But now it has found a temporary home, in the Baha’i Faith San Francisco Center, a historic Art Deco building in the Mission District.
Like many fledgling groups, the S.F.-based Renewal community began holding services in a member’s living room, and when that got too small, members moved to his garage. When they outgrew that, they moved to a church, a rehearsal space and most recently, Fort Mason. But all had their downsides: At the rehearsal space, members had to bring their own chairs. Fort Mason was expensive.
“In our first year, we were getting about 24 on a Friday night,” said Daniel Lev, the community’s spiritual leader. “In the second year it was about 50, and then in the third it was about 100.”
According to Lev, it grew “with minimal PR,” through word of mouth.
“We are a devotional community, more informal than mainstream shuls,” he said. “We emphasize a holistic approach that’s emotionally and spiritually engaged. There’s singing, dancing and holy whoopin’ it up. We also have quiet moments for Jewish meditation.”
The Baha’i arrangement resulted through a chance meeting of the father of Keneset HaLev’s board president, Shari Samuel, and a member of the Baha’i center, Lydia McCarter. The elder Samuel was volunteering to answer telephones during a fund-raising drive for KQED, and a group from the Baha’i center sat nearby.
Baha’i, with an affiliation of some 5 million worldwide, according to the religion’s official Web site, is a universalistic faith that has much in common with Judaism. The religion draws upon the world’s major faiths to promote a message of unity among all peoples. Visitors to the city of Haifa, in northern Israel, usually stop to visit the Baha’i center there, with its lush, colorful gardens.
“The Baha’i has their holy city in Haifa, and one of my sisters lives there,” said Samuel. “So my dad couldn’t resist introducing himself.”
That introduction to McCarter led to Samuel being invited to visit the Baha’i center. Upon arriving, she thought it would be the perfect place to hold services. It was a spiritual space, yet one without any Christian imagery — a problem many Jewish congregations that meet in churches must deal with.
An offer came from a church to use its space for free, Samuel said, which was tempting. Keneset HaLev is made up of mostly a twenty- and thirtysomething crowd, and operates on a shoestring budget. But Samuel couldn’t accept the offer.
“I have a problem with dead Jewish boys on crosses,” she said. “Even though you could put a sheet over it, you still know it’s there.”
McCarter, who is not only a member of the Baha’i community but also works at the Baha’i center, said this is the first time that a Jewish group is renting it out.
“The primary teaching of the Baha’i faith is unity of all mankind and all religions,” said McCarter, “because there’s only one creator, one God.”
Therefore, she said, allowing a Jewish group to use it was nothing out of the ordinary.
“Our Spiritual Assembly decided that it would be nice to include this community, and we’re very happy that we’re able to do this as a service,” said McCarter.
Most recently, the facility has been rented out by a Native American group and a convention of natural healers.
Keneset HaLev will make use of the Baha’i center for the next three months, and then will most likely relocate to a school.
“We all have found it frustrating,” said Lev, that a community with little money is trying to function in one of the most expensive cities in the world.
“Part of our numbers have dropped a bit because we have moved around a lot,” said Lev. “We can’t find a place to rent that we can afford on such a limited budget. We depend on donations from our community, and we want to be inclusive, so we’re not setting it up as rigidly as others might.”