Abstract

Ruth Dancyger, historian of Temple-Tifereth Israel, and Sue Koletsky, director of the temple museum, discuss the history of Temple Tifereth Israel at E. 105th Street in Cleveland, OH. Among the topics covered in depth are the history of Jews in Cleveland, the history of Zionism, the career of Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, including his role at the synagogue and the important part he played in the early Zionist movement, the art and architecture of Temple-Tifereth Israel, the Coventry neighborhood of Cleveland Heights, and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Loading...

Media is loading
 

Interviewee

Dancyger, Ruth (interviewee); Koletsky, Sue (interviewee)

Interviewer

Bell, Erin (interviewer); Calder, James (interviewer)

Project

Project Team

Date

7-2-2008

Document Type

Oral History

Duration

86 minutes

Transcript

James Calder [00:00:00] All right. Okay. All right.

Erin Bell [00:00:04] This is Erin Bell. I’m in the communications building at Kent State, talking with Sue Koletsky [crosstalk]. What did I say?

Sue Koletsky [00:00:11] Kent State.

Erin Bell [00:00:11] Oh, boy.

Sue Koletsky [00:00:12] I thought we were like. I thought you were trying to pretend.

Erin Bell [00:00:17] You can’t trick the audience. I’m speaking with Sue Koletsky and Ruth Dancyger of Temple Tifereth Israel. Both of you could just go ahead and introduce yourselves, state your name and a little bit about your background.

Ruth Dancyger [00:00:32] You want me to go first?

Sue Koletsky [00:00:34] Sure.

Ruth Dancyger [00:00:34] Okay. Well, I’m Ruth Dancyger, and I’m a longtime member of the Temple Tifereth Israel. As were my parents and my grandparents. And my children are now members of Temple Tifereth Israel. That’s where I grew up and got all my formal religious training, sabbath school training. What else did you want me to tell about myself?

Sue Koletsky [00:00:55] You’re the historian.

Ruth Dancyger [00:00:57] Well, I’m the historian of the temple, having written a book called Temple Tifereth Israel at the occasion of the temple celebrating its 150th birthday in the year 2000. And I hope that I’ll be able to answer some questions that may occur to you today.

Sue Koletsky [00:01:17] And my name is Sue Braham Koletsky. I’m the temple director, the museum director at the Temple Tifereth Israel. The temple has a museum that was founded in 1950. And we have over 1500 either religious and fine arts objects, and three venues for that at the Maltz Museum down at University Circle, our landmark synagogue, and also in our synagogue in Beechwood. And I help with the archives as well. So hopefully I’ll be able to answer some of the questions as well.

Erin Bell [00:01:50] Let’s start off talking about the temple’s history. It begins in 1850, correct?

Ruth Dancyger [00:01:57] Yes.

Erin Bell [00:01:58] Go ahead, try to give us. I know this is a huge time span, but maybe a timeline, important dates and events.

Ruth Dancyger [00:02:07] Well, the important date is 1850, which is the year that the temple was first founded by a few hardy souls that came to the United States from a small town in Germany. Its name escapes me right now.

Sue Koletsky [00:02:22] It was in Bavaria, Unsleben.

Unsleben. Yes. Unsleben was the name of the little town from which they came. And at first they met in people’s homes, and then they eventually built a small. They bought. Actually, they bought a small building on Huron Road. And that became their temple for a number of years. I’m not sure of the dates of that, but I don’t know whether you need to have them. I should have if I’d known that this was going to give you the format today. [crosstalk] Well, anyway, they stayed there for a number of years under a group of several leaders. They had. Sometimes they had a rabbi, and sometimes they didn’t. Originally, when they moved into the Huron Road temple, they did have a rabbi whose name was Rabbi Kalisch. And they moved from there to a large temple that they built located on 55th street near Central Avenue. It was called Central Avenue there then. I don’t know whether it’s still called that or not. It was an elaborate building and a beautiful building. And they were definitely a Reform congregation. And as years went by, their idea was to become integrated into the community in which they were living. So that they dropped many of the old traditions and rituals of the more orthodox community, of Jewish synagogues. And they soon outgrew, began to outgrow even that building on 55th street, which you can still see today. It is now occupied by a black church. I think at least it was [crosstalk]. Friendship Baptist Church. Okay. The rabbi whose name is the most outstanding associated with that mid and late 19th century congregation was Rabbi Moses Gries, who was typical of his period of being a classic Reform Jewish rabbi. They discarded the idea of wearing any head coverings or any shawls. And eventually they gave up the teaching of Hebrew in the Sunday school. And their preference was to have a great deal of interaction with the non Jewish community in which they lived. He was so popular that the congregation began to grow to such a large degree. That they began to outgrow that temple on 55th street. And attempted to find a place where they could house, at least where the sanctuary would seat a couple thousand people. And eventually, it took a long time. They didn’t do it in the lifetime. Under the leadership of Rabbi Gries, who retired in 1916 or 1917, at which time they were still on 55th street, still looking for a place where they could move to. Their aim was to move further east into the 105th street area. They had a little difficulty. They found out that there were many owners of different kinds of property that were not interested in having a Jewish synagogue in the middle of the many churches that were there. There was, in fact, at that time, in the late 19th century, a Jewish social club called the Excelsior Club. And there also was a Jewish hospital on 105th street. And the leading powers that be felt that they really weren’t interested in having a Jewish synagogue there. When Rabbi Gries retired, the congregation was fortunate to get the dynamic Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, who was 24 years old at that time, to agree to come from his little synagogue in West Virginia, to come to Cleveland. And by gum, it didn’t take him long to decide that he was going to pick out a place and they were going to move. They had waited for so many years. They had raised all kinds of funds to finance the building of this new building. The piece of property that he was able to obtain was not the most felicitous because it was on two levels and it was a challenge for an architect to really build the building in the way that would be comfortable. The religious school was on one floor and the sanctuary was on another floor. But Rabbi Silver was able to find an architect whose name was Greco, Charles Greco from Boston, who came here having already previously built a synagogue in Cleveland Heights on Mayfield Road called the B’nai Jeshurun, which was a conservative congregation. And he built the temple that is presently there to this day on 105th street. Do you want to add anything?

Sue Koletsky [00:07:48] That’s great.

Ruth Dancyger [00:07:50] Under the leadership of Rabbi Silver, the congregation grew. I think at one time they had a membership of 2500. I guess it would be families, 2500 families that belonged. And they attracted the more social German Jews at that time, although there were plenty of people who put claim to being German and they really were Hungarian. That’s one of the things we laugh about. Rabbi Gries, who was married to a prominent young lady from a prominent German family, would enjoy the fact that people thought he was German, but he wasn’t. He was born in this country, but he came from a nice Hungarian family somewhere in the east, I think New Jersey or something like that. Anyway, that was the beginning of its roots. And the attraction that Rabbi Silver engendered by virtue of his persona cannot be described. You have to really hear his voice and really see his presence to understand why he was so attractive to people. And the interesting thing was he came here with the positive point of view that Zionism was what he was interested in. He felt even before Hitler, this was long before Hitler, that the Jewish people needed a haven because they were never going to be, never going to be accepted fully in the other world outside. And people might as well make up their minds to understanding what their history was, to understanding their language and to understanding the fact that if they had a homeland, it would be better for them all the way around. In today’s world, that’s another story. He immediately reinstituted Hebrew in the classrooms, although he never ever again. They continued not to wear the kippah or the tallit or anything. And he never did either. He always appeared formally attired in a vest, in a business jacket suit. When he stood on the pulpit, he was over 6ft tall and had a leonine head. He had a full head of beautiful hair, and he had a widow’s peak. And he was a very imposing figure. And eventually became internationally known for his contributions to the creation of the modern state of Israel.

Erin Bell [00:10:40] Can you describe what his involvement with that?

Ruth Dancyger [00:10:44] What his involvement was with that? I’m in the process of writing work right now about it, and of course, there’s all kinds of details. He eventually. I can say this, that I’ll start at the end, just before the state was declared by David Ben-Gurion, just at the end. Let me back up a little. He is described in textbooks as the fiery Rabbi Silver. He was as militant about the need for this state. By that time, the Jews were being exterminated in Europe. As you know, the state came into being in 1948. That was three years after the end of the Second World War, just before the United Nations declared that there should be a state of Israel. He and Ben-Gurion shared the chairmanship of what was then called the Jewish Agency. Ben-Gurion was in Israel, and Silver was here. And Silver came upon the scene as an important figure at the time that there was a transition of focus, of activity from Great Britain. Great Britain had been the home of Balfour. You want this whole lesson. You don’t want this whole lesson on the formation of it, because we’re getting away from Cleveland, of Israel. [crosstalk] Well, the thing is, it’s one thing leads to another, so it makes it very difficult for me to edit myself as I’m talking. You’re gonna. That’s gonna be your job, right?

Erin Bell [00:12:36] Well, we should. We should. I know that especially when you’re in the midst of research, you could probably go on.

Ruth Dancyger [00:12:41] Forever, and that it’s not. That’s moving away from Cleveland.

Erin Bell [00:12:46] Well, let’s keep talking about Rabbi Silver and maybe we can do a different interview.

Ruth Dancyger [00:12:49] Well, what I want to say is that Rabbi Silver replaced Chaim Weitzman, the focus of Zionism, moved to the United States, and in the United States it moved to Rabbi Silver in Cleveland. However, his offices during those years were not in Cleveland. He traveled between New York and Washington constantly. Between the years 1942 and 1948, he maintained his contact with the temple, came home every Sunday to deliver an address to the temple. There may have been a few times when he didn’t come home, and he did used to take, during my lifetime as a child and a young lady growing up, he took, I would say, three or four, what was called sabbaticals, where he stayed away for several months at a time . During those times he traveled to Israel and he traveled to different places in Europe. But there was no question that Rabbi Silver was from Cleveland, Ohio, and that he was really the backbone of the Zionist movement in the United States. Now, there will be some people that will dispute that. I know from my own research that if he hadn’t done what he did, he was a great organizer. He organized rallies at Madison Square Garden. He organized rallies at Lewisohn Stadium. He arranged for a whole Christian coterie of people to be Christians, for a Jewish state, that kind of thing. A terrific propagandist for that kind of thing. And he addressed the congress several times because he wanted a congressional resolution to the effect that the United States approved the idea of the need for a Jewish state. That failed time after time, he spoke to the congress. It took three different efforts to finally get that through, but he did that, and he addressed the United Nations. He made a key address to the United Nations, making the case for the establishment of the state of Israel. That was in May of 1947. So he was a very important man, and I feel, actually, that he lost his health during those horrendous years. In the first place the task of his goal was overwhelming, but there was an enormous amount of political bickering in the innards of the Zionist movement itself. Rabbi Stephen Wise, for example, felt that he knew President Roosevelt better than Rabbi Silver knew President Roosevelt. And Rabbi wise. It just made me so furious. When I would read, Rabbi Wise would refer to President Roosevelt, how is the boss doing? You know, that kind of icky stuff. That would be beneath the kind of thing that Rabbi Silver, he was the most dignified person in the world and the most private. A public figure. Private life. Totally private.

Erin Bell [00:16:20] So what was the. How was he received by Clevelanders outside of the Jewish community?

Ruth Dancyger [00:16:27] He was. I would say that he was extremely popular, and not in a back slapping that kind of way, but he was popular in a way of respect. People respected. And if he said something, they were pretty sure it was the truth. He wasn’t always right. Nobody’s perfect. And he made certain judgments from time to time that I have come to see were not particularly meaningful or of great importance. But he was. He was a. He was a real. The kind of character that I wish we had that kind of leadership in. I don’t think that kind of thing exists. It was a different world. And, you know, you didn’t have a 24/7 news which talks about trivia, because there’s so much when. When somebody said something in those days, it was very meaningful. When President Roosevelt spoke at those fireside chats. There are people today who really feel that he was on television. There was no television in those days, but there are people that would swear that he was on television because it was infrequent and it was punchy. When he said something, it meant something. They didn’t giggle and make jokes at each other as they were doing it. And Rabbi Silver was of that particular era. I don’t know what he would be thinking of, what’s going on today? I’ve often thought about that, but many of his pronunciamentos that I have read are very timely. Very timely.

Erin Bell [00:18:04] So my understanding is that, well, first of all, the temple is the result of the split with Anshe Chesed, correct?

Ruth Dancyger [00:18:17] Well, you could say that, yeah, you could say that.

Erin Bell [00:18:20] Okay. Is there anything that you want to add?

Ruth Dancyger [00:18:24] Well, the Anshe Chesed, it had been in existence of just a very short time, I think maybe about a year before that, that split came. And the story is that Anshe Chesed was a little bit more conservative. And so there was a small group that split away. That kind of thing happens all the time and all I think any religious organization sees that happen. It isn’t only the Jews, although we do like to make fun and say Jews, you get two Jews together and you get five opinions, you know, that kind of thing. But that’s true. Anything that has to do with religion is touchy that way. Yes, it did split.

Erin Bell [00:19:01] Okay. And then my understanding is that during the Silver era, there was another split that led to the creation of suburban temple in Beechwood.

Ruth Dancyger [00:19:11] That’s correct.

Erin Bell [00:19:14] Was that a disagreement over Zionism or was it more.

Ruth Dancyger [00:19:17] It was definitely a disagreement over Zionism.

Erin Bell [00:19:21] Okay, what was. Can you summarize that?

Ruth Dancyger [00:19:23] You want me to talk about that? Oh, sure. There always, when you’re in a community, there are always more than one point of view. And Zionism was an emotional issue as well as a practical issue. And many of the descendants of the early founders of Temple Tifereth Israel were those German Jews, and they were. They thought, there was no question about it. They were a snobbish group. They wanted to continue the kind of relationship with the community that Rabbi Gries had. They really, there was a lot of intermarriage. They really would have preferred it, I think, if they could be Unitarians instead of Jews. But they felt a certain loyalty to the fact that their antecedents had founded this temple, and the temple had been founded by people who were not interested in Zionism, their Zion. When that temple was founded, their promised land was the United States of America. And that’s a worthy point of view. That’s okay. They always objected to the fact that their children had to learn the Hebrew alphabet and had to recite the prayers in Hebrew. They felt if they said the prayers in Hebrew, that should be enough. They didn’t have to learn all these other things about it. So there was a split in a philosophy about what should be taught in the Sunday school. And Rabbi Silver was unbending. I will say that he really didn’t know how to make a case in a way that would appear to be compromising and yet wouldn’t compromise. He was more honest than that. He said, I will not compromise. I came here with the understanding. Everybody understood that I was a Zionist. And that’s going to be the point of view that I’m going to express, and I’m going to express it worldwide. And they said, tough. We don’t want a state of Israel. The irony is that the very year that that temple, Suburban Temple, was. What would you say? Consecrated or when they consecrated the sanctuary, that very year was the year that Israel was declared a state. That’s what happened. And for a long time, they struggled. They had a rabbi that was. Well, I know he didn’t know any Hebrew, because I took a trip. I personally took a trip with a group. Many of my friends went over to that temple. And I went to Israel in 1971 with a group from that temple led by that temple’s rabbi, who was a nice guy. But when the guides over there wanted to speak Hebrew to him, he didn’t understand them. He didn’t know Hebrew. Rabbi Silver spoke Hebrew, not Yiddish. He could speak Yiddish, but he spoke Hebrew from the time he was a child. Now, Suburban Temple is just as much, if not more Conservative than Tifereth Israel. You just can’t buck it. I mean, that’s the tide. They were bucking the tide. But it was an emotional slap in the face to Rabbi Silver. He felt that very deeply. However, I must tell you that there were 150 families that left our temple, and there were 150 families that left Anshe Chesed. They were the backbone of Suburban Temple. So they left the other temple, too. It wasn’t only ours, but because Rabbi Silver was the man who he was. People were not even aware. This community thought that Silver’s temple was falling apart, which, of course, it didn’t. But it did take away from some of the families that Rabbi Silver had been very friendly with their parents. So that was a very sad moment in his life. And I do feel that even though the war ended in 45, and he lived until 1963. I always felt that physically, he aged quicker than he should have. He was only 70 when he died, and that’s very young, especially from my perspective.

Erin Bell [00:24:22] What is the meaning of the name of the temple?

Ruth Dancyger [00:24:26] What is the meaning of that? What is the translation?

Sue Koletsky [00:34:30] The glory of Israel.

Erin Bell [00:24:34] So that name was established well before?

Ruth Dancyger [00:24:39] Yes. There are many temples that are called Tifereth Israel, and many that are called Anshe Chesed. All of those have histories.

Erin Bell [00:24:49] You mentioned a couple times about the distinction between German Jews and other Jews in the early 20th century and before. Can you talk about Why that is?

Ruth Dancyger [00:25:03] Yeah, because the German Jews lived in a country, believe it or not, that was very liberal as far as the Jews were concerned. And they were educated. And although the Russian Jews and the Polish Jews were educated in Torah, they were not worldly, because they weren’t permitted. Very few were permitted. That doesn’t mean that there were no schools or secular schools available to certain Jews. But the Jews were definitely isolated in countries like Russia and Poland, in little places called pales of settlement. And in Italy, they were isolated into little communities that were called the ghetto. They didn’t have. Although there were Jewish sections and Jewish neighborhoods in Germany, there was the possibility of them getting out and mingling. And there was an enormous amount of intermarriage in Germany. That’s what part of the problem was. And those people were all highly educated. So I think it had to do with education, because with education comes so many other amenities. It has to do with your culture. And that was the reason.

Erin Bell [00:26:16] And so then when Eastern European Jews start coming over in the later era, it’s perceived as kind of a threat to their reputation. Is that…

Ruth Dancyger [00:26:27] I don’t think they ever felt a threat. No, I don’t feel that they were seen as a threat. They were just seen. As a matter of fact, there were German Jews. You know, the Jews mostly went to New York. There were German Jews in New York that set up, like, the Jewish educational alliance. What am I thinking of? Settlement houses where these eastern Jews should come. They were encouraged to come, to become educated there. They wanted to bring these people along, but at the same time, they felt that there was a difference in their culture, but they were kindly to them. They never felt threatened by them. I never felt that that was the case. They didn’t feel threatened.

Erin Bell [00:27:13] Okay, and what about interactions with other ethnic groups? In Cleveland’s earlier history, Jews often lived with Italians and other European immigrant groups. And at some point, those groups kind of split up or gelled into more distinct.

Ruth Dancyger [00:27:32] You know, that’s something that occurred in my lifetime. This ethnic thing when I was a child. Now this has nothing to do with the Euclid corridor, but this is about life. When I was a child, the household help that we had in the north here was not black. They were Europeans mostly. And many of them came from Eastern European places. And those girls that used to work in my parents home and in my parents home was no different than many others. Used to hurry through doing the dinner dishes so that they could go down to John Hay high school where classes were given in English and American speaking English and American history. Everybody knew what it was to be an American. That’s not so today. This ethnic thing, I don’t know why they did that. I don’t know why that happened. But I think this business, nobody would think that you should have. That I should pick up the phone and someones going to start talking Spanish to me over the phone. That was unheard of. You came to this country to become an American. I don’t think the kids today know what it means to become an American that are coming from these other places. They cherish the isolation. These are cycles. I hope its only a cycle because I think its to our detriment.

Erin Bell [00:28:59] Let’s go back and focus on the actual building of the temple. You mentioned that it was designed by Charles Greco.

Ruth Dancyger [00:29:08] Greco.

Erin Bell [00:29:11] What are some of the amenities in the building? Well, first, can you describe the architecture?

Ruth Dancyger [00:29:19] Well, the architecture is certainly what we would call Middle Eastern. You know, have you ever been to Turkey? Have you been to the Middle East? Well, you see a lot of domes there. Well, we have a dome. So it’s a Byzantine architecture, I would say, and I would say that the accoutrements inside. What would you say? That’s Sue’s field.

Sue Koletsky [00:29:46] It is a Byzantine building. It has some kind of. Almost has a Moorish feeling. Also there’s, as Ruth said, a dome. The dome that you see from the outside is, has a beautiful golden look to it. And it’s made out of individual tiles that have a gold aspect to it. [crosstalk] No, not an aspect. A glaze. An actual glaze. It’s ceramic, so it’s glazed and so it actually glistens. It happens that it’s a double dome. So that the outside dome is on the outside, obviously. And then the interior there’s a dome, but you can walk in between. There’s a hallway between the two domes. And there are stained glass windows that are there that some of them get natural light and fluorescent light. So the windows on the top are always giving the effect that there’s light pouring through. And the windows on the bottom near the balcony actually came from our last building, which was described on east 55th. And one of those sets of windows that are memorial windows, are from 1900, and another one is from 1903. They were donated by the Temple Women’s Association and also the Hayes family. So we brought some things from that building, from the other building. Another thing that we brought from that building is a plaque that Judah Touro had given our congregation $3,000. And he was a Jewish merchant that lived in New Orleans. And when he passed away, he bequeathed many congregations money at the time, which was a huge amount, so that they could continue to build new buildings for their congregation. So that was very helpful for our temple. And there’s a plaque in that building in honor of that gift. On the inside of the building, there’s a beautiful bimah, which is carved out of walnut. And on the bimah, which is the platform where you have the ark. And the ark is central to the architecture of the synagogue. So that’s carved out of a beautiful, beautiful walnut. And there’s, on each side of the ark are the ten commandments. And then at the top of it in an arch is the Shema. And then there are four Torah scrolls in the ark that we have in that building. There’s a lot of. There’s a balcony in that building that’s also carved out of. And it’s reformed congregation. So the balcony was not intended for women’s seating, but for family seating. And the seating is 1900 people. What else would you like to know about the interior of the building?

Erin Bell [00:32:41] I understand there was a library and a gym in the original plan.

Sue Koletsky [00:32:46] Do you want to talk about that? The original plans?

Ruth Dancyger [00:32:51] I don’t think that the gym was ever built. Would you say that Mahler Hall was not the gym?

Sue Koletsky [00:32:56] No, Mahler Hall was downstairs, they said. I mean, there was a book written that was called the Shul with the pool, actually. And that was.

Ruth Dancyger [00:33:03] That was not our temple.

Sue Koletsky [00:33:04] Well, but our temple was involved with that. Yeah, because it was the idea of institutional Judaism with Rabbi Gries. Exactly what you were talking about.

Ruth Dancyger [00:33:13] Certain plans and certain ideas had been expressed during the lifetime of Rabbi Gries. But when Rabbi Silver came, he turned it around, abandoned the idea of the gym. But you’re right. I remember we did go back to the inner workings of the temple, and I think that we saw what appeared to be showerheads and stuff. They were planning to put a gym there, but the gym never materialized.

Sue Koletsky [00:33:40] Actually, it could be where the. Where the museum gallery is now, which is kind of a middle floor in between, could have been considered where the pool was going to be, because that’s where the showers are very near, or some kind of gym. It’s not that big. But that was never. It was never.

Ruth Dancyger [00:33:57] It never created that way. But there is a huge hall there, which is a social hall. It’s also in the building. And at one time in my childhood, and even when I was an adult, there was a stage there, you know, that came down. I don’t know. I think it came down when they built Luntz Auditorium

Sue Koletsky [00:34:14] In the fifties, the building was expanded in the fifties to house a very large religious school and an auditorium. Luntz Auditorium.

Ruth Dancyger [00:34:26] And that’s modern.

Sue Koletsky [00:34:28] That’s much more modern. I mean, it fits onto the building, but it’s in a very much more modern style.

Erin Bell [00:34:35] And is that where the orchestra performed? There were orchestra performances in the temple, or is this.

Ruth Dancyger [00:34:41] Oh, there were chorus, choirs and members participation in the orchestra? Yeah, it was in my lifetime, as far as I know, it may have existed, but I was unaware of it. I think there was extracurricular activity, having an attachment to the religious school. Maybe people could come down there and they did have an orchestra. I remember. I think I have a picture of it. But that orchestra, the orchestra was viable mostly during the time that they were on 55th street, because Rabbi Silver stated when he came that it was going to be a house of worship and study, and we were not going to have secular activity there. He did allow dances of the confirmation class dance and that kind of stuff, but he did not want frivolous things going on in that building.

Sue Koletsky [00:35:39] Yet when you read the Temple Times articles from those years, there were amazing people that came in and spoke. So there was a variety of programming where he brought in political speakers and historians and artists. So there’s always been, and that’s been a very important part of our congregation to bring in a lot of culture and have lively discussions and learn.

Ruth Dancyger [00:36:08] That was before the days of television. And any famous author who wanted to sell his book would welcome an invitation from our temple to come and speak. And we had MacKinlay Kantor, who was a Pulitzer Prize author, wrote a book called Andersonville. He spoke there. And Bennett Cerf, who was the editor of Random House, spoke there. All the kinds of people that you would see on television today used to be registered out of New York to come and speak at various venues. And our temple was one of the major places they came. The Temple Women’s Association had a major meeting every month on Wednesday from September to May, during the winter fall and winter spring season.

James Calder [00:37:05] Can I ask a quick question just before we get too far away from the actual building, along with sort of the description, what was your, I guess, maybe more of an impression, or what was like sort of the emotional response to the building? Do you have any memories, either of you?

Ruth Dancyger [00:37:21] Absolutely, and I’m sure that Sue does. To this day, when people come, particularly people who are not Jewish, they are bowled over with that sanctuary. And I will tell you it’s in great need of rehabilitation. But part of it is, of course, its vastness, that domed feeling when you come in there, for one thing, and also the fact that even if its a cloudy day, the stained glass windows, illuminated artificially as well as from the outside, are always visible. I don’t know if you’ve been to any churches in Europe. Well, you go into these wonderful chapels in Europe and cathedrals in Europe. If you go there at night, you don’t see anything. It’s just like blanks. That’s not true in our sanctuary. And, you know, the Jewish holidays begin in the evening, so you’re in there in the evening, and those windows are always illuminated. The reaction to that sanctuary is totally emotional, and people adore coming in there. There’s one other temple that I’ve been in, and that’s Temple Emmanuel in New York City, that gives you that same effect. And it isn’t as the architecture itself in the sanctuary isn’t as beautiful as ours, but their windows are beautiful.

Sue Koletsky [00:38:52] It has a very spiritual feeling to it. When you walk in, you just kind of pause and kind of drink it in. And even though it’s large in the sense that it can seat 1900 people, there’s an intimacy, too, because it’s a seven sided building. And I don’t know if that’s what makes it kind of feel enclosure. Right.

Ruth Dancyger [00:39:17] It envelopes you.

Sue Koletsky [00:39:19] Yeah, it almost hugs you in a way. It makes you feel very secure. And if

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Download

Share

COinS