“In visiting many synagogues and other sites during the High Holidays this year, I found vibrant Jewish life all over the Peninsula,” writes Rabbi Laurie Matzkin.
Almost immediately after learning that the unique Jewish adult education center HaMaqom would be closing, Rachel and David Biale Jewish educators with links to the Berkeley institution since its founding in the 1970s knew they had to do something.
“Lehrhaus has been what I would call the crown jewel of the Bay Area Jewish community for 47 years,” David Biale said, referring to the center’s former name for 45 of those years (it was changed to HaMaqom | The Place in 2019). “It fulfills a very important need in the community. To see it disappear feels just wrong.”
Founded as Lehrhaus Judaica in 1974, HaMaqom announced in a June 17 press release that it would be permanently shutting its doors at the end of the summer. Board president Lisa Douglass said at the time that the decision to dissolve the nonprofit had been “extraordinarily difficult,” adding that she believed it was “not the end [but] a new beginning for our programs, staff, and extraordinary educators.”