Buffalo synagogue plans $12M capital campaign and renovation project:
https://buffalonews.com/news/local/b...a37c1933a.html
"Buffalo’s largest synagogue is undertaking a $12.4 million capital campaign and two-phase renovation project at its historic main building on Delaware Avenue north of downtown Buffalo.
Temple Beth Zion has largely completed the first portion, focused largely on needed maintenance and repair work, after raising $3.2 million that was then matched by the Benderson family, owners of Benderson Development Co., and longtime members of the congregation.
Now it’s pursuing the second phase, after more than two years of planning and discussion, about what to do with its uniquely shaped building and campus at 805 Delaware in a prominent block of mansions between Summer and Barker streets.
“We took a really hard look at the status of 805 Delaware,” said Kenneth Polk, the synagogue’s board president. “We weren’t in a place where we could be really proud of our building.”
The second part, expected to cost $6 million, involves more of an “investment in our future,” Polk said, citing both endowment-building and a desire to revive the campus. That will include renovating the Fink Auditorium, named for a former longtime rabbi, which “really looks like it did back in the 1960s.” Leaders also want to enhance the technology infrastructure and security.
lans call for moving the synagogue’s administrative headquarters and offices from its Amherst building – which it has maintained as a suburban presence since the 1950s – to new space in the downtown building. That would include relocating the rabbi, new Cantor Susan Lewis-Friedman, new Executive Director Mark Hayman and other staff, as well as conference and committee rooms, a Judaica gift shop and family activity space.
However, Polk stressed that there is no current intention to close the Aaron and Bertha Broder Center for Jewish Education, located at 700 Sweet Home Road and named for a Benderson family member. The building is still used for monthly services and religious study. But it’s 90% occupied by the Buffalo Hearing & Speech Center under a lease through 2028.
“We’re in no way abandoning the suburbs,” Polk said. “We really believe that if we build it downtown, they will come. The building doesn’t represent everything, but the building is a big part of the way that we can service our members and our community.”
Beth Zion is a Reform synagogue and one of the oldest congregations in the country, with a history dating to 1850. Originally located on Niagara Street, it moved to 599 Delaware in the 1880s, where the congregation built a landmark with Byzantine architecture, Medina brownstone walls and a large copper-covered half-sphere dome.
However, that building was destroyed by a fire in 1961, leaving the congregation temporarily homeless until it completed its new synagogue in 1967. The current building featured a 1,000-seat sanctuary with scalloped walls, 60-foot ceilings, a pair of 30-foot-tall tablets for the Ten Commandments, stained-glass windows and an organ, as well as an auditorium, a chapel and the recently expanded Cofeld Judaic Museum.
It’s also on the National Register of Historic Places. “We know it’s a symbol of TBZ and a symbol of Jewish Buffalo,” Polk said. “So what can we do to enhance that feel of a Jewish campus?”
The first part of the project centered around needed repairs and years of “deferred maintenance” at the synagogue, which has faced many of the same financial challenges as other religious institutions.
The exterior and interior work included repaving the parking lot, repairing the entrance stairs to the building, installing a new $2.1 million HVAC system, repairing two leaky roofs, putting in more handicapped accessibility for entrances, enhancing the landscaping, and power-washing the building to clean off years of accumulated dirt.
“They’re not fun things and not exciting things, but we found a way to get our donors excited about them,” Polk said, citing a Rosh Hashanah service two years ago when heavy rains leaked through the skylights in the sanctuary and ran down the cement walls.
Leaders were able to raise over $3.2 million from individual donors, including the Zemskys, Gordon Companies and the Fierstein family, and then got the match from the Bendersons. Out-of-town donors and other local entities have also participated, including the Baird Foundation.
The synagogue also obtained a $50,000 National Fund for Sacred Places Intervention Grant, which is funded in collaboration with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and a $25,000 grant from the New York State Landmarks Conservancy’s Sacred Sites Program."
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