Buffalo Temple Beth Zion plans renovation project

Temple Beth Zion largely completed the first part, focused largely on necessary maintenance and repair work, after raising $3.2 million which was later matched by the Benderson family, the owners of Benderson Development Co. and longtime members of the congregation.

After more than two years of planning and discussions, the company is now entering the second phase, on what to do with its uniquely shaped building and campus at 805 Delaware, in a block of mansions between Summer and Barker streets.

“We looked very carefully at the status of 805 Delaware,” said Kenneth Polk, president of the synagogue’s board of trustees. “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 building endowments and a desire to revive the campus. This will include renovating Fink Auditorium, named for a former longtime rabbi, which “really looks like it did in the 1960s.” Executives also want to improve technology infrastructure and security.

Plans call for moving the synagogue’s administrative headquarters and offices from its Amherst building — which it has maintained as a suburb since the 1950s — to new space in the downtown building. That would involve moving the rabbi, new cantor Susan Freedman, new executive director Mark Hayman and other staff, as well as conference and committee rooms, a Judaica gift shop and a family activity space.

However, Polk emphasized that there are currently no plans to close the Aaron and Bertha Broder Jewish Education Center, located at 700 Sweet Home Road and named in honor of a member of the Benderson family. The building is still used for monthly services and religious studies. But it is 90% occupied by the Buffalo Hearing & Speech Center under a lease until 2028.

“We’re not abandoning the suburbs by any means,” Polk said. “We really believe that if we build it downtown, they will come. The building isn’t everything, but it plays an important role in how we can serve our members and our community.”

Beth Zion is a Reform synagogue and one of the oldest congregations in the country, with a history dating back to 1850. Originally located on Niagara Street, it moved to 599 Delaware in the 1880s, where the congregation built a monument to the Byzantine architecture, Medina Brownstone. walls and a large half-spherical dome covered in copper.

However, this building was destroyed by fire in 1961, leaving the congregation temporarily homeless until they completed their new synagogue in 1967. The current building included a 1,000-seat sanctuary with scalloped walls, ceilings 60 feet, a pair 30 feet high. – tall tablets for the Ten Commandments, stained glass windows and an organ, as well as an auditorium, a chapel and the recently expanded Cofeld Judaica Museum.

It is also listed 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 strengthen that sense of a Jewish campus?”

The first part of the project focused on needed repairs and years of “deferred maintenance” at the synagogue, which faced the same financial challenges as other religious institutions.

Exterior and interior work included repaving the parking lot, repairing the building’s entry stairs, installing a new $2.1 million HVAC system, repairing two leaking roofs, improving accessibility of entrances for people with disabilities, improved landscaping and pressure washing of the building. to clean away years of accumulated dirt.

“It’s not fun or exciting stuff, but we found a way to get our donors excited,” Polk said, citing a Rosh Hashanah service two years ago when heavy rains seeped through the skylights of the sanctuary and had flowed away. cement walls.

The executives managed to raise more than $3.2 million from individual donors, including the Zemskys, the Gordon Companies and the Fierstein family, and then matched the Bendersons. Out-of-town donors and other local entities also participated, including the Baird Foundation.

The synagogue also received a $50,000 National Sacred Sites Fund intervention grant, funded in collaboration with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and a $25,000 grant from the New York State Sacred Sites Program. Landmarks Conservancy.