By Emily Keeler, JTNews Correspondent
Back in 1950, 15 Jews got together to pray, socialize and celebrate holidays in Richland, a small town known for little other than being a major site of the Manhattan Project during World War II.
This small gathering grew into Congregation Beth Sholom, which will celebrate its 60th anniversary with a gala on Sept. 26 at Anthony’s Event Center in Richland.
Located 83 miles from Temple Shalom in Yakima and 55 miles from Congregation Beth Israel in Walla Walla, Beth Sholom is the only congregation serving the 250,000-strong Tri-Cities of Richland, Pasco and Kennewick. It is also the only synagogue of the three affiliated with the Conservative movement (Temple Shalom and Beth Israel are Reform).
Richland was chosen as a Manhattan Project site due to its location near the Columbia River, which could provide ample water to cool the nuclear reactors. Engineers, physicists and other valuable workers and their families relocated to Richland, and the town began to grow. With many Jews in the scientific professions, Richland soon became the home of a small Jewish community.
In its first year, what was then known as the Richland Jewish Congregation instituted a religious school, Bar and Bat Mitzvah training, Shabbat services, and it acquired prayer books and created a constitution. Dues were set at $5 per year. In 1956, the congregation received a Torah rescued from Europe, and in 1959 they built the synagogue. From then on, the Richland Jewish Congregation went by Congregation Beth Sholom. In 1983 it affiliated with the Conservative movement.
Beth Sholom is entirely lay- and volunteer-led, with the exception of its religious school teachers, who receive a modest stipend. Membership dues have increased since 1950 to $175 per year for a young adult or single retiree, $350 for a single adult or a retired couple, or $700 for a family. Rabbis come in to lead High Holiday services and special programs, but otherwise congregants lead services every Friday night and Saturday morning. A women’s league hosts an informal book club, runs the kosher kitchen, and supports the Sunday school and holiday events.
“We keep doing it,” said secretary and communications chair Jerry Lewis. “We celebrate the holidays. We put up a sukkah every year and celebrate and eat in it. We actually do a lot. We have a chevra kedisha [burial society]. We have a nice little library of Judaica and Jewish-related books.”
The community hovers around 60 members, many of whom are increasing in years. With octogenarians sometimes constituting up to half the minyan and fewer than 10 kids in the youth group, there is some question as to the future of the congregation.
“It’s a little bit scary,” said Lewis. “What’s going to happen?”
He hopes the gala will be a chance to reconnect with members they haven’t seen for a while.
“It would be nice to feel like the congregation was rejuvenated a little bit,” he added.
Work and family, not Jewish vibrancy, are what bring people to Richland. Jonathan Berliner, a 24-year-old with a degree in physics, math and economics from Columbia University, moved to Richland from New York to work for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. Back in New York Berliner was the president of Yavneh, Columbia’s large Modern Orthodox community. Like other young, connected Jews in Eastern Washington, Berliner does not see himself staying in Richland forever.
“Even looking at the non-Jewish community, there aren’t a lot of people in my age group,” he said. “The dating scene is nonexistent.”
Even so, Berliner enjoys the lack of pressure. “Sometimes I appreciate the slow pace here. It’s important to see the world outside of New York,” he said.
Berliner also notices less pressure from the synagogue to expand and acquire members. He observes that community members “express themselves in different ways.” For example, the members at poker night may not be the same ones at Shabbat services. Programs suit different interests. This fall, activities will include educational programs through the Jewish Learning Institute on medical ethics and interpreting the Holocaust today, as well as regular holiday activities. Shofar making is a popular recurring workshop.
While turnout is never very high for any particular event, optimism lives.
“We have different spontaneous groups that are getting together, and that’s kind of encouraging,” said Lewis. “We had a Hanukkah bazaar that actually turned out to be pretty successful. We ran out of candles more than once.”
Regarding long-term planning, though, the congregation’s big event is expanding the cemetery. Lewis sees this not as depressing but as a sign of optimism that the community isn’t going anywhere.
Lewis also thinks that bringing a more permanent rabbi to the community could increase turnout, and plans to do so are under consideration. A rabbi would “provide a spiritual focus for the congregation and to provide that kind of pastoral presence,” he said. When a rabbi from Spokane came to speak, Berliner noticed that “the people who showed seemed to really want something.”
That rabbi, Jack Izakson, formerly of Temple Beth Shalom, will lead High Holiday services this year.
“There are some things to look forward to, yet there is still much potential for growth,” said Berliner. For now, Congregation Beth Sholom leadership is looking forward to its 60th anniversary gala and generating renewed interest in the community.