Jewish families in the path of the Valley Fire that ripped through Lake County this past week have shared in the devastation meted out to the larger community.
Rabbi George Gittleman of Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa told J. that one family belonging to the Reform synagogue was evacuated from Cobb Mountain, where the fire began Sept. 12.
“They’re not sure whether their house and pets survived,” Gittleman said on Sept. 15. “They won’t know for a couple of days, until they’re allowed back in.”
Conservative Congregation Beth Ami, also in Santa Rosa, reported that at least two families and one individual connected to the synagogue community had been affected.
“Thank God, none of them were personally located in the path of the fire,” senior staff wrote in an email to the Beth Ami community on Sept. 13. “However all are expecting to have lost their homes and in some cases most of their possessions — tragically, this includes animals.”
Beth Ami Rabbi Mordecai Miller reported on Sept. 16 that one of the homes, which was on Cobb Mountain, was not destroyed, “although I imagine there has to be smoke damage. We don’t know yet.”
Martha Mazur-Lane and her husband, Boyd Lane, lost their home near the bottom of Cobb Mountain in Middletown.
“We saw a video of the neighborhood. Our home was just leveled,” daughter Miriam Lane told J. “Eighty structures were destroyed and nine remain in the neighborhood we grew up in.”
Martha and Boyd have been staying in the Santa Rosa home of their daughters, Miriam and Hannah. Miriam teaches religious school at Beth Ami.
As of early Sept. 16, the Valley Fire had destroyed more than 67,000 acres and nearly 600 homes.
One of the casualties on the first day of the fire was Hoberg’s Resort, a vacation property founded in 1885 by Gustav and Mathilda Hoberg that grew to be one of the state’s largest privately owned resorts, according to the resort’s website. At its peak in the 1950s, the Cobb Mountain property hosted more than 1,000 guests a night, including many celebrities, but after being sold in 1974, it was closed to the public until reopening last year.
San Francisco Jewish historian Stephen Dobbs recalls spending several summers at Hoberg’s with his family in the 1940s, when it was sometimes called the “Catskills of the West” because of the number of Jews who stayed there.
“I imagine the Jewish guests were not overly observant,” he told J. “I simply don’t recall — I was 7 or 8 years old — Shabbos evenings or anything distinctively Jewish about the place.”
Comparing it to the Catskills resorts frequented by Jews, he added, “We did the sorts of activities at Hoberg’s which our brethren enjoyed in upper New York state, including camping, hiking, swimming, horseback riding, archery, crafts, etc.”
Hoberg’s was completely destroyed on Sept. 12, when the fire started. Only its chimneys and foundation remain, according to the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat.