Synagogue Groundbreaking Marks Hopeful Turning Point

By John Voket

Perhaps the sunny spring weather Sunday, possibly the most pleasant day of the year so far, also boded well figuratively as shovels turned the fertile soil signaling the beginning of a construction project for a historic Huntingtown Road synagogue.

Several multigeneration families were on hand to witness and participate in the symbolic activity. The gathering of more than 100 included a large contingent of the Nezvesky family, whose patriarch Israel and his wife, Rose, almost a century ago donated the original land upon which the new temple will be built.

According to Congregation Adath Israel’s President Eric Israel, the groundbreaking marked an end to legal wranglings that dragged the development process out for nearly six years and saw several significant design elements to the facility scaled back. The Planning and Zoning Commission finally granted approval to the project last summer.

Among the dignitaries that attended as First Selectman Herb Rosenthal, who told the crowd during brief remarks that it was a great day for Newtown, hailing the groundbreaking as an important step for the growing congregation. State Representative Julia Wasserman recalled numerous visits to the congregation’s current, smaller temple with her late husband.

“There were always members there to help him out of the car,” Rep Wasserman recalled. “And on many of those occasions I remember wishing for the day when there would be a new home for you —without so many stairs.”

Father Robert Weiss of St Rose Parish and the Rev Terry Pfeiffer of the Newtown United Methodist Church were also welcomed to the gathering. Father Weiss spoke about the increasing collaborations among local congregations including partnerships with Congregation Adath Israel, and how the new temple would foster an even greater presence of its members in the local spiritual community.

Rev Pfeiffer also gave his blessing during the ceremony, heralding a new era in the greater community of congregations here in Newtown.

“This morning we prayed for you during both of our services,” he told the audience.

Following the clergy members’ remarks it was time for honored guests to take shovels in hand for the ceremonial groundbreaking. In two waves, key members of the congregation were called to the front of the crowd to take part in the activity.

Picking up the long-handled shovels, Mr Rosenthal and Ms Wasserman were joined by Barbara and Henry Danziger, Rosalita and Chuck Newman, Tom Goosman, Julius and Judy Rosenberg, Fran Plotlin, Eileen Stern, Shirley Nezvesky-Berezin and Samuel Nezvesky, who was assisted by his son Jay and daughter Janice Nezvesky-Schertzer.

The second group to come forward included other congregation leaders, past and present, including Mr Israel, Mark Moskowitz, groundbreaking event organizer Gilda Slomka, Bob Rubenstein, and Debbie Tendler.

After the ceremony, visitors and members were invited back to the original synagogue to enjoy intergenerational story telling about the history of the congregation. In an interview following the groundbreaking, Jay Nezvesky recalled working the land slated for the new temple along with his brother Jeff.

“We worked that land as farmers until 1976,” Jay Nezvesky recalled. “I remember when it was time to bale the hay from those fields. The land behind where we were sitting sloped down and was too steep to bring the hay cart down there. So, Jeff and I would always argue about who had to go down and carry those bales of hay up to the cart.”

Older brother Joel Nezvesky also had memories of coming to the family home on Huntingtown Road and seeing his two younger brother working the fields. He spoke about the feelings of connectedness he experienced to that day, because his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather before him also worked those same fields.

“It was my great-grandfather Israel and his wife Rose who came to America from Russia in 1905, and decided to settle here on this site in Newtown,” Joel Nezvesky said. “He was 65 years old when he came to the United States. It took him a long time to get here, because he helped get his two oldest sons who were of draft age in Russia out of the country first.”

He said that in those early years of the 20th Century, before the original synagogue was constructed, services for the small local Jewish community were held in a modest red farmhouse that still stands on adjacent property.

“A great deal of the land along this part of Huntingtown Road was my great-grandfather’s property at that time,” Joel Nezvesky said. “Although he was schooled as a Rabbi in Russia, he didn’t practice as one after he came to Newtown. But his faith was strong and he decided to help build the first synagogue, and was able to do so with the donation of that property, a Torah, and $500.”

Following the ceremony, Eric Israel said the groundbreaking was especially important for the future of Jewish families in the community, as well as for the survival of the congregation and its rich heritage in Newtown.

“We really need to be able to grow, but there’s no more room [in the existing facility],” he said. “This new site will provide adequate room for the building, which will give us about 8,000 square feet of operating space on two levels.”

Mr Israel said the current congregation numbers almost 100, and he was pleased to see most of those families well represented at the groundbreaking event.

“Most of them are very active. You have to be when it’s a small congregation,” he said. “The project marks the beginning of a new era here in Newtown. Up to now, the lack of space has caused a number of Jewish families to travel to other communities to practice their religion. But now there will be room for everyone.”

Congregation Rabbi Shaul Praver echoed those comments, saying the establishment of a new and expanded synagogue will attract many new families to Adath Israel.

“A new synagogue means space for a larger membership. It means greater equity for our people and will provide for more services to members of the entire Newtown community,” Rabbi Praver said. “Today, the old facility has become a liability to our continued growth.”

He mentioned that due to a lack of space, children attending synagogue school were relegated to conducting classes in corners and behind makeshift partitions because there was no available space for classrooms.

“The growth of the synagogue comes through the involvement of children at a very young age. And since we’re forced to break up our classes, the youngest ones are expected to be there as early as 8 am. For every family who is willing to make that sacrifice, and to come that uncivilized hour on a Sunday morning, there are probably another three to five families who say, ‘no way.’”

According to Mr Israel, building activities should begin in earnest on the site in just a few weeks.

“It’s been a long journey, but our people are used to sacrifices and waiting a long time for what we have coming to us,” he said.

In the fall of 1998, the congregation’s initial proposal for synagogue construction proved controversial when it was submitted for P&Z review, with nearby property owners charging that the proposed building was too large. In October 1998, P&Z members rejected that initial application in a 3-to-2 vote, in part, due to the building’s size. The congregation then sued the P&Z over that rejection, later winning the February 1999 P&Z approval, which was unsuccessfully challenged in court.

The current construction plans call for a somewhat smaller synagogue than the one that the P&Z approved for the congregation in February 1999 in a 4-to-1 vote. That controversial proposal specified a 13,220-square-foot structure. That P&Z approval prompted an unsuccessful lawsuit against the P&Z by a Huntingtown Road man, who charged that the P&Z acted illegally when it endorsed the project.