When San Francisco's Ohabai Shalome Synagogue opened in 1896, about 20,000 Jews lived in the neighborhood that would become Japantown. This fall, San Francisco's oldest synagogue will reopen as a senior housing center.Jewish immigrants started a congregation in 1865 and constructed the Moorish temple 30 years later. Known as the Ohabai Shalome or Bush Street Temple, the synagogue was sold in 1934. The wood building then experienced a religious conversion, becoming the San Francisco Zen Center until 1973, when it was abandoned for almost 20 years.
By the time a group of Japanese-American churches known as Kokoro acquired the building from the city in 1999, three of the synagogue's four stained-glass windows had been destroyed.
"There was quite a bit of damage," says Steven Suzuki, board president of Kokoro, which began work on the building in June 2000. “As much as we could, we tried to renovate what was left.” Kokoro also constructed a six-story concrete building on an empty lot beside the former synagogue.
During the three-year renovation, workers discovered a time capsule: 40 objects such as newspapers, coins, and religious objects in a small zinc box in the building's cornerstone. The artifacts were displayed this spring at Berkeley's Magnes Museum, whose curators had alerted construction workers of the possibility of a time capsule in the synagogue.
Workers replicated the synagogue's original ornate exterior, re-plastered its interior, and repaired the altar. The main hall will be used as a dining hall for the 54-unit assisted-living center, which will open in September.
