By james art 
It was painful for members of the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center to see their synagogue burn in the Eaton fire. The roof and walls where so many families had gathered for prayers, songs, weddings, memorials and celebrations had collapsed into ruins.
But something extraordinary was also revealed: a fresco, weak, aged and slightly burnt, which was hidden by a burnt wall.
The mural shows what appears to be an artist’s imagination of life in past centuries. Several people play the flute. Someone pours something into a bowl. There is a bull, a donkey, a palm tree and perhaps a cat with men and women in long robes. There is a child held in the arms of a mother.
“At first I thought it was a biblical scene,” Christine Garroway, who is a member of the congregation and a professor of Bible at Hebrew Union College, told us.
“I started going through the Hebrew Bible in my head. I believe the mural may now be a compilation to show different moments of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness.”
Professor Garroway’s teenage sons were playing basketball in the center’s gym the night before it burned; her youngest will be 13 and bar mitzvah later this year. She is not sure where they will hold the ceremony.
The rabbi and officials rescued the 13 Tories from their synagogue from a fire and vowed to rebuild their temple for the community that had gathered there for a century. But how many members who lost their homes nearby will have to relocate?
Professor Garroway and other congregants are trying to learn more about how the mural was painted in a building that was a roadhouse and warehouse in the 1920s. It could have been to decorate a restaurant, for some religious mission or just for a holiday.
“But seeing the mural is a real miracle,” says Christine Garroway. “It doesn’t matter that it wasn’t painted for the synagogue or that it’s probably an invented biblical moment. Importantly, the scene shows abundant life: adults, children, food, drink and music. the stage rises above the ashes.”
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