The city’s first synagogue, a little white building with a Byzantine dome, was nestled onto a dolly on Tuesday and escorted a half-mile north to its new home.
A specialty moving truck transported the old Temple Beth Israel to Temple Beth El, whose congregants will restore it after decades of decay.
The move is highly unusual in South Florida, said Todd Bothel, registrar at the Jewish Museum of Florida in Miami Beach. Historic houses frequently are moved and renovated, but synagogues that disband generally sell their property and are razed by the new owner, he said.
But the excellent condition of this 88-year-old temple, made of hollow clay tile, is astounding considering the heat and hurricanes it has withstood, said Steve Yeckes, an architect and Beth El vice president.
“There’s not a crack in it,” Yeckes said.. “We too often destroy buildings that have historic value. Our Jewish heritage links us to these buildings, even if you come from up north or anywhere else.”
The former Temple Beth Israel, founded as a Reform congregation in 1924, closed down parts of Flagler Drive as it made its way to Temple Beth El, a Conservative synagogue at 2815 N. Flagler. Beth El has room for the 900-square-foot, white synagogue because several of its buildings were destroyed in Hurricane Jeanne in 2004 and Hurricane Wilma in 2005.
The city of West Palm Beach designated Beth Israel a historic landmark in 2004, 80 years after a group of a dozen Jewish merchants, most of whom had businesses on downtown Clematis Street, banded together to build the congregation near the Intracoastal Waterway.
The Franke family donated the land and insisted that the temple follow Reform Jewish practices, said Harvey Oyer of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County.
“They were dead-set on it being Reform,” Oyer said. “So it’s ironic that it’s moving to a Conservative congregation.”
The temple has a white Byzantine-style dome, stained-glass windows and a second-floor mezzanine with stairway. Among the names on its cornerstone is Joseph Mendel, the city’s first Jewish mayor. George Greenberg, the late owner of the landmark Pioneer Linens on Clematis Street, was the synagogue’s first bar mitzvah.
Oyer said the building symbolizes an era of religious cooperation that rarely exists in contemporary times. Christians helped raise money to build the congregation and members of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church sang in the temple’s choir because the congregation was so small, Oyer said.
“It shows that a progressive group of unbiased people founded our city,” Oyer said. “It’s a remarkable story, a unique part of our history before we started segregating ourselves by religion.”
After 10 years, the synagogue dropped the “Beth” from its name, and in 1951, Temple Israel moved to 1901 N. Flagler Drive. The old building stayed behind, at 2020 Broward Ave., and became a Greek Orthodox church, home to a Greek civil rights group and a Baptist church.
The church sold the land in 2004 to developer WCI Communities, which paid relocation costs, Yeckes said.
Now Beth El is raising money for the restoration, expected to cost about $650,000. The temple plans to add 400 square feet to create a chapel for small services and add bathrooms and meeting rooms, he said.
Beth El, incorporated in 1926, also is an architectural wonder: Its cavernous, spiraling wooden sanctuary in the shape of a helix helped it be nominated as one of the Top 100 Buildings in Florida by the Florida chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
The synagogue sees the rescue of Beth Israel as part of its mission, said Scott Benarde, a Beth El member.
“It exemplifies reaching out to someone in need, the homeless synagogue,” Benarde said. “We are so happy to be saving a piece of Jewish history.”
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