B'nai Israel Synagogue (South Bend, Indiana)
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B'nai Israel Synagogue (Sons of Israel Synagogue) is an historic synagogue in
South Bend, Indiana South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 United S ...
. The oldest synagogue in South Bend, it is also thought to be "America's only ballpark synagogue." In 2012 the unused synagogue was renovated and reopened as a gift shop for the South Bend Cubs minor league baseball team, whose ballpark abuts the property. The synagogue was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 2013.


History

The modest synagogue was built in 1901 by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. The congregation was
Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...
for most of its history; in 1982 it became a Reconstructionist temple and was renamed B'nai Yisrael. After some years of declining attendance in a neighborhood that continued to deteriorate despite renewal efforts, including construction of a minor league ballpark adjacent to the synagogue, the last services were held in the building in 1990. It was then was donated to the Indiana Landmarks Foundation. In 2005, the Foundation sold the synagogue to Chris Wood for use as a residence; however the city decided to use the building or the land it stood on as part of its urban renewal efforts and bought the building from Wood in 2007 for $130,000. Plans to use the building as a museum, or to move it to a new location, fell through due to lack of funds, and the building stood neglected and deteriorating for several years. In 2012
Andrew T. Berlin Andrew T. Berlin (born June 30, 1960) is an American businessman, attorney, and philanthropist living in Chicago, Illinois. Berlin was the chairman and chief executive officer of Berlin Packaging, a global supplier of plastic, glass and metal c ...
, new owner of the South Bend Cubs baseball team, purchased the synagogue and funded a $1-million renovation. Berlin paid for restoration, including a refurbishment of the building's handsome brass chandelier, and for new wall paintings combining biblical and baseball themes. A mural of Noah's Ark is captioned "Rain Delay", and a copy of Michelangelo's ''
Creation of Adam Creation may refer to: Religion *''Creatio ex nihilo'', the concept that matter was created by God out of nothing * Creation myth, a religious story of the origin of the world and how people first came to inhabit it * Creationism, the belief tha ...
'' from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel shows God's hand encased in a baseball glove as he hands a baseball to Adam. The caption reads: "Play Ball." The preserved building stands on the grounds of
Four Winds Field at Coveleski Stadium Four Winds Field at Coveleski Stadium is a baseball stadium in South Bend, Indiana, home to the South Bend Cubs, a minor league baseball team which plays in the Midwest League. The stadium opened in 1987, and its open concourse is considered the ...
, where it serves as the Cubs' team gift shop. A short film about the restoration of the synagogue won a 2013
Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
.


Criticism

Robert Nevel, a
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
-based architect who attended the synagogue as a boy, told ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' in 2015 that the reuse of the bimah (the central platform from which the
Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...
is read) as the location of the cash register felt like "accidental symbolism" and "sardonic commentary" on the
antisemitic canard Antisemitic tropes, canards, or myths are " sensational reports, misrepresentations, or fabrications" that are defamatory towards Judaism as a religion or defamatory towards Jews as an ethnic or religious group. Since the Middle Ages, such repo ...
that Jews worship money. He also said that the design of the access ramp had "mucked up" the building's stone base, a distinguishing feature of early
Chicago style architecture Chicago's architecture is famous throughout the world and one style is referred to as the Chicago School. Much of its early work is also known as Commercial Style. In the history of architecture, the first Chicago School was a school of architec ...
.


Architecture

The -story structure was designed in Romanesque Revival style. Finished in orange-brick limestone, it has a gabled roof topped by a large stone arch trimmed in white. Its three tall front windows are arched at the top and square at the bottom; a white metal panel with a design of pressed arches separates the top and bottom of each window. The name of the synagogue is engraved above the center window at the base of another arch-shaped design, with an
oculus Oculus (a term from Latin ''oculus'', meaning 'eye'), may refer to the following Architecture * Oculus (architecture), a circular opening in the centre of a dome or in a wall Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Oculus'' (film), a 2013 American ...
window at the center. On either corner of the front facade is a square brick tourelle with a
corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...
led base; each tourelle is topped by a pyramid-shaped metal roof with a
Star of David The Star of David (). is a generally recognized symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles. A derivation of the ''seal of Solomon'', which was used for decorative ...
finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...
. The interior design includes a main sanctuary with a balcony for female worshippers, several smaller rooms, and a basement that previously housed a
mikveh Mikveh or mikvah (,  ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvoth'', ''mikvot'', or (Yiddish) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve ritual purity. Most forms of ritual impurity can be purif ...
.


References


External links

{{National Register of Historic Places in Indiana Former synagogues in Indiana Synagogues on the National Register of Historic Places in Indiana 1901 establishments in Indiana Buildings and structures in South Bend, Indiana National Register of Historic Places in St. Joseph County, Indiana Synagogues completed in 1901