Church, temple come together for eternal light

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- It all began as a temporary arrangement in the spring

of 1974.

Flory and Felix Van Beek had just founded Temple Isaiah in memory of

their son, Ralph, who had died of cancer at age 16. The young

congregation -- Conservative by denomination -- had quickly outgrown

meetings in private homes and Flory Van Beek managed to convince folks at

the brand-new Harbor Christian Church to share their sanctuary.

Now, more than a quarter century later, the two congregations still

call the same Irvine Avenue building home. Over the years, they’ve lent

singers to each other’s choirs, held common potluck dinners and joined in

Thanksgiving services.

When Jewish holidays fall on a Sunday, the church’s 200 members move

out to a park for mass. The sanctuary’s painted glass panels are neutral

to both religions and simply fill the room with bursts of colorful light.

A large wooden cross gets covered with Israel’s flag during Friday

services and the Jewish Holy Arc stands on wheels and is easily rolled

into position in front of the altar.

To honor the friendship and commemorate the six million Jewish people

murdered during the Holocaust, church members will present an eternal

light to the temple congregation Friday. The lamp -- made from a

150-year-old watchman’s lantern that artist Lynda Nosanov found in the

basement of a house in the Jewish quarter of Toledo, Spain -- will remain

lit permanently.

While eternal lights form an essential part of Roman Catholic churches

as well as many others, denominations such as Harbor Christian’s

Christian (Disciples of Christ) that emphasize scripture rarely have

them.

But “it’s a nice symbol of God’s presence,” said Rev. Dennis Short,

the church’s pastor. And “we wanted to honor Felix and Flory [Van Beek].

We’ve enjoyed our relationship. We’re very close.”

Rabbi Marc Rubenstein, who leads Temple Isaiah’s 100-family

congregation, said he likes to call the building “churple” -- a

combination of church and temple.

But “when we come here, we don’t think of our sanctuary as a church,”

he said. “We think of it as a temple.”

Rubenstein added that he and Short would engage in a pulpit exchange

for the first time to celebrate the eternal light.

Sitting in the sanctuary Monday morning, Flory Van Beek said the lamp

was “fantastic.”

Nosanov “constructed it in such a way that there are six panels for

the six million Jews [who perished during the Holocaust] and 12 smaller

ones for the 12 tribes of Israel,” she said.

Van Beek, whose slight accent still reveals a hint of her native

country of the Netherlands, escaped the Nazis by hiding in Christian

homes for three years. While she and her husband emigrated to America in

1948, many family members, including her mother, were murdered in

concentration camps.

Only about 5,200 of the Netherlands’ Jewish population of 140,000

survived the Holocaust and Van Beek collected her memories in her 1998

book, “Flory: Survival in the Valley of Death.”

Standing in front of the Holy Arc to decide on the best place to hang

the lamp from the ceiling, Van Beek again told Short how touched she was

by the church’s present.

“We’re all created by the same creator,” she said. “We all have two

arms and two legs. All of our ways of religion go to the same purpose.

Just in different ways.”

FYI

The eternal light will be presented during a Holocaust Remembrance Day

ceremony Friday at 8 p.m. at Harbor Christian Church, 2401 Irvine Avenue.