the developers made bigger donations to the council members than the synagogue did.
As a progressive Jew I can say that you are entirely wrong.
Progressives don’t base their entire ideology on fighting a “globalist CABAL” run by Jewish elites that eat babies etc like the far-right does.
I often see commenters here throwing around the dog whistle of “incestuous CABAL” around to describe their political enemies:
https://www.ajc.org/translatehate/cabal
Yeah Progressives don’t base their entire ideology on cabals, they just refuse to show up when the President of Israel is speaking to a joint session of Congress. Like I said, horseshoe theory.
Protesting a government official who you disagree with is the same as alleging Jewish Cabals eat baby blood?
Not quite horseshoe, but thanks for your input, Jeff!
I agree with your sentiment here, GEG. We must fiercely defend our rights to criticize our political leaders. Claiming such as “hate speech” or using ad hominem attacks is a favorite tactic of those is power to distract from the issues at hand. Kind of like how the establishment handles the medical freedom movement.
The concept of disengagement is always useful.