Architect Randy Robbins went to Jerusalem with his partner Douglas Austin in
December of 1996 to hone their design for the new Congregation Beth Israel.
After a visit of approximately two weeks, with another week spent touring
other parts of Israel, they decided that the City of Gold had its own
distinct architectural feeling -- one that couldn¹t be duplicated, but could
be suggested, in Beth Israel's design.

"Jerusalem has, especially in the Old City, tight streets, surprise
courtyards, towers, stone walls that meet the walkways, stairs, steps, heavy
shade and shadows," Robbins said during an interview last week. "These were
the kind of things that were the inspiration of the design."

Jerusalem stone is used in such sacred locations as the holy arks of the
chapel and main sanctuary, as well as the front wall of the sanctuary. But
for the most part, the building material at the Beth Israel complex < which
includes a synagogue, chapel, administration building, school building,
offices for the clergy,  recreational spaces and courtyards -- "is a concrete
masonry material, with custom colors and special textures," Robbins said.

Robbins, a principal in the San Diego firm of Austin Veum Robbins Parshalle,
said the Beth Israel complex can best be conceptualized as a series of
transitions "taking one from the secular world into more sacred space."
"The parking lot transitions up the monumental stairway, through a more
narrow entry, into the small courtyard, and you can see down the small
walkway, through the kiosk and into the sanctuary foyer," Robbins said.

The school building and the administration building are connected by a
"knuckle" or large round joint, which introduces visitors to circular shapes
that appear several times through the complex. The design of a fence leading
to this structure suggests a Star of David.

Once into the courtyard, one may proceed to the separate chapel building,
which took its stained-glass window designs from the downtown Third and
Laurel building that Beth Israel gave up to move to its new home in the
University Towne Center area.

Or, one may  enter a vestibule that accesses the social hall/multipurpose
room and the sanctuary. From this entry, "there is this double vestibule to
get into the sanctuary," and patterned on the long corridor "you see the
Star of David" design that "references back to the gateways and to the Old
City," Robbins said.

As we walked with Stuart Simmons, executive director of Congregation Beth
Israel, toward the sanctuary entrance, Robbins pointed out that "in this
space we brought the exterior material inside.   In some ancient synagogues,
the materials on the outside are the same as the inside, and that gives you
a feeling of permanence. That was one thing we wanted to do, to get those
exterior materials in to ground the building."

Five vestibule windows by glass artist Gordon Huether have quotations in
Hebrew, each window from a different book of the Torah. "Every one of the
quotations has a reference to gathering people together," Simmons said.

Just before the main doors to the 500-seat sanctuary, there is a memorial
wall, framed by a design by Laurie Gross of Napa that fuses a menorah and an
etz chaim (tree of life). A lamp made of crystal glass may be illuminated to
memorialize people whose names are listed on a page placed upon a stand.

The etz chaim/menorah design is repeated on the doors of the holy ark, which
when opened reveals Torahs bearing mantles with a similar design.  The
design also is etched into the inside wall of the holy ark, made of
Jerusalem stone. Congregation Beth Israel likewise designed a special
mezuzah.

Pointing to Torah mantles, Robbins instructed that "in Exodus, when they
describe the building of the Tabernacle, they talk about the golds and the
silvers and the scarlets and the blues, and we wanted to pick those colors
up."

When the High Holy Days come around, these mantles will be replaced by white
mantles bearing the same design.

Pointing to the cavernous ceiling of the sanctuary, Robbins said it was
shaped to suggest a tent, "the reference being to the wandering of the Jews
through the centuries."

And what about the lattice work? Robbins was asked.
"Functional," the architect replied. Keeping the ceiling 50 percent open
eliminated the need to have sprinkler heads protruding down into the
sanctuary."

There are six vertical, slit windows on the upper walls of the sanctuary,
along with one larger vertical window that is directly above the holy ark.
The glass of these windows has the same menorah and tree-of-life patterns.
"We refer to them as the Seven Days of Creation windows, with the seventh
window being the Shabbat window," Simmons said.

A Hebrew inscription above the ark is translated "The light of God is the
soul of humanity." The letter shin in the inscription, included in the word
meaning "soul," is right above a ner tamid (eternal light) made of the same
crystal material as the memorial light.