From the Desk of Rabbi Batsheva Meiri - Congregation Beth ...

When a brand new or significantly remodeled public
library opens its doors, circulation rates (the number
of items checked out annually) usually double and
the number of library patrons rises dramatically for
that locale. Congregation Beth HaTephila’s
remodeling and expansion effort is not likely to
double the annual Bar and Bat Mitzvah rate or
multiply the number of members, but it will create a
new image of the temple as a physical space, an
image communicating fresh and exciting ideas about
what it means to be a Jew in Asheville in the second
decade of the twenty-first century. That message —
that here is a dynamic, forward-looking, congregation
— will function as a magnet to progressive seekers of
Jewish fellowship, learning, and spirituality.
Only a handful of people are still with us who can
remember what life in Asheville was like when the
present building opened its doors in 1949. The
atrocities of World War II had ended only four years
earlier, the fledgling State of Israel had just been
accepted into the United Nations, and accounts of the
horror of the holocaust were slowly seeping into the
awareness of American Jews. The new building, 15
years in the making (for fundraising, purchasing land,
finding an architect), was a sign not only of
survivorship but also of renewal. In subsequent
decades, as more people were drawn to the high
quality of life our area provides, that handsome,
architecturally modern edifice served as an attracting
beacon. Six decades later, it is time for that beacon
to be raised higher, its power magnified.
Long time congregant, Judge Dennis Winner finds
his own equivalent to the symbolism of architectural
renewal. Eight years ago, says Winner, he went
before the county commissioners and bid them to
take a tour of the main courtroom on the fifth floor of
the courthouse. "Though a beautiful room, it had," he
says, "become shabby, with over 70 years of use and
no renovation." One good look convinced the
commissioners they needed to act. Says Winner, "It
is now the most beautiful courtroom in the state and
takes your breath away, when you enter it."
Our New Home
Winner draws this parallel. "The same thing is
happening to our synagogue. It has become shabby with
age and its support areas obsolete and inadequate. When
you’re in that courtroom, you have a different feeling
than before it was renovated. When we complete our
synagogue project, we will have a different feeling as we
use it. It will become again, something of which we are
proud."
How important is Jewish pride? Representing perhaps
the low end of the spectrum, I have heard some local
Jewish people say that although they do not belong to any
synagogue or even to the JCC, nevertheless they prefer to
live in a community that has a highly visible Jewish
presence. Therefore, it's good to have attractive
synagogues. At the other end of the spectrum, Cantor
Winston expresses a fuller and richer kind of Jewish
pride. She imagines "space to try many new and exciting
ways to infuse the new building with song, and new
acoustics to experience." On a pragmatic level, as a
teacher of B'nei Mitzvah, she looks forward to "neat and
clean storage space for our learning tools, and small
tutoring spaces for one-on-one discussions." She also
pictures "a beautiful view of the mountains as we walk
our children into adulthood at their B'nei Mitzvah
ceremonies."
A building is only so much masonry and mortar, glass
and steel, wood and tile. But just as the words "edifice"
(a building) and "edify" (to raise up spiritually) link the
material and the immaterial, the visible and the invisible,
so will the tangible architecture of the remodeled and
expanded facility serve to enhance Jewish Asheville's
sense of pride and identity. Or, as Judge Winner regards
the renovation: "It will increase our feeling of spirituality,
as we come here to pray. And we will be able to provide
for the next couple of generations a holy place of beauty
and peace."
It’s not too late to make a pledge or contribute to L’Dor V’Dor —
the support of everyone, no matter how small, is vital to its success.
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Ron Manheimer,
Chair, Ritual Committee