The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah plans to rededicate its renovated building at 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 27, on Shabbat Chanukah, coinciding with the congregation’s annual 180 Menorah Celebration. Musician Noah Aronson will join B’nai Jehudah’s tefillah team for this special service. When B’nai Jehudah opened its building at 124th and Nall Avenue in Overland Park 20 years ago, it was designed as a school and called the Learning Center.
“Being designed as a school, the building lacked the strong Jewish presence that we were seeking in the renovation,” said Building Committee Chair Bill Carr. “We took a building that was a school and converted it into a full-scale synagogue that is able to effectively house all of our activities in a spiritual building.” One of the primary goals, according to Carr, was to “create a building which envelops in Jewish presence and spirituality from the instant you walk in.” B’nai Jehudah’s leadership believes that goal was attained. Now, as noted in the most recent Bulletin, Board President Jocelyn Fry said, “Upon entering, you will feel that you are in a spiritual space.” “It is a warm, inviting space to worship, celebrate, meet, mingle, chat and have coffee,” Fry said. Carr said members who have talked to him said they loved the renovation. “When the walls are filled with wonderful art and pictures that are a part of the congregation’s collection and Michael Klein’s collection, the look and feel of the building will only get even better,” he said.
When visitors enter the building and arrive in Kikar Helzberg, they will immediately encounter the menorah that was on the bema when B’nai Jehudah was located at 69th and Holmes. “Instantly you know that you are in a Jewish house of worship,” Carr said. “Step a little further into the kikar and on either side you experience a part of the incredible Michael Klein Judaica collection situated in museum quality cases. These beautiful objects show the history of our people and worship.” Senior Rabbi Arthur Nemitoff said the menorah, which became the congregation’s logo while it was in storage, “is our identity and it is impressive.” Other pieces of art throughout the building, including La Farge windows that were commissioned by the congregation in 1910 for the building on Linwood Boulevard, pay homage to the congregation’s rich history as it embarks on its 150th anniversary in 2020.
NEW SACRED SPACES AND GATHERING AREAS
One of the major changes to the building was removing everything from its middle and creating the huge open space called Kikar Helzberg. Carr described it as a “really nice open gateway into the Jewish experience of the building.” Kikar means center or gathering place, Rabbi Nemitoff explained. “When you walk in, you’ll walk into Kikar Helzberg,” the rabbi said. “That is going to be an area for sitting, for gathering and also it will be housing the Michael Klein Collection.” B’nai Jehudah named the space after the Helzberg family, Rabbi Nemitoff said, because the family has played a big role in the congregation’s history and “has enabled us to do so much of what we do.” “Over the course of their lives (Barnett and Shirley Helzberg) and the lives of their family, they have been extraordinarily generous to us, and they continued to be generous in this campaign,” Rabbi Nemitoff added. “We would not have been successful without them. So in honor of them, they have agreed to allow us to name the central gathering space of our building after their family.” One of the additions Rabbi Nemitoff is energized about is the small prayer space, which holds up to 50 people.
He believes it will become the heart of the building. It will be home to a “simple one-Torah ark” where members will meet for minyan and Saturday morning prayer when “we don’t have young people becoming Bar or Bat Mitzvah.”
It will also be a place of meditation and solitude. The small prayer space will be surrounded by the congregation’s yahrzeit tablets. Those honor “150 years of people who have gone before us,” Rabbi Nemitoff said. “What I love about this room is that each of these yahrzeit names is going to have a little shelf by it,” he said. “Anybody who wants to can come in and pick up a stone and place it next to their loved ones’ names as a way to remember them, just as we do in a cemetery. I think it is going to be an incredibly powerful, quiet space that we are just going to adore. I’m so excited about this space.”
Discussions took place to construct a sanctuary that could seat the entire congregation for the High Holidays as part of the renovation. But Carr said the congregation decided to create a multipurpose space instead — a combination large sanctuary and social hall — “that is wonderful for worship but also great for other events, such as B’nai Mitzvah and wedding parties.” “At the front of the room, there is a beautiful ark flanked by Jerusalem stone and covered with gorgeous 12-foot-high wood doors,” Carr explained. “When non-worship events are held, the ark will not be open.”
The social hall was enlarged and can now comfortably seat 650 people for services. Its stage is portable and there are large video monitors on either side of the ark, Carr said, which allow congregants to see clearly what is happening on the bimah (stage) regardless of where they sit. Rabbi Nemitoff labels some of the building’s changes sexy and unsexy. On the sexy side, he said, is the “remarkable” technology now being used. “We’ve put in multimedia screens in our social hall, our chapel and two of our conference rooms to allow us to do video chats and to do long-distance learning,” he explained. “We’ll be able to use our screens for prayer and for programing.
The sound is now vastly improved; it’s terrific.” Unsexy changes include upgraded HVAC, wiring and lighting. Another unsexy change, but an important one, is increased security. “There are many security enhancements — some visibly noticeable and others not — but all intended to do what’s unfortunately necessary in these times.” Rabbi Nemitoff said.
On that note, Carr added the congregation appreciated the valuable input given by Chuck Green, the Jewish community security director. Changes to the building were made in many other areas, including reconfiguring administrative offices and relocating the library. Rabbi Nemitoff is excited about all the changes. “I’m thrilled about the Michael Klein Collection and the ability it is going to give us to change education the way that we do it at B’nai Jehudah,” Rabbi Nemitoff said. “I’m excited about our chapel and the social hall that we’ll be able to do prayer in new and innovative ways. I’m excited about the High Holidays because we’re going to have a place that is truly holy and spiritual to sit in in our social hall that will be transformed into a sanctuary, but when it’s not being used as a sanctuary, you won’t even know that it has Torahs in it. It will be hidden, and it will be a celebratory space, and no one will feel awkward about having a party in a sanctuary.”
NO LONG-TERM DEBT EXPECTED
Carr is thrilled that the renovation completed to date is on budget. When all is complete, Rabbi Nemitoff said, “all in” costs for the entire project will be about $13.5 million. So far, donors have committed more than $12.1 million for the project.
“The good news is that we have either raised or pledged all of that money,” the rabbi said. “It is not anticipated that there will be any long-term debt for the congregation. There will be some shortterm bridge loans as the pledges get paid off, but there is no long-term debt for this project. We’re pretty proud of that.”
During the five-year planning and building process, more than 50 members “volunteered their time, energy, talents and physical space,” Fry said. In addition to Carr and Fry, volunteers included former board presidents Dan Stolper, Donna Thalblum, Milton Brod and Ken Sigman.
Carr said the key to this project’s success was the hard work of its village of volunteers and professionals. “The members of the Building Committee functioned as a true team — each enthusiastic, diligent, respectful of the views of the others, highly focused and at all times dedicated to the common goal of delivering the best project possible within the confines of our budget,” Carr said. “I also can’t say enough about our professional team — HOK Architects and McCown Gordon Construction — who did superb work translating our goals, through their imagination and skills, into a building we can be proud of for many years to come.”