Temples merge for strength

Over 250 members of two local Jewish congregations got together Sunday, September 9 to mourn the loss of one tradition, then celebrate the start of another.
Temple Israel, of 188-15 McLaughlin Avenue in Jamaica, and Temple Emanuel, of 3315 Hillside Avenue in New Hyde Park, officially merged, ending well over 100 combined years as mainstays in New York’s Jewish community.
To acknowledge the consolidation, temple leaders organized “Strength to Strength,” an event that began with a prayer service at Temple Israel and continued with a mass procession down McLaughlin Avenue. As they walked, congregants carried the temple’s sacred Torah scrolls with them. They then traveled to New Hyde Park and placed the scrolls in Temple Emmanuel, where the new congregation will be housed.
For families who have spent their entire lives in the temples - as many as four generations for some - the sudden change of identity is far from easy. Still, where there could have been bitterness, hopelessness and fear, congregants said they understood the need for consolidation, a trend that has plagued many synagogues throughout the New York area.
“I have never felt such incredible sorrow,” said Ronni Hollander, a Temple Israel member for 55 years, “but this is absolutely the right thing to do for us to survive.”
“It’s always a sad thing for an old institution to have to move on,” said Temple Israel member Howard Hecht, of Fresh Meadows. “But it’s in the nature of life to change.”
Shana Malleck, 17, said she “grew up” in Temple Israel, while Phyllis Newman, of Temple Emanuel, said she had “no words” for the difficulty of the day.
But, added Newman, “It’s what’s in the walls that’s important, not what’s on the walls. And we’re all still here.”
Former Temple Emanuel president Jack Helitzer noted that neither congregation will be lost altogether.
“Neither one of us is taking over the other,” he said. “No one is being absorbed. We’re becoming engaged, and we’re living together as equals.”
Helitzer is right, as far as the new congregation’s structure is concerned. At least temporarily, the new temple will have two rabbis - not a typical practice in a synagogue - and combine the temples’ trustee boards to form the new temple’s board. A process to select a name for the temple will begin in October, with the decision being announced in December.
Rabbi Valerie Lieber, formerly of Temple Israel, said Strength to Strength “ran the gamut” of human emotion, from mournful to celebratory.
“Now that we’re really together, I have a sense that we’re not just going to be two good congregations as we were in the past, but we’re going to be one outstanding one,” she said.