Aging synagogue seeks new purpose

The newspaper ad could read like this: “Tenants wanted for Uptown fixer-upper, 20,000 square feet, great acoustics, new roof, uplifting and iconic architecture. Must love Torah scrolls.”

When Chicago’s Jewish community passed on purchasing or rehabbing the aging Agudas Achim synagogue  in the North Shore, Rabbi Philip Lefkowitz took the European-style synagogue to the open market.

It’s been a tough sell, as most of the interior is in a frightful state of disrepair. After decades of water damage, most of the building has a film of dust, dirt or paint flecks on it. Trash bags, rotting boxes, peeling paint and broken wood are everywhere – you feel like you need a respirator and a pair of gloves to enter the main sanctuary, a cavernous room that sits about 2,000.

Photo: Eric Holubow
MAGNIFICENT NEGLECT: Hardly anyone gets to see this Holy Ark, a masterpiece in mosaic tile, at Congregation Agudas Achim in the North Shore. The ark, on a raised dias covered with pigeon feathers, is used only once a year during the High Holidays. The rest of the year there are more trash cans in the sanctuary than attendees.

Still, some remnants of Agudas Achim’s glorious past remain, including a spectacular Ark covered in mosaic tile, terracotta floors and ornamental metalwork, from roaring lions to six-foot ritual hand-washing fountains. And the classical Cathedral entrance with Corinthian columns and high archways are certainly a rare sight to see this side of the Atlantic.

So who would be interested in a faded beauty of a building on Uptown’s North Kenmore Avenue, a once-magnificent structure that Lefkowitz calls “the last great synagogue of Chicago?”

One possible buyer: a performing arts company. Lefkowitz said he’s been approached by one theater group who were interested in turning the main sanctuary into a concert hall. His asking price is $1.9 million for the synagogue, adjacent school building and the grounds.

“It’s a giveaway,” he said, adding that the land was appraised for $2.2 million, even without any heating units.

A robust man with white hair and a long beard, Lefkowitz describes himself as your typical affable Brooklyn-born Jew.

“To be a minister you need to be egotistical.. and I am,” he says through his smile.

Photo: Eric Holubow
MUSEUM QUALITY - Agudas Achim synagogue is one of the finest examples of European Jewish architecture in the United States. Many of the buildings accents and artistries are virtually unknown on this side of the Atlantic. This ritual washing station, used before meals and certain prayers, is made of solid bronze and would be used by Jews after services. The synagogues solid brass calendebras, each about six feet high, were recently by vandals, the syangogue said.

His salesmanship have gotten Gov. Rod  Blagojevich to Mayor Richard M. Daley to visit the synagogue in recent years, but the political machine has been reluctant to invest in it. Lefkowitz’s attempts to convert the building into a community center failed to materialize, although an artists’ conception of the plans still hangs on a wall on the ground floor.

Lefkowitz got involved with Agudas Achim 12 years ago, and says he has been “carrying it on his back” ever since. Built in the 1920s and at one point touting thousands of members, the synagogue fell victim to changing demographics, and soon the Jewish community moved north to Skokie and elsewhere. The neighborhood deteriorated, and membership evaporated.

His regular clientele for years have been elderly Russian Jews, forcing him to conduct Passover Seders in Russian, Yiddish, Hebrew and English. Recently he’s seen an increase in younger Jews moving into the gentrifying community, but he said “they aren’t interested in membership.”

Nowadays, Agudas Achim is open once a week for Shabbat services and for the holidays. Most of the time, however, the building is locked and empty. Break-ins and robberies became commonplace. Just last Monday, Lefkowitz said two six-foot brass and bronze candelabras were stolen from the main sanctuary. The worst part, he said, wasn’t that the pieces were irreplaceable antiques but that they were probably cut up and sold for scrap.

Photo: Eric Holubow
THE DREAM - When demographics shifted and younger Jews moved out of Edgewater, Rabbi Philip Lefkowitz tried to pitch his aging synagogue as a community center, first for the Jewish community and later for his neighbors. Nobody bought into it.

Security issues aside, the rabbi says his building has many selling points. He says the walls are a foot-and-a-half-thick of solid concrete, and is so structurally sound that it needs no interior walls, making it ideal for reconstruction.

He says the synagogue also been eyed by a local developer, who built a nice set of condos directly across the street.

One interested party Lefkowitz had to turn away was a church. Judaism forbids synagogues from being turned into places where multiple gods are worshipped. Polygamy is a great sin in Judaism, and Christianity’s concept of “the Trinity” has been interpreted by many rabbis as being polytheistic rather than monotheistic.

Converting the building for Muslim worship, however, would be just fine.

“It would make a great mosque”, he said. “It perfectly faces east.”

For more information on Agudas Achim visit aansc.org or email PLefko8565@aol.com.