Happy Chanukah - The Jewish Georgian

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Page 8 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN November-December 2011 A landmark synagogue in Brunswick looks to its future By Lindsey Adkison This article is reprinted from The Brunswick News, with permission. Dr. Mark Friedman gently placed the yarmulke on his head and opened the door of the synagogue. Stepping inside Temple Beth Tefilloh, his face beamed. “The synagogue was built in 1889 by a Jewish architect, Alfred S. Eichberg, the first Jewish architect in Georgia, and this was the first temple to be built by a Jewish architect in Georgia,” he said with obvious pride. “Although based in Savannah, Eichberg never built a temple in that city. Dr. Mark Friedman inside Temple Beth Tefilloh (photos: Bobby Haven) Our sanctuary was his first temple.” Walking down the long aisle, Friedman pointed out the structural appointments he knows so well. “This raised platform is called the bema. And there is our ark. It looks like an ark if you look at it from the side,” he said. Friedman opened the doors of the ark, the aron kodesh, or cabinet, that holds the temple’s greatest treasure—its hand-written Torahs, containing the Five Books of Moses, known in English as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Rabbi Sol Greenberg and Dr. Robert Miller, holding the Torah, prior to the Rosh Hashanah eve service “These are our Torahs. This scroll is about 150 years old. These other two are both 300 years old,” Friedman said. It’s clear that, while Friedman is familiar with the scrolls, he’s still very moved by their presence. “This one is 300 years old. It is made of deer skin,” he said, as he carefully unrolled it. “They were usually made with the skin of some kosher animal.” Most aspects of these particular scrolls remain shrouded in mystery. That’s even true for Friedman, who serves as the temple’s board president. “I do not know the exact history of our Torahs. We believe that one came from Czechoslovakia, one from Lithuania, one from the Ukraine, one from Poland and one from Russia,” he said. “Two of them are Holocaust torahs, having been given to us by survivors of the Holocaust. These are the two small Torahs that I refer to as the pogrom Torahs. How we got them, I do not know. If only they could talk, what a tale they could tell.” The majority of the Torahs were in Brunswick before Temple Beth Tefilloh was constructed. In fact, there has been a solid Jewish population in the area for centuries. “Then they met at private homes,” Friedman said. That was until 1886, when a group of 21 Jewish families started building the house of worship on Egmont Street. The building is still an awe-inspiring beauty more than 100 years later. But, as with most things, time has taken a toll, and the building needs some structural repairs. Standing inside the sanctuary, Friedman points to the six pillars that provide the support for most of the building, including the temple’s tile roof. “The six piers hold up the upper clerestory (from which light enters the sanctuary). They have pillars of brick underneath the piers, and underneath that there is a crawl space beneath each of them. The brick, however, has sunk into the crawl space. The only thing that is holding up the piers is this thin pine floor,” he said. That’s not the only restoration challenge that the temple faces. Various pieces of wood have eroded. The tile roof, originally placed in 1903, is in desperate need of repair. Many of the stained-glass windows that decorate the temple have cracked with age. A sealant used to increase their durability had the unexpected effect of trapping heat, which makes the building less energy efficient. But the biggest concern for Friedman is the humidity level. Because the building doesn’t have a modern heating and air conditioning system, the humidity level in the sanctuary tops out at about 80 percent. That high level is dangerous for the precious Torahs in the sanctuary. How to donate Donations to the Temple Beth Tefilloh building fund can be mailed to Temple Beth Tefilloh, PO Box 602, Brunswick, GA 31521. Checks should be written to Temple Beth Tefilloh. “The Torahs are our biggest concern. For proper preservation, they need to be housed in an area with 46 to 49 percent humidity,” he said. The congregation is taking steps to renovate its beloved temple. Members developed a master plan to help them assess what needs to be done first. Friedman says the work should begin in late fall. “We’re going to work on the subsurface first. That should start before Thanksgiving. Then we will work on the roof, but we have to wait until Glynn Academy is out of school, because we’ll need a staging area in the parking lot area [shared with the school],” he said. All of the refurbishment will take a great deal of money. The temple board estimates that it will need $750,000 to complete all that needs to be done. Friedman concedes that it is a great challenge. “We’re still in a fundraising capacity,” he said. “The congregation has been very generous, and we have received donations from synagogues in Atlanta. One church on St. Simons Island sent us a check for $1,000.” Still, the temple needs more money. Friedman hopes that the community will rally to the cause. He points out that having a Jewish house of worship is important for community viability. “Our temple, which is alternatively referred to as a synagogue or shul, is the center of Jewish life in a community. Temple Beth Tefilloh is the only synagogue in a 70-mile radius. Many Jews will not move into an area unless there is a nearby synagogue they can worship in,” he said. “Our community has already benefited from having a Jewish population, in terms of the lawyers, doctors, businessmen, teachers, justices, and patrons of the arts we produce. It is necessary to have a thriving synagogue to have a vibrant Jewish community. So supporting our temple has the direct community benefit of attracting a very generous and creative population to our area.” On another level, Friedman hopes that individuals will see the historical significance that the structure brings to Brunswick. “We Americans are often accused of being enamored only with the new. We are often not respectful of our architectural heritage. The sanctuary of Temple Beth Tefilloh is a beautiful monument of the past. Contributing to its restoration is a sign of respect of our past. It is an architectural gem that deserves restoration,” he said.
November-December 2011 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 9 One good reason to observe the High Holidays BY Ron Feinberg I received an e-mail solicitation recently and was just about to tap the delete button when I noticed it was from Yad Vashem, the world-class Holocaust Museum in Israel. They were asking for money and sharing a story. It’s a story worth repeating and remembering. Naftali Stern visited Yad Vashem on Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, in 1978. He had a gift, a few pieces of crinkled paper filled with Hebrew prayers. It was a precious gift, something he had created years earlier, when the world had gone momentarily mad and a little light was needed to brighten the darkness. In the spring of 1944, Naftali, his wife, and four children were swallowed up by the Holocaust, arrested in their little village of Satu Mare, in Romania, and deported to Auschwitz. His family was murdered when they arrived at the Nazi death camp in Poland, and Naftali was shipped off to a forced labor camp in Germany. He was depressed and alone, each moment filled with memories of all that was lost. His world had become a nightmare—little food, no shelter, brutal guards, and backbreaking work digging tunnels and trenches around German fortifications. Surrounded by misery, a vague and distant memory took root in Naftali’s mind. The days were growing shorter, and there was a slight chill in the air. Something stirred inside his heart, and Naftali recalled that soon it would be Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Many would have easily pushed that thought aside, buried it along with their families, neighbors, and villages. Naftali clung to the thought, a very small light in a very gray world. He sold a bit of the food he received one day for a pencil, sold a bit more and managed to purchase some sacks that had once held cement. He ripped the sacks into small squares then slowly began to write the entire Rosh Hashanah service. Perhaps it was simply something that was meant to be. If not, why then did the thugs running the labor camp allow Naftali and other inmates to hold a short service? It was Naftali, of course, the chazzan in his little village shul, who led services that holiday season, his sweet voice chanting the words he had scrawled from memory. For three decades—years after being liberated, starting a new family and immigrating to Israel—Naftali held onto his special mahzor, bringing it out on Rosh Hashanah to both mourn and celebrate his life and faith. Three months after he donated the document to Yad Vashem, Naftali died. It was okay. He knew that his special mahzor—timeworn and frayed, created with love for a people and faith—would be protected. Now, three decades later, it remains on display at the museum. “I pray,” he told Yad Vashem officials, “that each subsequent generation will stay true to their Jewish identity and be a link in a long chain.” It seems to me, if nothing else, simply sitting in shul will honor Naftali’s prayer. That’s a good thing. I’ll worry about figuring out the more cosmic issues next year. May we all be inscribed and sealed for a good year. AMERICA’S BEST CLEANERS TM 4455 Roswell Road Atlanta, Georgia 30342 404-255-4312 www.presstine.com
Page 1 and 2: Happy Chanukah Jewish THE Georgian
Page 3 and 4: November-December 2011 THE JEWISH G
Page 7: November-December 2011 THE JEWISH G

Happy Chanukah - The Jewish Georgian

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?