The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah announced last week it is firming up plans to renovate its building. Those plans include taking all activities, except for the preschool, out of the building to other sites for much of 2019. The goal is to be back in the building before 2020, the congregation’s 150th anniversary.
Renovation plans include enlarging the Social Hall and the Chapel and adding spaces for a small prayer service, a gathering hall and a community commons area.
It was announced in the congregation’s weekly email blast to members that $8.1 million has been pledged toward the $12 million fundraising goal. The monies raised will include the cost of renovations, as well as increase endowment and underwrite costs associated with the congregation’s 150th anniversary celebrations. While the weekly email blasts routinely come from Senior Rabbi Arthur Nemitoff, this one was also signed by B’nai Jehudah President Ken Sigman, Building Chair Bill Carr, Capital Campaign Co-Chair Donna Thalblum and Executive Director Jeanne Adler.
Rabbi Nemitoff said the renovations are necessary because the building as it currently exists was never expected to be the spiritual home of the community’s oldest and largest Reform congregation. When the building was proposed 20 years ago it was expected to only serve as its educational facility with additional facilities to be built at a future time. B’nai Jehudah moved all operations from its 69th and Holmes location in Kansas City, Missouri, to the facility at 123th Street and Nall Avenue 15 years ago, yet never made further changes to the building.
Rabbi Nemitoff said the congregation “has worked very hard and very successfully in making it a full-service facility.” However, he said the congregation has five goals for the renovation to better match the congregation’s needs:
• To infuse the building with a sense of spirituality and warmth.
• To find a proper place to display, and use as an educational tool, “the remarkable Michael Klein Judaica collection” the congregation has been offered.
• To expand the Chapel to accommodate more people, “because we are finding ourselves consistently pushing up against our space limits.”
• To address the changing needs of the Jewish community regarding security.
• To address a series of maintenance items that need attention.
“B’nai Jehudah has always been one of the leaders in the Jewish community and our buildings have reflected the warmth, the spirituality and the depth of commitment to Judaism that is a part and parcel of who we are,” Rabbi Nemitoff said. “We will now be able to say the same thing about this building once it is transformed from a school building into a full congregational facility.”
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Building plans
B’nai Jehudah has been making plans to renovate for three years. A preliminary design was developed with an architectural firm from Columbus, Ohio. Going forward, HOK has been hired as the project’s architect. Construction will be provided by McCownGordon Construction.
“We believe they (HOK and McCownGordon) possess the expertise, depth of experience and creativity to help us bring our dreams into reality,” B’nai Jehudah leaders stated in the eblast.
As you currently enter the main entrance of the building — which opened in 2000 as the congregation’s education facility and became its sole home in 2003 — early education classrooms are to the right and administrative offices are straight ahead. Moving to the left, you come upon the Sisterhood Gift Shop, classrooms, the Social Hall and the Chapel. A kitchen and additional classrooms are located on the far side of the Social Hall.
In a conversation with The Chronicle last week, Rabbi Nemitoff explained the entire middle part of the building will be “blown out.” Areas to be expanded include the Chapel and Social Hall.
“Our intention is to accommodate at least 500 seats in the Chapel,” Rabbi Nemitoff said. “Right now it seats 300. Our goal is to seat approximately 700 people in the Social Hall. We do that now, but uncomfortably and the goal is to do that comfortably.”
A gathering hall that will be a place for people to visit and relax will also house a large portion of Michael Klein’s Judaica collection he has donated to the congregation. Plans also include renovating the library and Sisterhood Judaica shop, as well as adding a small chapel to accommodate up to 40 people and a community commons area.
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Programming in 2019
B’nai Jehudah’s board of trustees has determined vacating the building, with the exception of the preschool, during construction is the best path to follow. The decision was made to best serve the congregation’s families during that time, provide the staff the “healthiest environment in which to work,” and “will permit innovative education and programming ideas to germinate during this transition time.”
The goal is to begin construction in January 2019. The last two weeks of 2018 will be spent emptying out the building. All Shabbat and festival services during the construction period will take place at the Jewish Community Campus.
“We have that booked through the end of August of 2019,” Rabbi Nemitoff said. As we get further along in the process, we’ll know what, if anything, we need to do after that.”
Plans are still being made regarding the location of classes, where administrators will be housed and where other large-scale programs such as Mitzvah Day and the Purim Carnival will take place. While B’nai Jehudah is currently making plans to be out of its building for a full year, the congregation has said it’s too early to know whether that will be the actual time frame.
As Rabbi Nemitoff commented to The Chronicle, “We will have some information by the end of September and then really we’ll know more in the middle of December. When we know more we’ll communicate directly with the congregation. Our goal is to keep this within 2019, if possible. We have every reason to believe we can, but you never know until you start tearing down walls.”
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Fundraising continues
The congregation received a $5.25 million challenge grant from two donors for this capital campaign, matching funds raised dollar for dollar. Of the original $5.25 million grant, $1.5 million remains available. That means when the congregation raises another $1.5 million in pledges, it will have $3 million. At that point the congregation will be $900,000 short of its $12 million goal.
So far 82 of the congregation’s 1,060 families have pledged to the capital campaign.
“Basically we have about $2.4 million still to raise,” Rabbi Nemitoff explained, noting the eblast that stated, “With over 950 families yet to be asked, we are confident we will achieve our goal.”
The congregation hopes to have the fundraising campaign complete before construction begins.