Still a religious house

Maranatha Church of God in Christ has sold the first building of Temple Beth Israel to a Christian church.

By KAREN MULLER
Daily Record staff
CORRECTION: The site of Temple Beth Israel’s first building was incorrect in this story. Its first home was on South Beaver Street.

The Reform congregation hadn’t met downtown in its first building for 11 years when Rabbi Irwin Goldenberg became Temple Beth Israel’s spiritual leader in 1973.

Temple Beth had left North Beaver Street in York and moved to a new building southeast of the city in York Township where many in the Jewish community lived in 1962.

Despite more than four decades of use, the old brick building in York — with its vaulted ceilings, stained glass, arched doors and spire-topped copper domes — was still an elegant reminder of the old country, tucked casually on the end of a strip of row homes.

The building cost the synagogue’s 41 original families about $30,000 to build in 1906.

But by the mid-1950s, two services were needed on High Holy Days for the congregation’s 150 families — and more growth was expected.

And there were no classrooms, so children learned their Hebrew and religious lessons at the Mercantile Club, the old York Collegiate Institute, the Jewish Community Center and later the Massell Manufacturing Co. on South Albermarle Street.

It was time for Temple Beth Israel to find a new place.

Now the building has been sold again, said the Rev. James Smith of Maranatha Church of God in Christ, the owner.

Maranatha worshipped in the old synagogue from 1974 to 1996, when it moved to the stone church at the corner of West and King streets.

Maranatha hoped the move would help it grow and minister better to the community. Attendance had declined to 35 people. About 150 attend today.

“We needed to move to a place that had more foot traffic,” Smith said.

New Holy Chapel Church of God in Christ, led by the Rev. Ronald Banks, is preparing to leave the old synagogue this week, Smith said.

The small Pentecostal church was told 18 months ago the building would be put up for sale, he said, and the church had hoped to buy the building but couldn’t afford it. The nearly 5,000 square-foot building was listed for $135,000, according to Rock Commercial Real Estate’s Web site http://www.rockrealestate.net.

Banks could not be reached for comment.

“He agreed to come here,” Smith said, “and they would share the building with our congregation and raise some money for their own building.”

The new owner is a Christian congregation, Smith said. The church has asked not to be named until the sale is complete.

The building was home for the Orthodox synagogue Adas Israel in the 1960s after Temple Beth moved on. Adas had worshipped in a synagogue at 223 Pershing Ave. until the York Redevelopment Authority bought it to make way for the Park Lane Plaza Project, said York historian Franklin W. Zarfoss in a York County Heritage Trust document.

Adas was the last Jewish congregation to worship at the North Beaver Street building. After that, a handful of Christian churches stayed a while, including two Spanish congregations.

Fairview Full Gospel Missionary Baptist Church met there until it moved to Pine Street. Emmanuel Church of God in Christ — Maranatha’s sister congregation in York — moved in after Fairview.

The building has experienced water damage, the brick needs repointing and the stained glass in the memorial windows needs to be repaired.

But the spire-topped domes still stretch toward the clouds. And the vaulted ceilings are smooth and white.

Still a bit of Europe in a strip of row homes.

Goldenberg said someone from the Jewish community suggested buying the old building and turning it into a museum.

He smiled and said the synagogue had enough to worry about with taking care of its present building, now more than 40 years old.

He turned the pages of a photo album with black and white pictures of the synagogue’s early years.

Familiar faces, familiar names.

Some still worshipping at Temple Beth Israel.

Many who have passed away.

And the synagogue lives on.

Reach Karen Muller at 771-2024 or kmuller@ydr.com.

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