Restoring Tomorrow: A Tour of the Historic Wilshire Boulevard Temple

[MUSIC PLAYING] Hi, I’m Aaron Wolf. I’m an actor, a director, and today also a tour guide because I’m here at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple. I am so glad to be here with “Guideposts” magazine. 

We just finished a documentary called “Restoring Tomorrow” about this place. And it’s very personal. It’s about my life as well. So I would love to show you around. 

So here we are in the sanctuary of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple. My grandfather came here in 1948. This is where he sat. I’d be out there, and I’d always look at him. Every so often, he’d smile at me. It was heartwarming. 

This is my grandfather, Rabbi Alfred Wolf. This picture has always been special to me because I feel like he’s kind of looking at me, and I’m looking back at him. And while he’s gone, it’s really neat to see him here, his presence, I feel it. 

I never realized all of the different people that he influenced and how many different things he did in his life. I knew him as my grandfather. He taught me how to swim. We’d play Boggle, pool, chess. He was just about games and having fun and being an awesome grandfather, imparting little bits of wisdom to me. 

One of the really neat things about this place– and again, I was disconnected from the place. I was not involved, and I got re-involved and learned all these different beautiful things about this place. One of them is this wall right here, which is all the names of all the people who have passed. 

But what’s so beautiful about it– while it’s sad that they’re gone– their memory lives on on this wall. And now their kids and grandkids and great-grandkids are sitting there in services and a part of the temple and their names are right here. So it’s like the cyclical nature of this place is beautiful. 

And included here right down here there’s Miriam Wolf and Rabbi Alfred Wolf. That’s my grandparents. So they’re still here with me, even though they’re no longer actually here. And that’s pretty special.