When the members of Emanuel Jacob Congregation in Mansfield, Ohio, gather this year to observe the High Holidays, the congregation’s cherished spiritual leader will as ever conduct services. They will not, however, assemble in their longtime synagogue building, which was recently sold. Instead, a member will graciously host the community in a different space. The congregation anticipated this transition as part of its legacy plan, developed by synagogue leadership during a six-year relationship with JCLP.
Mansfield, situated in North Central Ohio between Columbus and Cleveland, had experienced the sort of attrition familiar to many Jewish communities of its size outside urban centers. Emanuel Jacob itself was the combined name resulting from a merger of the former Temple Emanuel and B’nai Jacob in 1987. The Mansfield Jewish community dates back to 1870.
The congregation is fulfilling a commitment to continue on in another location in Mansfield more suitable to current circumstances in accordance with a legacy plan which considers multiple eventualities.
As Emanuel Jacob Congregation continues its life as a smaller community, there is much to do to assure its legacy.
Looking after the congregation’s archives was an early step, as was reducing the holdings of books and religious objects, including precious Megillot and Torahs.
“JCLP has been essential in connecting us to its partners,” says Emanuel Jacob president Dr. Paul Hyman who, along with the board of directors, crafted the legacy plan.
And so, the records of Emanuel Jacob’s long history are now preserved at the Columbus Jewish Historical Society.
After retaining what was needed for Emanuel Jacob’s continuing operation, there was still a wealth of other religious objects in need of new homes. The congregants were energized by the mission of Kulanu, a JCLP partner dedicated to supporting isolated, emerging, and returning Jewish communities.
A Torah from Emanuel Jacob will now become the treasured centerpiece of a Jewish community in Cote D’Ivoire. Shabbat candles nestled in candlesticks blessed over by Mansfield families will illuminate Jewish practice in Ghana. And Jews in the Philippines will read Megillat Esther from the same scroll as generations of Ohioans. Tefillin and talesim from Mansfield will be used in Northern Uganda. Closer to home at The Anusim Center in El Paso, Texas, books from Emanuel Jacob will help educates descendants of Sephardim expelled from Spain who wish to reclaim their Jewish ancestry.
While Emanuel Jacob Congregation may no longer have a discrete building, the intangible spirit of the people who worshipped and celebrated in that place now reaches far beyond North Central Ohio.
Additional points of the legacy plan will be accomplished as the community transitions to what might be considered a new normal. As Dr. Hyman told the Columbus Jewish News, “we’re not shutting down as a congregation, we are shutting down as the owner of a particular building.”
September 20, 2022