Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple breaks ground for the future

by Marilyn Silverstein
NJJN Middlesex Correspondent

New Brunswick’s Livingston Avenue was awash in a sea of yellow and orange plastic hard hats on Sunday, Feb. 29, as several hundred people gathered in front of Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in anticipation of ground-breaking ceremonies for the congregation’s $10 million expansion.

“Building the Future,” announced the legend on the hard hats. And that, Rabbi Bennett Miller told the throng, was exactly what the 145-year-old Reform congregation would be doing.

“This is a wonderful day of celebration and beginnings,” Miller said as the brief ceremony got under way. “We’re all here today not to celebrate the past, but to build on it.”

The two-stage construction project will include renovations of the synagogue’s school, sanctuary, social hall, and seminar rooms, as well as the addition of a two-story building featuring a stadium-style amphitheater, according to the rabbi. To date, the congregation has raised more than $7.5 million for the project, with more than 80 percent of the 600-family congregation contributing to the Legacy Campaign. “The truth is,” he said, “we’re right on target for all our dreams.”

It is particularly fitting that the Torah reading for the Shabbat just ended was the portion Teruma, the rabbi said. “Teruma is a Torah portion in which God says to Moses, ask all the people to bring freewill offerings to create a mishkan, a tabernacle, a place where the divine presence can dwell,” Miller said. “And that’s what we’re doing — making a tabernacle where the divine presence can dwell in the 21st century.”

Congregational president Harvey Stone called the ground-breaking a truly historic moment for the congregation. “We had a choice,” he told the crowd. “We chose to dig our roots deeper into New Brunswick and make this synagogue, this community, this Anshe Emeth an even more spectacular place than it’s been in the past.”

Added Jane Cantor, immediate past president of the congregation, “The planning and anticipation have been so sweet. All of us have been planning and anticipating this day for three years now,” said Cantor, who spearheaded the expansion project. “I thank everyone for participating in the dream.”

With that, Cantor and Stone dug their shovels into the earth in front of Anshe Emeth, as associate Rabbi Neal Gold marked the moment by leading the crowd in a recitation of the Sheheheyanu, the traditional Jewish prayer of thanksgiving. “This is truly an awesome moment in our lives and the life of our community,” Gold said.

Legacy Campaign cochair Leonard Littman was among the hundreds on hand to mark that moment.

“I think it’s fabulous,” said Littman, a resident of Highland Park. “It’s a regeneration of the temple that’s been here for so many years.”

Lee Livingston of East Brunswick, Littman’s cochair, agreed. “What it means is that the congregation is once again investing in the future,” said Livingston, a past president of Anshe Emeth. “We’re probably the only growing urban congregation in New Jersey.”

Gerrie Bamira, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County, was also among the celebrants. “We’re excited for the members of Anshe Emeth,” she said. “We take pride in their growth and expansion. Their strength is our strength.”

For Felice Schrager of Highland Park, it was a moment to think of her grandchild. “It means to me a continuation of the temple for our future generations,” said Schrager, who recently completed 17 years of service on the congregation board. “I do have a grandchild and I am thinking ahead.”

Harvey Hauptman of North Brunswick, chair of the architectural committee, was also thinking ahead. “Putting the shovel in the dirt is just the first step,” he said. “We have a long road to go. It’s a great step into the future. It’s going to be great for all the generations and for our little kids growing up.”

For Jack Borrus of Princeton, a member of Anshe Emeth for some 40 years, it was “a very special moment.”

“It’s melding the old and the new,” said Borrus. “We feel connected to Anshe Emeth. As a result, we come long distances to be a part of it.”

In fact, said Stone, Anshe Emeth is a magnet, drawing Jewish families to New Brunswick from all over central New Jersey.

“The congregation had an option of moving, and we chose not to do that,” said Stone, a resident of East Brunswick. “If we had moved out of New Brunswick, we would just be another suburban congregation. We would have lost the sense of history we have.

“So the congregation decided to stay,” he said, “and it’s inspired a lot of other religious institutions to do what we’re doing. In my view, New Brunswick is becoming a renaissance city — all of which plays into what we’re doing here.”

And how was he feeling, now that the expansion project was under way? Stone gazed up at the old stones and classic facade of the 75-year-old sanctuary. “I love this place,” he said. “I’m a happy man.”

Marilyn Silverstein can be reached at msilverstein@njjewishnews.com.