What is Killing the American Synagogue?

It is not as if I have not seen synagogues in ruins before. I have — in photographs of Kristallnacht. This, however, is something entirely different.

This week, I learned that Temple Emanu-El in East Meadow has been demolished, and that it has merged with Temple B'Nai Torah in Wantagh — which is itself a merger of Suburban Temple and Temple Judea in Massapequa. There are many reasons for the demolition of Emanu-El's synagogue building — some of which have to do with structural issues. But, even still: to see a synagogue in ruins is ghastly.

I am a product of Long Island Judaism. I spent my childhood at Temple Beth Elohim in Old Bethpage, alav ha-shalom. It closed several years ago. I spent my teen years at Suburban Temple in Wantagh, NY. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was a booming, thriving synagogue of about 800 families. We had one hundred kids in the youth group. We were at the synagogue three nights a week.