WHATGIVES Summer 2018

(Top row) Roger Ackerman (Temple Sinai Board President), the late Elizabeth Moses (former SCM Education and Outreach Coordinator), Frank Edwards (President of the
Sumter County Museum Foundation); (bottom row) Annie Rivers (SCM Executive Director), Marlene Denemark (Temple Sinai Board Member).
Temple Sinai’s Transformation
Partners with Sumter County Museum to Become
Temple Sinai Jewish History Center and Holocaust Museum
For the past 104 years, Temple Sinai has stood as a sanctuary and testament to
the success of Jewish people in Sumter County. Lifelong member of the Congregation,
Roger Ackerman moved to Sumter with his wife and three daughters 52
years ago. He says, “I remember when the congregation was 165+ members
strong. We were a very active group – we had a youth group, full Shabbat
services every Friday night and everything else that goes along with having a
strong Jewish congregation.”
Numbers have shrunk dramatically since then. Today, up to twelve people
attend Shabbat services on Friday nights. When the reality implied by that
number descended upon Roger Ackerman in 2005, he decided to write the
Congregation a three-page letter outlining the living history of their membership.
When we spoke to Ackerman, he said all he could think at the time was,
“We should have a living will.”
That same year, the congregation appointed four temple elders to a planning
committee that would make key decisions about Temple Sinai’s future. The
question that everyone wanted answered? Who decides when the temple
closes?
Soon after appointing elders to a planning committee, a friend of the congregation
referred the group to the Charleston Jewish Federation. According to
the group, “Charleston Jewish Federation and KKBE have been very generous
to us.” The congregation has been able to keep the doors to Temple Sinai open
as a direct result of their funds managed by Coastal Community Foundation.
Moving forward, Charleston Jewish Federation will assume the role of tending
to the cemetery beside Temple Sinai. The cemetery predates the Temple edifice
which was rebuilt in 1913 after a fire damaged the original space. However,
until recently, there was no plan for maintaining the historic temple.
Roger’s closest friend in the area, Abe Stern, is a Holocaust survivor. While
consulting about this project together, the two discussed the fact that there is
no permanent Holocaust Museum between Richmond and Atlanta.
6 coastalcommunityfoundation.org