Restoring Tomorrow (2018) Plot Summary Explained

Aaron Wolf returned to Wilshire Boulevard Temple in the immediate aftermath of a painful breakup that happened weeks before his wedding. The split left him searching for guidance and stability, so he went to the one familiar spiritual home he still had. That visit quickly became the turning point that put him on the path to both making Restoring Tomorrow and rediscovering his Jewish faith.

Foreshadowing: Even while studying at NYU and calling himself a "fallen-away Jew," Wolf still went to a rabbi for counsel after his breakup, hinting that his connection to the temple had never fully disappeared.

• breakup
• faith crisis
• return to temple
• personal catalyst
• rabbi counsel

Weeks before his wedding, Aaron Wolf and his fiancé split apart, which sent him back to his childhood temple at Wilshire Boulevard to talk with Rabbi Steve Leder. During that meeting, Leder shared his renovation plans for the crumbling building and asked Wolf to film the process. That single conversation transformed a personal crisis into the documentary that became Restoring Tomorrow.

• breakup
• documentary origin
• personal catalyst
• rabb i leder
• filming request

Alfred Wolf is Aaron Wolf's grandfather, a German-born rabbi who fled Eberbach, Germany as the Nazis rose to power and went on to serve Wilshire Boulevard Temple from 1949 to 1985. Although Aaron grew up in his grandfather's shadow, he had drifted away from Judaism and never fully understood the legacy he inherited. Documenting the temple's restoration brought that legacy back into focus and became the emotional spine of Restoring Tomorrow.

Foreshadowing: The film's recurring references to the Wolf family name in the temple's history quietly set up the moment when Aaron realizes he is literally filming his grandfather's congregation.

• alfred wolf
• grandfather
• family legacy
• german jewish
• emigration

Wilshire Boulevard Temple serves as both the physical setting and the central subject of Restoring Tomorrow, recognized as the first Jewish congregation in Los Angeles. The documentary follows the temple's structural restoration while telling its chronological story through the rabbis who led it, including Edgar Magnin, Harvey J. Fields, and Aaron's grandfather Alfred Wolf. The building becomes the vessel through which Aaron Wolf rediscovers his own faith.

• wilshire boulevard temple
• congregation
• los angeles
• restoration
• jewish institution

Rabbi Steve Leder is the senior rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple who meets with Aaron Wolf right after Wolf's breakup and opens the door to the entire documentary. Leder shares his plan to renovate the crumbling building and asks Wolf to film the restoration, which is the request that sets Restoring Tomorrow in motion. His invitation converts Wolf from a visitor returning to his faith into the film's director.

• rabbi steve leder
• renovation vision
• senior rabbi
• filming request

Aaron Wolf agreed to document the renovation after Rabbi Steve Leder personally asked him to do so during their meeting at Wilshire Boulevard Temple. At that moment Wolf was emotionally raw from his breakup and looking for purpose, so the project offered him meaningful creative work tied to a place he already cared about. Accepting the request also pulled him deeper into his own family history at the temple, which became the heart of Restoring Tomorrow.

• filming
• restoration project
• personal meaning
• project start
• creative direction

When Aaron Wolf calls himself a "fallen-away Jew" in Restoring Tomorrow, he is describing a generation of young American Jews who have largely drifted from organized religion and their own heritage. By the time he was studying at NYU he felt little connection to the faith or the temple where he had grown up. That sense of distance is what gives his later rediscovery its emotional weight in the film.

• jewish identity
• nyu
• drifting from faith
• generational decline
• disconnection

Alfred Wolf left his hometown of Eberbach, Germany in the 1930s as the Nazi party rose to power, joining the wave of Jewish families forced to flee for their safety. He eventually crossed the Atlantic and settled in Los Angeles, where he became rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple starting in 1949. That emigration is what later placed his grandson Aaron at the center of this documentary's personal story.

• nazi germany
• emigration
• eberbach
• jewish refugees
• 1930s

Restoring Tomorrow weaves the history of Wilshire Boulevard Temple chronologically through the rabbis who led it, beginning with its founding as the first Jewish congregation in Los Angeles and moving through Edgar Magnin, Harvey J. Fields, and Alfred Wolf. Aaron Wolf's camera documents the physical renovation while the film traces that institutional lineage in parallel. The structure allows the building's decay and rebirth to mirror Wolf's own journey back to Judaism.

• temple history
• rabbinical lineage
• chronology
• founding rabbis
• restoration timeline

When Aaron Wolf returned to Wilshire Boulevard Temple seeking counsel after his breakup, the building was in total disrepair and physically falling apart after years of neglect. That visible decay is exactly what prompted Rabbi Steve Leder to develop his renovation vision in the first place. The temple's broken-down condition gives Restoring Tomorrow both its central challenge and the visual through-line of restoration that runs through the film.

• disrepair
• physical decay
• urgent renovation
• building condition
• falling apart

Alfred Wolf led Wilshire Boulevard Temple as its rabbi from 1949 to 1985, a continuous tenure of more than three decades. That long stretch allowed him to shape the identity of the congregation and influence several generations of its members. The lasting impact of those 36 years is precisely what eventually draws his grandson Aaron back into the temple's orbit in Restoring Tomorrow.

• alfred wolf tenure
• 1949 to 1985
• leadership decades
• senior rabbi

Howling Wolf Productions is Aaron Wolf's own production company, which he formally brought on board to shoot the restoration of Wilshire Boulevard Temple. Once Rabbi Leder asked Wolf to document the project, Wolf assigned his own company to the job, and that is where Restoring Tomorrow's actual filming began. The "Wolf" in the company name also doubles as a quiet echo of the filmmaker's family name and grandfather's legacy at the temple.

Foreshadowing: The repeated presence of the Wolf surname, both in the production company and in the temple's rabbinical history, foreshadows the moment Aaron realizes he has been documenting his own family all along.

• howling wolf productions
• production company
• documentary crew
• filming team

Restoring Tomorrow argues that faith and community are renewed through deliberate effort, which it shows through both the rebuilding of Wilshire Boulevard Temple and Aaron Wolf's gradual return to Judaism. The film suggests that historic institutions can come back to life when people choose to invest in them, and that personal faith can be rediscovered in the same way. Pairing the physical restoration with a spiritual one gives the documentary its hopeful core.

• faith renewal
• community revival
• restoration themes
• perseverance

The central challenge of Restoring Tomorrow is twofold: reviving a historic Los Angeles temple that has fallen into disrepair while also addressing Aaron Wolf's personal drift from his Jewish faith. Wolf has to document a difficult renovation project at the same time as he is processing a breakup and a sense of distance from his heritage. The documentary tracks both restorations in parallel until they converge into one story of renewal.

• central challenge
• dual restoration
• personal journey
• institutional recovery