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March 19, 1999/2 Nisan 5759, Vol. 51, No. 25
Five decades of worship
Temple Beth Sholom celebrates 50 years as the East Valley's only Conservative synagogue
TAMI BICKLEY
Staff Writer
Congregants at Temple Beth Sholom attend the dedication of their new sanctuary in December, 1986, with former Rabbi Manuel Armon leading the service. The building is on LeSueur Street in Mesa.
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A man walked into a jewelry store in Mesa 54 years ago, and uttered, "Shalom alechem" to a woman behind the counter.
Jonas Schleifer's greeting to Blanche Marks launched a conversation about Judaism and the lack of a nearby congregation. Their bemoaning the lack of a Jewish house of worship in their neighborhood gave birth to an idea that would soon spread among the East Valley's Jewish community, and lead to the founding of Temple Beth Sholom in Mesa.
As congregants and others involved in the temple celebrate the congregation's 50th anniversary this month, many are also reminiscing about Beth Sholom's history.
Schleifer and Marks, who are deceased, visualized a Conservative synagogue that would bond their Jewish friends and neighbors in a religious and social way, say local Jewish historians. So they reached out to the East Valley's Jewish community and organized informal meetings with several families over the next few years. One such meeting, following a community Passover seder, resulted in the approval of a motion to form the Jewish Community Group of Mesa.
Within one year, in 1949, the group obtained a charter for a Conservative synagogue from United Synagogue of America. They named it Congregation Beth Sholom.
The tiny congregation of 10 families, with no rabbi, cantor or building, worshipped in one another's homes, in the greenhouse at Rendezvous Park for one year, and in the chapel of Gibbons Mortuary the following year.
In 1958, members purchased a building from First Christian Church, at First and McDonald streets in downtown Mesa, where for about 25 years, the congregation expanded and thrived. At this time, the name of the congregation was officially changed to Temple Beth Sholom.
"When we joined the temple in 1966, the building was very small, and the sides of it were railroad cars that were held together and upright by a turnbuckle," says Corrine Brooks, who, along with her late husband, former Mesa Mayor Sumner "Al" Brooks, represented the second of four generations of Beth Sholom congregants.
"But that building served us well. The temple was really the social life of the Jewish community here, and there was always something going on," Brooks recalls.
The temple's first spiritual leaders were laymen and then seminary students. The congregation received its first rabbi, Morris Kertzer, in 1973.
Today, Rabbi Bonnie Koppell, the temple's fourth rabbi, leads the congregation, which moved in 1986 to its current facility at 316 S. LeSueur St., also in downtown Mesa, a building the congregation purchased from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Temple Beth Sholom had left the small, condemned building on McDonald Street in the early 1980s, and had been holding services at Lakeshore Mortuary, Queen of Peace Church, and a couple different LDS wards (including the former 13th Ward building that Beth Sholom eventually purchased). The facility was dedicated on the second day of Hanukkah in December 1986. In August of 1987, Koppel was named the temple's first female rabbi.
"One of our goals now is to move into an even larger building by the end of this year," says Koppell. "Our congregation is always growing, so (we) need a bigger piece of property."
The prospective location is a church building in Chandler, but there are no official plans to move the congregation at this time, Koppell says.
Even if the temple does uproot to Chandler, it will remain the only Conservative temple in the East Valley. "That's a nice thing for us," Koppell says. "People who come to this synagogue are clearly looking for a Conservative synagogue, an alternative to Reform synagogues. It makes it easier for us to define who we are."
Who the members and affiliates of Beth Sholom are now and what they want to accomplish mirror the hopes of Schleifer, Marks and the 10 families who started the congregation 50 years ago. They want a place to pray and to call their own, a place to express their religious beliefs, and a place where they can learn and socialize in a familiar environment.
Temple Beth Sholom has 170 families as members. Its Shabbat services, a growing religious school and adult education classes fulfill the congregation's desire to educate the Jewish community. The social scene includes Kadima and United Synagogue Youth groups, a Friendship Club for seniors, a sisterhood, summer day camp and a choir.
"I'm very proud to be part of this congregation," adds Koppell. "Over the course of time, I am always impressed with the quality of people who make up this synagogue, the level of participation from (those people) that characterizes our membership, and the personal warmth of the community. We live in a time when people talk so much about the lack of a sense of community, and the thing that makes Beth Sholom wonderful is that it is a genuine community. I hope we never lose that."
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