news-record.com

The “For Sale” sign in front of B’nai Israel Synagogue tells only part of the story these days for the Triad’s oldest Jewish community.

Barbara Collins, a lay leader and immediate past president of the congregation, has heard that the synagogue is closed or closing, that the congregation has disbanded.

Nothing, she said, could be further from the truth.

“We’ve recently had four new families join us,” Collins said. “We are growing. We intend on maintaining our presence here in the High Point Jewish community.”

Along with having the building on the market, the congregation of about 70 families on Kensington Drive has also been without a full-time rabbi for nearly two years. Rabbi Jerome Fox, who had served the congregation for nearly a decade, is now at a synagogue in Arkansas.

“We met with him and he knew our financial difficulties and he very graciously said, 'Tell you what — I understand the well has run dry, really,’” Collins recalled. “It was very difficult to say goodbye to him. We gave him a send-off that would please anybody and a lot of us, including myself, have stayed in touch with him.”

A student rabbi from Hebrew Union College in New York comes once a month on the weekend.

“We’re here every weekend with or without a rabbi,” Collins said of Friday and Saturday services. “The word rabbi simply means teacher and as such you do not have to have an ordained rabbi to officiate anything, except wedding ceremonies because of the state requirements. You can have a knowledgeable lay person perform everything, even high holy days. That’s the case for all Jewish congregations.”

A rabbi and cantor, or musician trained to lead the congregation in songful prayer, will oversee services for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which starts at sundown Friday.

The decision to sell the building was practical, Collins said.

“It’s too big for us,” she said. “We have a sanctuary, we have a smaller chapel, we have two levels of classrooms. There is enough room here for a 500-member congregation. We don’t need a building this size.”

Although it draws from neighboring communities, including Lexington, Archdale and Thomasville, the congregation has always been small, Collins said.

The first Jewish congregants in High Point met as early as 1888. They rented space in a number of places — one of the first being over a retailer’s store, the S Robinowitz Store, which sold a variety of items including dry goods and men’s clothing.

The good news for the congregation is that its building has been assessed at $1.6 million — and it’s paid for.

The bad news is that with the recession, some potential buyers think the congregation is willing to give it away.

“People would come in and say, 'Yes we want it’ and offer something so ridiculous it wasn’t worth considering,” Collins said. Others wanted 100 percent owner financing, which she said defeats the purpose.

Among its options, the congregation wants to move to something smaller.

“We can wait for a decent offer, which we are going to do,” Collins said.

Contact Nancy McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nancy.mclaughlin@news-record.com