Synagogues merge to form Temple Beth Ahm Yisrael
 , NJJN Staff Writer | 01.17.08

As the ark closed for the last time, someone muttered under his breath, “That’s it.” People stifled sniffles and tears, kissing Temple Israel’s Torah scrolls as they made one final procession around the sanctuary.

 
 

Members of the Scherzer family, longtime members of Temple Israel in Union, listen as Jeff Scherzer, who coordinated the merger, spoke to the crowd gathered at Temple Beth Ahm. Photos by Johanna Ginsberg
   

Jill Aroeste of Union, a member since 1986, sighed heavily as she watched the scrolls and their escorts leave the building, and then slowly prepared to leave the building herself. Her eyes welled up with tears.

“It’s sad. It’s bittersweet,” she said. “There’s memories here. My son was bar mitzva’d here. Rabbi [Meyer] Korbman married me. He did my husband’s funeral. It’s just sad.”

On Jan. 13, Temple Israel, a Conservative synagogue in Union, closed its doors and merged with Temple Beth Ahm, a Conservative congregation in Springfield just over two miles away. In addition to bringing its Torah scrolls (except for one, donated to the Highland Park Minyan), Temple Israel is installing in its new home its yahrzeit plaques, which will be affixed to the walls of the temple, as well as artwork and Holocaust artifacts.

What its members bring are memories. Temple Israel – originally known as Temple Israel of Irvington, Maplewood, and Union – began in a storefront in Irvington. It moved to Morris Avenue in Union in the early 1960s; at its peak, membership reached as high as 500.

But as Union’s Jews moved west, congregation membership numbers dwindled, until it was difficult to find a minyan even on holidays. The number of members at the time of the merger was 125. Temple Beth Ahm, before the merger, had 450 member families. The post-merger congregation will be known as Temple Beth Ahm Yisrael.

In a procession to mark the union, congregants drove the Torah scrolls from Temple Israel to Temple Beth Ahm. As each one arrived, it was greeted with a blast of the shofar. Then the sifrei Torah were marched down the sanctuary’s center aisle, welcomed by singing children and more shofar blasts. The mood at Beth Ahm was markedly lighthearted, even cheerful, in stark contrast to the atmosphere at Temple Israel.

 
 

The merger was celebrated at a festive luncheon at the newly named Temple Beth Ahm Yisrael.
   

Although Temple Israel’s Rabbi Meyer Korbman chose not to attend the continuation of the ceremony at the synagogue in Springfield, he received a standing ovation from the standing-room-only crowd. Before leaving Temple Israel earlier in the day, he said he would not join Beth Ahm, although he was offered the position of rabbi emeritus. He did not hide his disappointment.

“It’s a very uncomfortable feeling under the circumstances. I didn’t retire. They retired me because financially or otherwise they felt they couldn’t keep up this edifice, this particular house of worship. That’s what I was told,” he said. “And after 38 years, okay you know…. I was willing to stay as long as they wanted to keep this temple going. I was willing to stay. I had no problems with it. But the decision was not in my hands. The decision was with the trustees, and they made a decision which they thought was best for them.”

Korbman is slated to be honored by B’nai B’rith at its annual dinner-dance, to be held in June at Beth Ahm.

Among those gathered at the ceremony at Beth Ahm was NJ Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R- Dist. 21).

Before going into the festive luncheon in the Springfield temple’s social hall, decorated with balloons, Temple Israel past president, Esther Avnet, who carried one of the scrolls, said, “It’s a very emotional day, but we have a place to go. We had a choice. Instead of being locked out of somewhere, we have a home,” she said. Of the feeling she had carrying the Torah scroll, she said, “You can’t put it into words. It’s in your heart.”

Beth Ahm members were more upbeat about the merger. “I think this is great. We just got a lot of new members who want to be involved,” said Tracy Smith.

For Leslie Fried-Rubin, it was kind of a homecoming. Having grown up at Temple Israel, but now a member of Beth Ahm, she said, “I know everyone. It’s kind of nice to know that if the old place is gone, all of our things and all of the people are all here now,” she said, chuckling as she pointed out several sets of parents of old boyfriends walk past on their way into the festivities.


 Local stories posted courtesy of the New Jersey Jewish News