From the Ashes: Pacific Palisades Rebuilds

Of all the things they lost in the Los Angeles wildfires, Jessica and Michael Heshel miss their friends most. 

The growing community of young parents surrounding Chabad’s Early Childhood Center was part of what drew the couple to the Pacific Palisades, an affluent beachfront neighborhood. 

Now, months after the most destructive urban fire in the city’s history, the Heshels and their four children are still living in temporary housing, waiting for insurance payments that will allow them to decide how, and where, to rebuild their lives. “A lot of our friends and family have moved out. Some have even moved out of state,” Jessica says. “We’re living day by day,” Michael adds. “Nobody knows what the future of the Palisades will be like.”   

The Heschels’ state of limbo is very familiar to Rabbi Zushe and Zisi Cunin, directors of Chabad of Pacific Palisades. Roughly 70 percent of their community lost their homes in the fire, which also partially destroyed Chabad’s campus and preschool. During the disaster itself and in its immediate aftermath, the Cunins and their staff helped Palisades residents with basic resources like shelter and clean water. Now they’re doing the long, slow work of rebuilding—both Chabad’s physical campus and the morale of the community it housed. “People want to come back,” Rebbetzin Cunin says. “We’re here, and we’re rebuilding bigger and better.”

Life in the Aftermath  

Pacific Palisades was never cheap, but the fires have made it unaffordable to some residents who had built their lives here. Business at Amanda Gruen’s gym in Santa Monica has been slow since the fires, and she has struggled to cover basic expenses over the past year. The toys and supplies that came in from all over the country in January and February were a blessing, says Gruen, whose children attend Chabad’s preschool and Hebrew school. Now, though, that flood has slowed to a trickle: “We’re continuing to go through a lot of hardship.”

Shielded from LA’s urban center by the Santa Monica Mountains and bordered by the Pacific Ocean, the Palisades was a quiet, residential neighborhood with a small-town atmosphere. Its “main street,” a strip of Sunset Boulevard, once hosted local boutiques, a weekly farmers’ market, and a July Fourth parade. Though the mansions on the surrounding hills attracted celebrity buyers, the Palisades also drew families looking for a quiet place to raise their kids. “Young couples invested everything in their homes, thinking it would be their nest egg,” Rebbetzin Cunin says. “Some people can afford to rebuild; many can’t.”  

Adjusting to life in the aftermath of the fires has been particularly difficult for Gruen’s two sons, ages six and nine. Like the Heshels, their home was badly damaged by smoke and ash. The family is renting an apartment, facilitated by Chabad, in L.A.’s urban Mid-Wilshire neighborhood while they weigh their options for the future. Her boys miss hiking through the forests near their old home, Gruen says. But one constant in their lives was Chabad’s Camp Gan Israel, which they attended this summer for the fifth time.    

“Belief in the Future”  

The loss of almost all of their physical possessions has made the Heshels appreciate the things the fire could not touch. “There’s so much we do have,” Jessica says. The family celebrated the birth of twins not long after losing their home. There is also, Michael adds, “the sense of community,” which, despite the empty streets in their old neighborhood, continues to play an important role in their lives. 

The Cunins and their staff restarted programming immediately after the fire. For families struggling with frightening memories of the fire, they offered “Mommy and Me,” Friendship Circle summer camp, and women’s programming, including somatic therapy. The preschool is up and running in a renovated building easily accessible to families who are still living outside the neighborhood. And renovations of the Chabad campus will be completed in time for the High Holidays.

The connections Gruen has made in the Palisades make her reluctant to leave: “It’s so rare in L.A. to have a neighborhood where you could walk around all the time and bump into people you know,” she says. “Lots of families would get together regularly.” She hopes to restore her home and stay.  

The Heshels, too, feel hopeful. Michael recalls a dinner Chabad hosted for families two weeks after the fire. Seeing everyone gathered, sharing their experiences, and drawing support made even the cramped, temporary location feel like home. “We came out feeling tremendous relief,” he says, “and belief in the future.”