There is a plaque right in front of the sanctuary of the synagogue I grew up in listing every single person who contributed to building that currently houses the community. Built in the 1990s, the three-story building replaced the small one story one of my youth. Temple Beth Am Israel on the Main Line of Philadelphia was always a small, underfunded synagogue surrounded by the behemoths of Har Zion and Main Line Reform. To build something substantial of their own took a lot of people pitching in with their time, energy, money, and, most importantly, love.
At the beginning of week’s Torah portion, Parshat Terumah, all the Israelites whose “heart moves them/yidbenu libo”(Exodus 25:2) are encouraged to donate to the building of the Mishkan, the ancient tabernacle the Israelites carried with them through the wilderness. To build a sustainable structure requires everyone’s help and support, and everyone’s love.
In 1959, 65-years-ago, our Congregation Shir Shalom building was built. This was most definitely a labor of love by the then Temple Beth Am community. As was the building of Temple Sinai down the street on Alberta Drive. Like my community growing up, neither congregation had unlimited funds or people power. The Amherst and Williamsville suburbs were still new and relatively sparse. Still with “hearts that moved them” they put shovel in ground and made their mark, not just for their own generation, but for ours as well.
Later this year in the Fall we will find a way to honor our founders and their love and commitment that made Congregation Shir Shalom possible. As Todd Sugarman and our board of directors continues our renovation project (I would encourage you to check out the many changes in the building if you have not yet seen them), they do so with a foundation already in place, and in doing so create the foundation for those that will come after them as well. May they be granted strength in these endeavors, just as hundreds of generations before them have been given strength in their own labors of love.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex