HAMILTON — These days, when Rabbi Dan Selsberg walks down the street in Hamilton, people roll down their car windows to express their joy.
They’re sharing their excitement over the recent renewal at Beth Jacob Synagogue, which officially opened its $1.3 million “shul within a shul” this month.
The project turned a seldom-used social hall into a worship space and made the entire building accessible for seniors, people with disabilities and parents with strollers.
The renovations reflect an overall renewal at Beth Jacob.
Five years ago, membership was down, debt was climbing and parts of the building were crumbling. Today, membership has stabilized at around 400 families, debt has been dramatically reduced and new spiritual and lay leaders have revitalized the congregation.
Synagogue co-president and life-long member Cindy Richter says the congregation’s high keeps getting higher every time they use the new chapel.
“I think we are experiencing a renaissance,” she said. “Rabbi Selsberg and Cantor [Eyal] Bitton are just amazing. We are attracting more families and newcomers feel welcome here.
“We are all excited about continuing our renewal and attracting more people.
The gala to celebrate the new chapel included speeches, the blowing of the shofar and a performance by a klezmer band that included Hamilton’s Mayor Bob Bratina on clarinet.
”People were telling me they have been in Hamilton for 60 years and had never been to a celebration more joyful than that,” said Rabbi Selsberg. “There were lots of tears.”
Rabbi Selsberg carried the Torah scrolls into the new chapel along with Rabbi Daniel Green of the city’s Orthodox Adas Israel Congregation and Rabbi Jordan Cohen of Hamilton’s Reform Temple Anshe Sholom.
“It hit people that for all of our differences, at its core, what we are about is in those scrolls and us carrying them side by side,” Rabbi Selsberg said.
The project made the whole synagogue accessible. Previously, the only level access to the building, which opened in 1956, was down an incline along a gravel path, and there was no elevator.
“The first floor was difficult, and the second was completely inaccessible,” Rabbi Selsberg said. “Now the whole shul is accessible, and it’s beautiful.”
Another pressing issue was the worship spaces. The main sanctuary, seating 660 people, was only filled for the High Holidays or a city-wide Yom HaShoah event. The congregation used a smaller, 70-seat chapel for most Shabbat and daily minyans.
To make smarter use of space and to save money, architect Les Klein designed a new worship space in the social hall, which was getting almost no use at all.
The new 160-seat chapel has movable seats, with the prayer leader in the centre of the room on a level bimah, which is also fully accessible. The entire space is finished in Jerusalem stone, which was quarried in Israel and shipped to Hamilton for this project.
”It’s what people want from a synagogue,” said Rabbi Selsberg. “It feels like an old synagogue, but with all of the amenities.”
