When Senior Rabbi Ryan Bauer walks through Congregation Emanu-El, it feels a lot bigger than the temple he’s known for decades.
The synagogue formally reopened this month after a multiyear, $100 million renovation. Founded in the early days of the Gold Rush, the Reform Judaism congregation is one of the oldest in the west. It moved into the current building — a Byzantine Revival-style temple on a shady hill in Presidio Heights — in 1925.
But as Jewish life in San Francisco has evolved in the century since, so has the role of the synagogue. Congregation Emanu-El was designed for “a rabbi talking to 2,000 people,” Bauer said, not the “intimate conversations” between members that he hopes to foster. So when seismic instabilities needed fixing, the congregation took the opportunity to make sweeping changes to the space.
“We want it to be a place where people are deeply connected to each other and know each other’s stories,” Bauer said. “It’s almost like ‘Cheers,’ if you remember that TV show — it’s a place where everybody knows your name. It’s a second home.”…