The Shofar Synagogue of Geneva & Making New Friends over Chocolate
By the time we awoke the next morning, we were alone in the house. We made our own simple breakfast and set out down the hill to Geneva. Familiar now with the area, we had no trouble finding the highway. We passed quickly through the without even stepping on the breaks but then, as we entered the city, we were stuck in traffic, finally crossing the Arve river and then a few blocks later the Rhone.
right synagogue, wrong address
We had a 10:30 appointment with R. François Garaï who had graciously offered to take time out of his busy schedule between Rosh haShannah and Yom Kippur to show us the new synagogue building that his congregation Communauté Israélite Libérale de Genève had recently dedicated. We had been told of its unique shape (in the form of a shofar) and hoped to see it. (The following two photos are from the Web.)
However, it turned out that the address Mark had downloaded was the old address in an office building on 12 Quai du Seujet, on the north bank of the Rhone (the little red circle by the river in the Google map above). We arrived in plenty of time, we thought, parked, found the address but could not find the synagogue. After asking a few of the businesses on the block, we used the free WiFi in a little coffee shop to get the synagogue’s phone number, let them know we were in the wrong place and found the correct address. Within another few minutes we were at the new building (the “A” on the far right of the Google map).
R. Garaï escorted us into the elegant new sanctuary. The golden ark is in the shape of a ה where the space between the “leg” on the left holds the Ner Tamid.
He proudly showed us some of the Torah scrolls, one from Iraq and another with a very unusual way of writing the tetragrammaton:
We thanked R. Garaï and headed off to our next appointment with Lisa, the friend of a friend at her favorite chocolate shop in downtown Geneva.
After arriving early enough to find a parking spot we sat in the little garden on the corner in front of the Chocolaterie Micheli (the tiny red circle in the Google map) enjoying good conversation and refreshments, including chocolates and hot chocolate.
Lisa showed us around a bit and sent us on our way.
We walked through the park surrounding the university library, to a staircase near the Mur des Réformateurs where we stopped to take our photo.
A little more meandering found us in the old town of Geneva, identifiable by the red roofs in the Google map (and the large red circle surrounding it). We had only an hour left on our parking meter before we needed to move the car. We did walk by another pretty little chocolate shop,
and the domicile of another of Mark’s cultural heroes, who we had encountered, by chance, on our first trip in Udine while crossing the Alps from Italy to Austria.
and then worked our way back along Dalcroze (whose name Mark remembered from World’s End, the first in the Lanny Budd series of novels by Upton Sinclair) and Helvetique Boulevard, past the art museum then down to the Boulevard des Philosophes where we had parked the car.
We moved the car into the underground lot at the Plaine de Plainpalais (in the red rectangle) which was in the process of being prepared for the national circus opening that evening. When we emerged we were a bit directionally disoriented, trying to find our way to the lake. We found a kiosk with a town map on it, but it did not have a “you are here” spot. A couple our age asked if they could help, which they did pointing us in the appropriate direction. The told us that our walk to the Jardin Anglai and the Jet d’eau was too far and that we would probably want to take a bus. Little did they know. It turns out that we were at the intersection of Avenue du Mail and Bergalone, a block or so away from the Patek Philippe museum, which, had we been more of the usual Geneva tourist we might have visited. When we reached the Place du Cirque at the north end of the Plaine, we checked our map again to get our bearings. A young woman approached and offered help, suggesting this time that we not walk on the main street, because it is too busy (?!). Altogether, people were very forthcoming with assistance. Overall, there did not seem to be many tourists. Nonetheless, we continued along Boulevard Georges Favon and a couple of short blocks further along we noticed on our right,
the Rue de la Synagogue.
We made a quick circuit of the building and continued on our way to the Rue du Rhone and along the lake. We walked back into old town from a different angle searching for an old site we had been told to see, found ourselves once more in the old town and though we were on the chocolate trail we also, once again on the route of Santiago de Compostela, known locally for the cathedral around the corner, as Puits-Saint-Pierre.
Nearby Mark approached a woman standing in front of her jewelry shop, who it turned out, is also a member of the liberal synagogue we had visited in the morning, and a chocolate fan. We asked her about the site we were seeking and learned that it was around the corner from where we were talking. We headed back down to the lake to take in the final official tourist site on our list for Geneva, past several chocolate shops, including, next door to the local Apple store, Auer (where we purchased their signature chocolate covered almonds).
The weather had held out for us. The skies were mostly blue with some high distant white whispy clouds to temper the afternoon heat. We arrived along the Quai Gustave Ador and the Jet d’eau.
We snacked in the shade enjoying the lovely view, and after crossing the Rhone where it exits Lake Geneva (French Lac Léman) on the Pont du Mont-Blanc (over which we had driven in the opposite direction to the new synagogue that morning), returned along the bike and footbridge Pont du Bergues, we headed back into town. On our way we noticed yet another cluster of chocolate shops. We stopped in at the local Starbucks across the street from the local McDonald’s to check our mail before returning to Saint-Julien-en-Genevois.
We arrived a bit before bedtime for our friends’ children. So we took our group photo and spent a few more hours talking about our adventures.
