Synagogue Dalet began as I attended a remarkable meeting of the City Council of Glen Cove Long Island in the days immediately following the crash of an Avianca Airline jet in nearby Mill Neck in January 1990. The Mayor of Glen Cove presented emergency Rescue Squad members with citations for their prompt and heroic emergency aid services to the survivors of this tragic crash. At this same meeting however, the Mayor was intransigent about refusing any kind of assistance to the Hispanic day workers who congregated along the streets of the City. This occurred despite strong vocal protests from the large Hispanic population both within the community and in the entire surrounding region of Nassau County. The evident hypocrisy prompted one member of the audience to observe “It seems as if the only way you can be Hispanic and welcome in Glen Cove is to fall flaming from the sky!”
Synagogue Dalet
Dalet, the fourth Hebrew letter, also signifies Door. During a town meeting I thought of rejected Latino refugees in contrast to the complacency of fat cat protected suburbanites-- themselves descendants of immigrants. “I lift my lamp beside the golden door” wrote Emma Lazarus of the Statue of Liberty. A social responsibility every holy person now faces is to consider and act on the plight of our human brothers and sisters who have no homes, no shelter at all. Until the last homeless person finds repose, we shall always have refugees.
Synagogue Dalet includes not only the ritual elements of Bimah, Ark of the Torah (Aron ha Kodesh), Eternal Light (Ner Tamid) and seating for the worshippers, but also homes for four refugee families and a caretaker’s apartment. The congregants are aware that these refugees must feel at home and need help to move on to more permanent settlements. Worshippers cannot enter or leave the sanctuary without walking past and beneath the homes of the refugees elevated above them. It is easy to make a space for a family in a 16’ cube but almost impossible to fit them comfortably in a single 8’ cube. The architectural challenge here is to provide reasonably comfortable temporary lodgings for a family of four in a 12’ cube. Each of these apartments includes bathroom with shower, galley kitchen, day bed sofa, table and chairs, and balcony. The loft above provides sleeping space for parents and an infant’s crib. While tight, these dwellings are meant to restore the dignity of family life for people whose most recent homes simply no longer exist.
The site is a man-made oasis south of the equator in the Australian Outback, where rain is heaven’s rare gift to an arid land. The swimming pool collects rainwater, and pumps it to the overhead canopy to make sheets of aerated falling water on hot summer days. A raft provides dry crossing to the promised land of the grotto in the solar wall to the north. A written Dalet forms a right angle. Three mutually perpendicular folds define a cube of volume. A Dalet of columns and canopy is evident when entrering the sanctuary. The stairs and tunnel to the chamber below form another. The third, formed is evident in plan when west is up. The lab’s rehumidifier maintains a moist microclimate around the pool and prepares flora for re-vegetating the desert. Australia’s policy of “fight or flight” during recent monster wildfires make the sanctuary an ideal if ironic refuge for local populations.
