Jewish Congregation Moved Out of Kinnelon

After more than 20 years in the borough, Kinnelon's only Jewish congregation, the (JCK) has left Kinnelon.

The 50-member congregation, which has held services out of the St. David's Episcopal Church, on Kinnelon Road, for much of its existence since its inception in 1988, will be sharing the building of the Pompton Lakes-based Congregation Beth Shalom (CBS). Over the next ten years, the congregations will become co-owners of the building and separately operate a Reform (JCK) and Conservative (CBS) temple, while sometimes operating joint services.

"The two are not merging, but rather this is a cooperative effort whereby each will retain its own spiritual leader, membership and elected board of directors. With a newly created set of bylaws, a five-member umbrella board made up of representatives from each synagogue will govern the way the space is shared," according to a press release sent out by the JCK.

On Friday, the JCK symbolically finalized its move to Pompton Lakes by moving its Torah, or Hebrew scroll, which was recovered from the Holocaust, over to CBS. Larry Tornow, president of CBS, said the enthusiasm from both congregations during the event was impressive.

As of Sept. 1, Tornow said JCK will own roughly 6 percent of the CBS building. The percentage of ownership will grow every year for the next decade until the congregations are co-owners. The CBS congregation has been in existence for 78 years, he said.

Tornow said "merger" is not an appropriate word for the way the congregations are combining.

"This is not a merger," he said. "A merger would be that both congregations would actually blend together but since they are reform and we are conservative, we're both keeping our affiliations with our parent organizations."

Tornow said some religious services, particularly high holiday services, will be offered together. The religious schools of both congregations will be merged, he said, as the curriculums of both were found to be comparable.

"The ideology within the school is similar. The ideology within the congregations is separate," Tornow said.

The decision to share a building was made, in part, for financial reasons, Tornow said. Some of the money JCK will be paying CBS to share the building will be used to renovate the building's exterior. CBS' temple was built in 1968, Tornow said.

Additionally, JCK has been paying rent to the church for several years, covering Christian symbols with cloth while holding Jewish services. According to the JCK, efforts were made to find a new permanent home in Kinnelon, but were unsuccessful.

"Prior to this opportunity, many efforts were made to purchase land or an existing building in Kinnelon, but none came to fruition. Though it will mean physically leaving Kinnelon where many wonderful, strong relationships have been formed—with clergy and houses of worship, government officials, and public school administrators—the ultimate goal afforded by this opportunity to buy into an existing synagogue will allow growth and revitalization for both organizations," the JCK said.

Tornow said the demographics of each congregation needed more diversity, with CBS' membership mostly made up of older people and JCK's membership mostly young families.

Tornow said the sharing of the building has only been in effect for the past several weeks, but so far, the combination is working well.

"Granted it's only been a couple of weeks but we're hoping and theyre hoping it's good," he said.