Temples continue merger trend

After more than half a century as mainstays in Queens’ Jewish Community, Temple Israel and Temple Emanuel will hold their final services as independent institutions.
The temples have announced that they will merge as of September 9 as a result of dwindling membership, creating a new congregation to be housed at the former Temple Emanuel.
The Temple Israel building, located at 188-15 McLaughlin Avenue in Hollis, will be sold, and members of the Temple’s congregation will attend service at 3315 Hillside Avenue in New Hyde Park, currently the location of Temple Emanuel. The new congregation formed by the joining groups will rename Temple Emanuel in the coming weeks.
On Sunday, September 9, members and leaders from each congregation will hold Strength to Strength, an event to celebrate the groups’ new beginnings. The event will begin at Temple Israel at 10 a.m., where congregants will carry the sacred Torah scrolls in a procession about six blocks along McLaughlin Avenue. Participants will then drive to Temple Emanuel and engage in a similar procession at 11:45 a.m., ultimately placing the Torah scrolls inside Temple Emanuel, where they will stay.
The Strength to Strength event, explained Rabbi Randy Sheinberg of Temple Emanuel, gets its name from a Hebrew phrase uttered at the completion of each of the five books of the Torah, which are recited in small sections at each service.
“In English, the phrase means, ‘May we be strong, and may we continue to be strengthened,’” said Sheinberg. “It’s about continuity, but at the same time, new beginnings.”
The event will mourn the loss of each individual congregation, but also celebrate the strength each possessed, as well as the strength the two will have when joined together, said Rabbi Valerie Lieber of Temple Israel.
It will culminate when teenage members of the congregation place the scrolls in the arc at their new temple. The schools associated with each temple merged last year, so students are more familiar with the changes than elder members of the congregations.
“[The students] really led us in a way,” said Lieber. “They were brave leaders of consolidation. Letting them play such a big role in the [Strength to Strength] event is a message of gratitude to them, but also a message that the children are our future.”
The future is an important concept for Jewish people in Queens, who have seen a significant drop-off in numbers in recent years. Sandy Reisman, President of Temple Israel, pointed to a study presented by the Union for Reform Judaism.
“Between 1990 and 2000, the Jewish population in Queens dropped over 20 percent,” said Reisman. “And that’s even with the rise in Orthodox Judaism.”
The study ended in 2000, said Reisman, and the numbers have plunged even lower in the seven years since, as demographics have changed and different cultures have become more prevalent in Queens.
Reisman said it would “feel terrible” to say good-bye to Temple Israel, but that the move had to be made to support a single congregation. In its heyday, Temple Israel had over 600 families. Today, it has fewer than 200.
“I don’t like the idea of change much, but it will have to happen, and I’ll accept it,” said George Cohen, who was a founding member of Temple Emanuel when it opened in 1950. “I’ll have to.”
Cohen, who has lived in the same house in New Hyde Park for as long as Temple Emanuel has been around, realizes that consolidation is the only way to strengthen the Jewish community.
“Between the two congregations, we’re gonna go places and do things,” said Cohen. “And we’ll attract a lot more people.”
Vivian Flock, a member of the Temple Israel congregation, said feelings among her peers are mixed, but generally positive.
“We’re doing this because it will enable us to continue as a congregation,” said Flock. “It will enable our children to continue their studies…people will always have reservations when there is change, but at the same time, this change will allow people to continue doing what they’ve always done.”
Positive energy has already begun to permeate, said Flock. The new temple will open its doors by holding an open house Tuesday, August 28 at 7 p.m.
In the end, said Sheinberg, the change is not as great as it seems.
“The congregation doesn’t equal the building, it equals the people,” said Rabbi Sheinberg. “We know it’s the connection to the people that is even more important than the connection to the building, and we’ll still have that.”