IT took two days for Rabbi Moshe Liberow, spiritual leader of Chabad of Southern Colorado, the Lubavitch synagogue in Colorado Springs, to learn that his synagogue and home had narrowly escaped the flames of the Waldo Canyon fire last week.
The rabbi, whose family managed to evacuate shortly after evacuation orders were issued on June 26 for their area of northwestern Colorado Springs, spent two anxious days with his family in Denver last week.
As they awaited news about their own home, they learned that two lives had been lost to the fire, and at least 347 homes destroyed, mostly in the Mountain Shadows neighborhood close to where they live.
Virtually all of the death and devastation had been wrought on the evening of June 26-27, in a wind-fed firestorm that many witnesses, including Rabbi Liberow, described as visually and emotionally apocalyptic.
By June 28, however, the information coming in from authorities on the extent of the damage seemed positive, so Rabbi Liberow, in the company of Rabbi Zalman Popack of Denver, drove to the Springs and confirmed that the Liberow home and Chabad Southern Colorado had been spared.
Speaking to the IJN on June 28, as he was on his way home, Rabbi Liberow offered deep thanks for all the help he and his family received from a long list of Colorado Chabad rabbis and families.
His congregants too, he said, received generous help from non-Jews, Jews of various denominations, local professionals and emergency personnel.
We heard from tons of people, from Denver, Pueblo, Telluride, saying, My house is yours, asking if people need a place to stay for Shabbos, the rabbi said.
It was so beautiful seeing that Jews are one family in a literal sense. We all feel for each other, Jews of all shapes and sizes.
The rabbi was hoping that he would be able to host Shabbat services last Friday at the synagogue, but was ultimately unable to achieve that goal so quickly.
The day before, however, after checking out his shul and home, Rabbis Liberow and Popack retrieved a cotton candy machine from the shul and drove it to a Red Cross shelter across town, where they were soon busy handing out free sweets to evacuee children.
Only a few days after the fire started and having just had a very narrow escape themselves Colorado Springs Chabad was already back in the mitzvah business.
ACROSS town, at Colorado Springs Conservative-Reform synagogue Temple Shalom, board president Dan Mirer told the IJN this week that no members of that congregation lost their homes last week.
But we do know of some people who had some fire damage to their houses, Mirer said. One congregant got back there and found that the side of his house had been burned. It doesnt get any closer than that.
There were other Temple Shalom members whose house was the last one standing in a particular area, with the homes on either side of them burned to the ground.
The congregation was able to place any number of evacuated families in members homes, Mirer added.
The overall community of Colorado Springs reached out and opened up their homes, he said. Many temple families stayed with one another. We have a very close-knit community and people in need were able to find homes quite easily.
Overall, no one had to be asked in the community. Everybody did what they needed to do.
Also, students of the Alpine Autism Center, whose school received two evacuation orders last week, were able to use Temple Shalom classrooms several times during the evacuation, Mirer said, and may do so again.
On June 29, Temple Shalom conducted a healing service for Shabbat. Member Leslie Hickey, who holds an administrative position with the Colorado Springs Fire Department, spoke to the congregation about the fire.
That put a human element to the situation, said Mirer.
Copyright © 2012 by the Intermountain Jewish News
