When B’nai Sholom closed in 2019 it was the oldest synagogue in Illinois.
What happened in the intervening years was typical of similar Jewish communities in small towns across the country. Members aged and passed away. Young people found attractive opportunity elsewhere. A large and old building required extensive maintenance.
Help with planning for the future of B’nai Sholom was in sight by the summer of 2015.
That’s when Dr. Michael Buckstein, president of B’nai Sholom, and the congregation’s small remaining membership looked to the Jewish Community Legacy Project. They had heard about the organization from the son of a member who was an officer of the Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley in Indiana. After meeting with JCLP Senior Vice President Noah Levine, they knew they had a kind and well-informed advocate who could direct the congregation through a daunting process.
“It took a long time for us to come to the realization that we needed to close,” said Dr. Bukstein. “We’d been through many scenarios to keep things going and there were just not enough fixes.”
JCLP came in at the right moment to help with the mammoth and sensitive project of closing the temple and determining how best to establish the legacy of this historic Jewish community, whose members included many influential Quincy citizens.
B’nai Sholom’s historic artifacts and documents now reside in Cincinnati at the American Jewish Archives. Minutes of early meetings were written in German, the native language of Quincy’s first Jewish residents.
Some of B’nai Sholom’s monetary assets, including funds realized from the recent sale of the building, went towards legacy endowments managed by the Jewish Federation of St. Louis. An additional endowment went to the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie. The Community Foundation Serving West Central Illinois & Northeast Missouri manages another legacy endowment for programs in that region.
A number of other organizations important to the members of B’nai Sholom received one-time grants, as did JCLP itself. By including JCLP in their Legacy Plans, congregations provide for other communities to receive similar helpful counsel.
After extensive research and communication, the synagogue’s four Torahs were donated to worthy congregations elsewhere, where they are now being cared for and used with appreciation of their origin. One was recently delivered to a shul outside of Jakarta, Indonesia by Kulanu, the international organization that supports isolated, emerging, and returning Jewish communities around the globe.
People from all over the country gathered in Quincy to witness B’nai Sholom’s poignant deconsecration service. The grand Neo-Byzantine structure may have turned from a sacred place to an ordinary one, but those who were members and descendants of members hold strong memories of the sacredness of their B’nai Sholom.
Said Dr. Bukstein, “The process was consuming. JCLP helped us come to grips with what we wanted the legacy of our community to be.”
And the legacy of B’nai Sholom in Quincy, Illinois, will live on.
March 8, 2022