![\"shul\"](\"http:\/\/orenu.co.il\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/shul-300x184.jpg\")
Some months ago, L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky was \u201ccruising Boyle Heights,\u201d the neighborhood where he grew up and where a large portion of Los Angeles\u2019 Jewish community once lived. Feeling nostalgic, he drove by B\u2019nai Jacob Synagogue \u2014 once known as the Fairmont Street Shul \u2014 and recalled that some of his parents\u2019 students had celebrated their bar mitzvahs there.<\/p>\n
On this visit, however, Yaroslavsky noticed something he hadn\u2019t before: the old shul\u2019s exterior was in excellent condition and displayed the same Jewish symbols it had decades ago. There were Magen Davids, menorahs, Mosaic tablets \u2026 Yaroslavsky wondered if he was in a time warp \u2014 Boyle Heights as it was in 1950.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew it couldn\u2019t be a synagogue,\u201d Yaroslavsky told the Journal, \u201cbecause there aren\u2019t enough Jews in Boyle Heights to make up a\u00a0minyan<\/em>.\u201d Then he saw a banner:\u00a0Iglesia Israelita Casa de Dios<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 Israelite Church House of God.<\/p>\n Inside, the longtime supervisor \u2014 and well-known mover-and-shaker in local politics and the Jewish world \u2014 found an immaculate sanctuary, its pews upholstered in red velvet, looking as beautiful as it had been in its Jewish heyday. The chandeliers were the original ones, upgraded with energy-efficient bulbs. The two bimahs displayed menorahs and Mosaic tablets.<\/p>\n There were no crosses or other Christian imagery.<\/p>\n On the Saturday Yaroslavsky visited \u2014 as on every Saturday \u2014 a Spanish-language religious service was going on, attended by about 100 people of all ages. Men and women sat separately. The women wore modest clothing and covered their heads with shawls; the men wore suits and ties, their heads uncovered.<\/p>\n Adam Velazquez, 56, one of the group\u2019s leaders, approached Yaroslavsky and explained: They hold services on Shabbat \u2014 Friday night and all day Saturday, but not on Sunday. They follow Leviticus dietary laws. At their services, they recite the Ten Commandments and the Shema \u2014 in Spanish. They observe Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot, but not Christmas or Easter.<\/p>\n To Yaroslavsky, as to most people, that sounded Jewish.<\/p>\n But wait. They also worship \u201cYahshua\u201d (Jesus) as their Messiah, who, they believe, was sent by God to redeem humanity.<\/p>\n Similar to groups called \u201cMessianic Jews,\u201d the iglesia (church) practices elements of Judaism while also believing that Yahshua (Yah-SHU-ah) is the son of God.<\/p>\n So they\u2019re clearly not Jews. But they\u2019re not traditional Christians, either.<\/p>\n Then what are they? And why does their iglesia, inside and out, look like a shul? And how did it get from what it was then to what it is now?<\/p>\n B\u2019nai Jacob Synagogue was first dedicated as an Orthodox shul in 1927. In subsequent years, the period in which many Jews lived in Boyle Heights, the shul was active and crowded.<\/p>\n During the years following World War II, Jews started moving out of Boyle Heights; by the 1970s only a few worshippers remained. So, in 1979, B\u2019nai Jacob went on the market. The Iglesia Israelita made a bid and bought it.<\/p>\n This movement had begun in Guadalajara, Mexico, in the 1920s when a group of Mexicans concluded that Yahshua and his disciples were observant Jews who prayed, ate and celebrated\u00a0as Jews<\/em>. This group\u2019s assessment was that from the second century onward, as Christians from non-Jewish backgrounds took control of Christianity, they increasingly separated it from Yahshua\u2019s Jewish roots.<\/p>\n In founding their movement \u2014 Iglesia Israelita Casa de Dios \u2014 the Guadalajara group\u2019s aim was to seek a religious experience shaped by Yahshua\u2019s first-century Jewish practices and beliefs: they would pray, eat and celebrate together like the Jewish Yahshua and his disciples did 2,000 years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat the founders of our church did was to seek the truth of the original Scriptures,\u201d Velazquez said. By this, he means the Tanakh and the Gospels, both of which are referred to repeatedly in this congregation’s Points of Faith.<\/p>\n In these points, they lay out the importance of Leviticus dietary laws, observance of Shabbat, celebration of Jewish holy days and other biblical elements familiar to Jews. The Points of Faith also talk about Yahshua as the divine and only begotten son of God, of his sacrifice for mankind and future return, and of the importance of baptism \u2014 immersion into \u201cliving waters\u201d \u2014 as an act of repentance.<\/p>\n After Iglesia Israelita\u2019s founding in 1923, its adherents took their doctrines to other parts of Mexico, to Central America and eventually to the United States. At present, there are eight branches in the United States and dozens in Latin America.<\/p>\n In 1960, Iglesia members in Los Angeles pooled their resources and bought a small place of worship in City Terrace, near Boyle Heights. The group eventually looked for larger space, which is how they came to buy B\u2019nai Jacob Synagogue in 1979.<\/p>\n One of the conditions of the sale, which Iglesia members entirely agreed with, was that the building would not be altered, inside or out.<\/p>\n \u201cJudeo-Christianity,\u201d or Messianic Judaism, is still a relatively small blip on religion\u2019s radar screen, but in Latin America and in Latino communities in the United States, it\u2019s growing. Conservative Rabbi Daniel Mehlman, who has presided over many conversions to Judaism, sees this movement as \u201cproblematic.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Iglesia is not trying to convert Jews to their beliefs,\u201d he said. \u201cBut on the other hand, they call themselves Judeo-Christians; whether it\u2019s deliberate or not, there\u2019s a degree of deception in that \u2026 because Jesus is central to their ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n Mehlman, who was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is concerned because groups like the Iglesia \u2014 which behave as Jews, because that\u2019s what Yahshua and his disciples did \u2014 can be confusing to Latinos who want to convert to Judaism.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve participated in the conversion of about 150 Latinos,\u201d Mehlman said, \u201cand messianism is a problem. \u2026 When Latinos wanting to convert to Judaism enter a place like the Iglesia, they might stay there.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s possible, of course; but if so, it\u2019s not because the Iglesia practices charismatic worship \u2014 they don\u2019t. In its gentleness, the Iglesia is the opposite of rapturous religious frenzy.<\/p>\n Their prayer sessions are soft-spoken and their study sessions are a mix of textual analysis and therapy session. These gatherings are gentle and healing, and after each person speaks, the volunteer leader, whoever it happens to be, says \u201cGracias.\u201d<\/p>\n They call each other \u201cbrother\u201d and \u201csister,\u201d and it\u2019s more than automatic habit \u2014 it\u2019s a way of life for this group, which operates like an extended family.<\/p>\n As people file out of the service, they greet each other with \u201cPaz a vos<\/em>,\u201d which means: Peace unto thee.\u00a0Shalom aleicha<\/em>. The language, too, is aimed at creating a first-century Hebrew-Christian experience.<\/p>\n If you understand Spanish and spend time with this group, it\u2019s abundantly clear that Iglesia members have put their reverence for Christianity\u2019s Jewish roots into practice. They don\u2019t \u2014 like Christians did for many centuries \u2014 reject, obscure or denigrate those roots. Instead, they celebrate them.<\/p>\n Whatever one may think about the religion \u2014 or religious services \u2014 going on nowadays at the Fairmont Street Shul, it\u2019s hard not to feel, as Yaroslavsky did when he visited, that the stately old place is in hands that take good care of it.<\/p>\n