This new temple and community center incorporates a pool in the sub-cellar, a wellness center, synagogue lobby and café at the ground level, an auditorium, with balcony, classrooms, offices, a double-story high gymnasium, a banquet room and rooftop play area as well as necessary ancillary spaces. The building is approximately 170 feet tall and encompasses approximately 65,000 gsf.
The synagogue, which embraces the Syrian Sephardic tradition, occupies a full floor in the soon-to-open Moise Safra Center. Its design represents the Sephardic community it serves: the ner tamid, or eternal flame, was fashioned in France, the pews are from Colombia, and the onyx inlaid in the Jerusalem stone of the ark comes from Spain. But a building is more than its design. And so it is hoped the 14-story center, named for Moise Safra, the Brazilian born Jewish philanthropist who died in June 2014, will embody good citizenship and bolster cultural ties between Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews.
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