A quiet synagogue says it will do what it takes to maintain a Jewish presence on Lake Hopatcong
Johanna Ginsburg, Staff Writer 8/18/05
On the banks of the largest freshwater lake in New Jersey, at the end of a lush rural road, sits a synagogue established in the 1940s as a summers-only congregation. The current building, dedicated in 1971, boasts a picture window looking out over the lake and stained-glass windows designed by a protege of Marc Chagall.
At this synagogue, the Rosh Hashana ritual of Tashlich involves just stepping out the back door, waving to the ducks, and tossing the symbolic bread-crumb sins into the lake stretching out before you.
Summer Shabbat mornings at the Lake Hopatcong Jewish Center now attract only 12 or 15 souls to worship — and not the 150-200 they once drew — but High Holy Day services can still fill the pews, according to congregation president Jody Verdi, who lives in Hopatcong. (Perhaps that is because it is one of the few area synagogues with a free, open-door policy during the High Holy Day season.)
Still, the doors stay open through the winter, with services held at least once each month
Members of this tight-knit synagogue community say they will do what it takes to maintain a Jewish presence in the area, which is right on the border between Morris and Sussex counties. Some members live in Hopatcong and the surrounding towns of Mount Arlington, Roxbury, Sparta, and Jefferson; others are summer residents.
Mark Levy of Marlboro said he fondly recalls attending day camp at the synagogue in the 1950s. A retired educator, he still uses the summer house his parents built on the lake. Now also a member of the Marlboro Jewish Center, he not only maintains his membership at LHJC, he also serves on its board of trustees.
Like many long-time members, he has a sentimental attachment to the place he just can’t shake. “I’m a member here because I grew up here. I was so young when my parents joined.” But there’s something else, he said. “I think we need a Jewish presence on the lake.”
Although censuses taken in 1990 and 2000 reveal that the population in the immediate area has remained the same, around 15,000, some see signs of creeping suburbanization as young families move west from more crowded areas to take up permanent residence. Members hope the synagogue will attract young Jewish families from among these newcomers.
That’s just how Verdi settled in Hopatcong 18 years ago. A woman with a large smile and a strong will, she recalled driving around the area with her husband and two children, looking at homes on the other side of the lake. They got lost, wandered a bit, and Verdi saw a sign for the synagogue. “Let’s live here; I want a town with a synagogue,” she said she told her husband.
They’ve been in Hopatcong ever since. And when her two sons come home from college, “if they’re awake on Saturday morning, they come to synagogue because they know they’re needed,” she said. “This synagogue means something to us. It’s not just a building.”
The shrubbery may be so overgrown that it obscures a view of the lake from the center’s picture window, the furniture may be out of date, and some parts of the building may be in disrepair; still, congregants are certain they will never close their doors. Regulars say the congregation is stable, if small. “People have said, Does this synagogue really need to be there anymore?,” said Steven Stein, an attorney and Morristown resident. His primary synagogue is Mount Freedom Jewish Center, but he has been coming to Lake Hopatcong in the summer since he was a young boy. He feels it is incumbent upon him to make sure the synagogue remain a resource for the community.
“Here’s a place that has been here for 50 years, serving a community otherwise not served,” said Stein. “It’s an avenue for simhas and support. It serves as a Jewish community center in the truest sense. And it fulfills its mission. On the High Holy Days, there are several hundred people here. Who are they? They are unaffiliated…but they come. Even if that’s all this is, it would still be important for it to be here to support a last link to Jewish life.”
A summer place
Levy, a retired educator who serves informally as synagogue historian, related the story of the beginnings of the center.
It was 1948. Carl Schneidkraut of Queens, an attorney and later a judge, had come to vacation at the lake and was distressed to learn that his teenage sons were being taunted by local kids for being Jewish. So he and his wife, Billie, along with Ben and Ida Shapiro, decided to organize.
They invited other Jewish families in the area to meet at the nearby Grand View Hotel. According to Linda Forgosh of the Jewish Historical Society of MetroWest NJ, many of the people who attended that first meeting were not intent on creating a synagogue; rather, they were interested in forming a Jewish yachting club. In any case, in 1949, the group had begun conducting Shabbat services at the hotel. By 1951 they had purchased the hotel building and called themselves Lake Hopatcong Jewish Center.
In 1959 Eugene Bornstein was hired as cantor, and by 1962, the growing congregation hired its first full-time rabbi, Nathaniel Steinberg. By the mid-1960s, the summer Shabbat morning service could bring in 150 to 200 people. Still, it was a summer community, and after Yom Kippur, the synagogue was closed until the following summer.
But around 1970, some of the influential congregants succeeded in a bid to create a year-round synagogue. That same year, Steinberg departed to lead another congregation. Meanwhile, the members had torn down the hotel and built a new building on the site, which was dedicated in 1971.
By the 1980s, when Verdi moved in, membership had begun to decline as retirees moved away and their children bought summer homes elsewhere, according to Forgosh. Demographics shifted, said Stein, and summer homes gave way to permanent residences. There was talk of merging with the Jewish Center of Sussex County in Newton or deeding the building to what was then called United Jewish Federation of MetroWest. But neither move took place.
The synagogue continued on, and today its members number about 30 families plus an additional 10 or so more during the summer.
On the pulpit
In 2000, Rabbi Asher Krief, the retired leader of Pine Brook Jewish Center in Montville, became the LHJC’s summer rabbi. Krief, 70, grew up in France and received ordination in England. He had retired to Florida in the winter and Sparta in the summer, but said he was moved to help the congregation. “I saw a need here for a rabbi. They need someone permanent so people in the area know there is someone who will take care of them and answer their questions. People want to see a rabbi on the pulpit.”
In the winters, Rabbi Richard Kirsch of West Orange has been spending one Shabbat a month at the synagogue. He noted the beauty of the area, adding, “The people at the shul are really nice. You can tell they really want stuff going on there.” They come despite the fact that as an Orthodox rabbi, Kirsch has insisted that the Conservative synagogue have a mehitza separating men and women in the sanctuary and follow Orthodox Halacha. Some say the congregation’s flexibility on these points reflects its broad reach in the community. In any case, the area has grown on Kirsch, who brings his children with him to spend Shabbat. A highlight, for him, he said, was Purim, when the congregants hired a magician, who drew about 10 children to the holiday celebration. “That’s a lot for them,” he said.
The religious school is small, but the board is determined to keep it running as well. They view it as essential for attracting young families. “Five years ago, we closed the Hebrew school because there were so few families,” said Verdi. “That was a big mistake. You don’t close a Hebrew school. You don’t cut a service like that to young families.” Three years ago, the school was reopened; it operates with just a handful of students.
In a sign, perhaps, of things to come, A Bite of Heaven, a kosher caterer formerly based at the Mount Freedom Jewish Center, is relocating to the Lake Hopatcong synagogue. A tour of the kitchen being readied reveals evidence of the caterer’s impending arrival. New refrigerators have been installed, and other new equipment is on the way. A Bite of Heaven owner Richard Landau said he is revamping the space and modernizing it at his own expense; he plans to use the kitchen both for synagogue events and as a base for catering events all over New Jersey.
As Krief said, “You have to be realistic. It’s never going to have 500 members. But it’s a Jewish community that needs to be taken care of. And as long as the Almighty gives me strength, I will do it.”
Johanna Ginsburg can be reached at jginsburg@njjewishnews.com
For additional stories, visit the New Jersey Jewish News at www.njjewishnews.com.
On the banks of the largest freshwater lake in New Jersey, at the end of a lush rural road, sits a synagogue established in the 1940s as a summers-only congregation. The current building, dedicated in 1971, boasts a picture window looking out over the lake and stained-glass windows designed by a protege of Marc Chagall.
At this synagogue, the Rosh Hashana ritual of Tashlich involves just stepping out the back door, waving to the ducks, and tossing the symbolic bread-crumb sins into the lake stretching out before you.
Summer Shabbat mornings at the Lake Hopatcong Jewish Center now attract only 12 or 15 souls to worship — and not the 150-200 they once drew — but High Holy Day services can still fill the pews, according to congregation president Jody Verdi, who lives in Hopatcong. (Perhaps that is because it is one of the few area synagogues with a free, open-door policy during the High Holy Day season.)
Still, the doors stay open through the winter, with services held at least once each month
Members of this tight-knit synagogue community say they will do what it takes to maintain a Jewish presence in the area, which is right on the border between Morris and Sussex counties. Some members live in Hopatcong and the surrounding towns of Mount Arlington, Roxbury, Sparta, and Jefferson; others are summer residents.
Mark Levy of Marlboro said he fondly recalls attending day camp at the synagogue in the 1950s. A retired educator, he still uses the summer house his parents built on the lake. Now also a member of the Marlboro Jewish Center, he not only maintains his membership at LHJC, he also serves on its board of trustees.
Like many long-time members, he has a sentimental attachment to the place he just can’t shake. “I’m a member here because I grew up here. I was so young when my parents joined.” But there’s something else, he said. “I think we need a Jewish presence on the lake.”
Although censuses taken in 1990 and 2000 reveal that the population in the immediate area has remained the same, around 15,000, some see signs of creeping suburbanization as young families move west from more crowded areas to take up permanent residence. Members hope the synagogue will attract young Jewish families from among these newcomers.
That’s just how Verdi settled in Hopatcong 18 years ago. A woman with a large smile and a strong will, she recalled driving around the area with her husband and two children, looking at homes on the other side of the lake. They got lost, wandered a bit, and Verdi saw a sign for the synagogue. “Let’s live here; I want a town with a synagogue,” she said she told her husband.
They’ve been in Hopatcong ever since. And when her two sons come home from college, “if they’re awake on Saturday morning, they come to synagogue because they know they’re needed,” she said. “This synagogue means something to us. It’s not just a building.”
The shrubbery may be so overgrown that it obscures a view of the lake from the center’s picture window, the furniture may be out of date, and some parts of the building may be in disrepair; still, congregants are certain they will never close their doors. Regulars say the congregation is stable, if small. “People have said, Does this synagogue really need to be there anymore?,” said Steven Stein, an attorney and Morristown resident. His primary synagogue is Mount Freedom Jewish Center, but he has been coming to Lake Hopatcong in the summer since he was a young boy. He feels it is incumbent upon him to make sure the synagogue remain a resource for the community.
“Here’s a place that has been here for 50 years, serving a community otherwise not served,” said Stein. “It’s an avenue for simhas and support. It serves as a Jewish community center in the truest sense. And it fulfills its mission. On the High Holy Days, there are several hundred people here. Who are they? They are unaffiliated…but they come. Even if that’s all this is, it would still be important for it to be here to support a last link to Jewish life.”
A summer place
Levy, a retired educator who serves informally as synagogue historian, related the story of the beginnings of the center.
It was 1948. Carl Schneidkraut of Queens, an attorney and later a judge, had come to vacation at the lake and was distressed to learn that his teenage sons were being taunted by local kids for being Jewish. So he and his wife, Billie, along with Ben and Ida Shapiro, decided to organize.
They invited other Jewish families in the area to meet at the nearby Grand View Hotel. According to Linda Forgosh of the Jewish Historical Society of MetroWest NJ, many of the people who attended that first meeting were not intent on creating a synagogue; rather, they were interested in forming a Jewish yachting club. In any case, in 1949, the group had begun conducting Shabbat services at the hotel. By 1951 they had purchased the hotel building and called themselves Lake Hopatcong Jewish Center.
In 1959 Eugene Bornstein was hired as cantor, and by 1962, the growing congregation hired its first full-time rabbi, Nathaniel Steinberg. By the mid-1960s, the summer Shabbat morning service could bring in 150 to 200 people. Still, it was a summer community, and after Yom Kippur, the synagogue was closed until the following summer.
But around 1970, some of the influential congregants succeeded in a bid to create a year-round synagogue. That same year, Steinberg departed to lead another congregation. Meanwhile, the members had torn down the hotel and built a new building on the site, which was dedicated in 1971.
By the 1980s, when Verdi moved in, membership had begun to decline as retirees moved away and their children bought summer homes elsewhere, according to Forgosh. Demographics shifted, said Stein, and summer homes gave way to permanent residences. There was talk of merging with the Jewish Center of Sussex County in Newton or deeding the building to what was then called United Jewish Federation of MetroWest. But neither move took place.
The synagogue continued on, and today its members number about 30 families plus an additional 10 or so more during the summer.
On the pulpit
In 2000, Rabbi Asher Krief, the retired leader of Pine Brook Jewish Center in Montville, became the LHJC’s summer rabbi. Krief, 70, grew up in France and received ordination in England. He had retired to Florida in the winter and Sparta in the summer, but said he was moved to help the congregation. “I saw a need here for a rabbi. They need someone permanent so people in the area know there is someone who will take care of them and answer their questions. People want to see a rabbi on the pulpit.”
In the winters, Rabbi Richard Kirsch of West Orange has been spending one Shabbat a month at the synagogue. He noted the beauty of the area, adding, “The people at the shul are really nice. You can tell they really want stuff going on there.” They come despite the fact that as an Orthodox rabbi, Kirsch has insisted that the Conservative synagogue have a mehitza separating men and women in the sanctuary and follow Orthodox Halacha. Some say the congregation’s flexibility on these points reflects its broad reach in the community. In any case, the area has grown on Kirsch, who brings his children with him to spend Shabbat. A highlight, for him, he said, was Purim, when the congregants hired a magician, who drew about 10 children to the holiday celebration. “That’s a lot for them,” he said.
The religious school is small, but the board is determined to keep it running as well. They view it as essential for attracting young families. “Five years ago, we closed the Hebrew school because there were so few families,” said Verdi. “That was a big mistake. You don’t close a Hebrew school. You don’t cut a service like that to young families.” Three years ago, the school was reopened; it operates with just a handful of students.
In a sign, perhaps, of things to come, A Bite of Heaven, a kosher caterer formerly based at the Mount Freedom Jewish Center, is relocating to the Lake Hopatcong synagogue. A tour of the kitchen being readied reveals evidence of the caterer’s impending arrival. New refrigerators have been installed, and other new equipment is on the way. A Bite of Heaven owner Richard Landau said he is revamping the space and modernizing it at his own expense; he plans to use the kitchen both for synagogue events and as a base for catering events all over New Jersey.
As Krief said, “You have to be realistic. It’s never going to have 500 members. But it’s a Jewish community that needs to be taken care of. And as long as the Almighty gives me strength, I will do it.”
Johanna Ginsburg can be reached at jginsburg@njjewishnews.com
For additional stories, visit the New Jersey Jewish News at www.njjewishnews.com.