New shul puts accent on hominess

by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer
06.29.06

Rubin Stone can already see it: an unbroken chain of Orthodox shuls linking the Synagogue of the Suburban Torah Center in Livingston with Ahawas Achim B’nai Jacob and David in West Orange.

“It could be a huge flow,” said Stone, director of internal audit for The Topps Company, the baseball card producer. “The whole area could be populated with no breaks. All of the houses would be accessible to a synagogue. It would open up the entire area and connect us to Livingston. We would become the next Teaneck.”

The area may fall well short of Teaneck’s more than a dozen Orthodox synagogues, but the first step, perhaps, is already a reality: On Shavuot, June 1-3, the Englishtown Synagogue opened the doors of its first permanent home at 37 Buckingham Rd. in the Englishtown section of West Orange.

Thirty families from the area form the core of the new Orthodox congregation, which began as a satellite of AABJ&D, located nearby in the Pleasantdale section of West Orange.

Many of the families have met on Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons “for at least 20 years,” explained David Zeigler, who spearheaded establishment of the Englishtown shul together with Stone. Although AABJ&D is less than a mile away, Zeigler explained, it proved more than people outside the immediate area cared to walk for the three services held on Shabbat, particularly in bad weather or on very hot summer days.

Many of the members have been active at AABJ&D. But it took Stone’s move into the area six years ago, without realizing he had selected a section of West Orange less popular among Orthodox Jews, to see the niche for a new synagogue.

“Rubin inspired us,” said Zeigler.

If the synagogue evolved organically, it was given its ultimate push when a member of the group fell and hurt himself in March 2005 — a blessing in disguise.

“To make him feel comfortable, we decided to have minyan in his house on Shabbos morning every week,” said Zeigler. “We had no problem getting a minyan. So we looked at each other, and we said, ‘This is great. It’s really nice. Let’s continue.’”

The core group moved from home to home for a year, a process that Stone described as “a snowball on top of a mountain. [It] kept rolling to the point where I said, ‘This is a fantastic idea. We have the energy and the inspiration to do this.’”

Last summer, Stone said, “I turned to David and said, ‘Let’s incorporate and give it a shot.’”

Their first services as a trial synagogue community were held in Stone’s home for Rosh Hashana. “A real shul defines itself and gets off the ground the first day of Tishrei,” Stone said.

That gave the pair six weeks to prepare to welcome to services 50 adults plus children. They had to appoint people to lead services, hire baby-sitters, find a rabbi. And they did it. Stone called Rosh Hashana “our coming-out party.”

Things came together for the group after that. “We held a meeting right after Rosh Hashana to take advantage of the energy,” Ziegler recounted, “Everyone was very eager and said, ‘Let’s do it.’ There was a unanimous yes.”

The Englishtown congregation committed to a sum of more than $100,000, according to Stone and Ziegler. In April they found the current site, a 2,600-square-foot house with a brook on one side, a congregant’s house on the other, and no one behind them.

So far, zoning laws have not posed a problem. According to Stone, the synagogue’s lawyer is handling such issues. Whether any complication might arise “is hard to say,” said Geniece Gary-Adams, a West Orange zoning official, in an e-mail. She suggested that one issue could arise from a situation with the shul’s neighbors. “Neighbors within 200 feet of the home need to be notified.”

Within hours of closing on the property, donations starting pouring in — from bookcases and prayer books to mezuzot, lamps, and chairs, plus an ark and two Torah scrolls. Members fashioned a makeshift portable mehitza from Martha Stewart coat racks covered with Martha Stewart sheets and opened their doors for Shavuot three days later.

In the meantime, they have removed a wall dividing the main room from a den to enlarge the seating area. That enabled them to create a women’s entrance through the back door, which leads into the den. They kashered the house’s kitchen and connected a phone. Upstairs bedrooms have been designated as a children’s playroom and a hospitality suite. They also hope to provide visitors’ accommodations, in particular to people visiting family at nearby Daughters of Israel nursing home and the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation.

Dual memberships

AABJ&D has thrown its support behind the fledgling synagogue. “Our shul firmly supports the growth and development of the Englishtown shul,” said AABJ&D president David Cherna. “Many of the Englishtown members will remain members of our synagogue. We believe that a vibrant synagogue on the southern side of Route 280 will serve our members who live there and foster the continued growth of the Jewish community in West Orange.”

The synagogue can accommodate about 65 people plus children, and the congregation is now meeting regularly on Shabbat. There are no daily minyanim — at least not yet. While Stone and Ziegler have visions of hundreds of families, they express delight in the small pleasures of a community their size: Fourteen-year-olds are welcome to lead the prayer service. Children feel comfortable and happy in the sanctuary (which takes up nearly the entire ground floor). Everyone knows everyone, and everyone has a role to play.

So far the synagogue is operating without a rabbi, and the development of many of its ritual practices is still a work in progress. “It’s a real chance for a rabbi to come in and put his stamp on things,” Stone said. “We have no established customs. It’s a place where the rabbi can take a tremendous sense of ownership.”