This Great Barrington building is the oldest synagogue structure in the Berkshires. Now it needs a new roof | South Berkshires
The historic building on North Street in Great Barrington has been home to Congregation Ahavath Sholom since 1923. The synagogue is holding a fundraiser that includes a screening of “The Catskills” on May 12 to to help pay for a new roof.
GREAT BARRINGTON — In 1923, the members of the Congregation Ahavath Sholom bought a former schoolhouse and carpenter’s shop off North Street.
It was farmers, cattlemen and shopkeepers who started the congregation, and a rabbi from Poland who led it.
They named it “Love of Peace.” Ahavath Sholom is its Hebrew translation.
And they held a klezmer concert to raise enough money to buy the building that has been in continuous use as a synagogue ever since — making it the oldest synagogue structure in Berkshire County.
More than a century later, this congregation again needs to raise more money. This time for the roof.
Congregation Ahavath Sholom is launching a fundraising campaign to pay for a new roof. The building has served as synagogue to Ahavath Sholom, which in English means “Love of Peace.”
The old shingles need to be replaced. Hopefully, the plywood base for the shingles is still solid.
“We’re praying that we don’t have to replace that,” said Rabbi Jennifer Rudin.
A “Raise the Roof” fundraiser, “The Catskills Come to The Berkshires,” will be held on May 12 at The Triplex Cinema.
The evening will feature a screening of “The Catskills,” a documentary about the “Borscht Belt” resorts and bungalow colonies that sprung up in that New York region beginning in the 1920s so people could escape the heat of the city.
“With a trove of lost-and-found archival footage and a cast of characters endowed with the gift of gab, ‘The Catskills’ journeys into the storied mountain getaway north of New York City that served as refuge for Jewish immigrants fleeing poverty as well as a lavish playground for affluent Jewish families,” according to the documentary’s website.
“Stand-up comedians share their best shtick,” it says, “while former waiters, entertainers, and dance instructors recount tales of the family-run resorts and bungalows that inspired films like ‘Dirty Dancing.'”
The culture that developed in the Catskills marked a turning point for Jewish assimilation into the American way of life, at a time of the “gentile-only” resorts that Jews were barred from, Rudin said.
During the Civil Rights Movement and amid segregation in many parts of the country, Catskills resort hotels were also a place where Jewish and Black performers could hone their skills.
The stained glass window on the front of Congregation Ahavath Sholom on North Street in Great Barrington. The building is the oldest continuously used synagogue structure in Berkshire County.
“Many of the great comedians started out as waiters in the Catskills,” said longtime congregation Rabbi Barbara Cohen, who is now rabbi emerita and retired.
“It was the only place Jews were allowed to be, because many of the more upscale resorts out of the city were no Jews allowed,” she said. “And so the Catskills became the magnet.”
The fundraiser will feature live music, singing by Rabbi Cohen, and catering by Great Barrington Bagel Co. and Deli.
The sign on the front of Congregation Ahavath Sholom on North Street in Great Barrington. The congregation began to gather in the early 1920s and was founded by cattle farmers and shopkeepers.
Rudin said that the congregation is hoping to raise $40,000 for this project, one of many over the years to preserve and upgrade the building.
Ahavath Sholom is a Jewish “reconstructionist” congregation. It is a religiously, socially and politically progressive movement that brings religious and cultural Jewish traditions into modern life for anyone who is interested in what Cohen and Rudin describe as an intimate community experience. The congregation currently has 68 members — either individuals, couples or families.
Congregation Ahavath Sholom Rabbi Jennifer Rudin, left, and Rabbi Emerita Barbara Cohen. Rudin said that the congregation is hoping to net $40,000 during its “Raise the Roof” fundraiser.
“We have members who are Jewish; we have members who aren’t Jewish; we have members who, one partner is Jewish and the other partner is not,” Rudin said. “We have members who would say, ‘I don’t know, I don’t know what I am, I don’t know what my connection, is to God,’ and people are free to explore that in a risk free judgment-free way.”
Cohen says the fundraiser is also an opportunity for community support of each other, “even if we are not of that community.”
“It’s really a way to come out and say we are diverse and we are in solidarity with each other,” Cohen said. And to “learn about what it is like to have been a Jew in the ’50s, and what the Catskills was all about, and to support the very fast disappearing permanence of certain things.
“Our building,” Cohen said, “is a beacon, like our eternal light over the [Torah] ark. Our building is a beacon of continuation.”
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