The following article appeared in the The Jewish Advocate of Boston, July 22-28, 2005

The photograph appeared in the Easton Journal on July 15, 2005

 

Mr. Fishman holds the
donated stained glass.

 

Preservation project to save city s Jewish history

Temple Beth Emunah engages community for year-long project to save Jewish history

 

BROCKTON As part of its effort to strengthen its foundation in Brockton, Temple Beth Emunah recently embarked on a yearlong project, in cooperation with the Brockton Historical Society, to preserve and showcase the city s Jewish history. The project will culminate next year in a celebration and installation of a permanent exhibition at the temple.

Congregation members working on the project, dubbed L dor, v dor (Hebrew for "generation to generation"), are conducting interviews with longtime community members and have been attempting to recover artifacts far and wide.

Its most recent acquisition, a nearly 6-foot in diameter stained-glass Star of David, reflects the temple s desire to carry on the legacy that its Orthodox neighbor in Brockton, Congregation Agudas Achim, left behind. The window came from an interior wall of an aluminum supply shop building, which was the original home of Agudas Achim. Steven Fishman, whose father started the aluminum business and had been a member of Agudas Achim, donated the window two weeks ago after he was approached by representatives of Beth Emunah.

Beth Emunah leaders see the history project not only as a way to preserve Brockton s Jewish heritage, but as an endowment for the future, literally and figuratively. Part of the reason for initiating the project, according to temple administrator Beverly Strumpf, is to raise money for the temple s religious school, which has seen an influx of students in recent years.

Beth Emunah President Bruce Caplain said that aim of the project goes beyond merely documenting Brockton s Jewish history. The project, he said, will make a statement: "This is where we have been in past; this is where we are today; and this is what we have to look forward to in the future. We re now the center of the Jewish community, because we re all that s left."

 

Photograph courtesy of Scott Saftler, August, 2005

 

Brockton