The last remaining synagogue in the once-thriving Jewish community of Randallstown has announced it will close its doors.
The Winands Road Synagogue Center confirmed recently that it will officially discontinue operations at some point in mid-2017.
No exact date has been set yet, but Morris A. Wise, the Orthodox congregation’s vice president/treasurer, said the shul will likely close right after the holiday of Shavout, which this year starts on May 30.
Wise said that the congregation’s board of directors passed a resolution on Nov. 16 to “shut down operations” in the spring.
“We are an aging group, and we no longer have the nucleus of members to provide the financial strength to continue,” he said. “It was a very emotional decision to make.”
Wise said the board of directors recently sent a letter to the synagogue’s membership informing them of the decision.
The congregation — which has been at its current location at 8701 Winands Road, at the intersection with Carthage Road, since 1968 — is an amalgamation of several different synagogues: the Beth Yehuda, Beth Jacob Anshe Kurland, Kneseth Israel Anshe Sphard, Anshe Kolk-Wolyn and B’nai Reuben congregations. The eldest congregation, Beth Jacob Anshe Kurland, was founded in 1895.
Rabbi Sholom Salfer has served as spiritual leader of the congregation since Sept. 1976. In March of 1990, the congregation held a “Mortgage Burning” ceremony.
Wise said the main reason that the synagogue is closing is a significant drop in membership. He said the congregation is down to about 100 members.
“It was a very emotional decision to make,” Wise said. “We have survived longer than any synagogue in Randallstown by far. We have existed longer than anyone would have thought we would have. You have to make very difficult gut-wrenching decisions of this nature.”
He said the congregation will continue having regular services daily and on Shabbat until the discontinuation of operations.
Wise said the board has discussed the topic of closing for the past decade.
“The handwriting has been on the wall,” Wise said. “It was [a decision] we reached very cautiously.”
When the synagogue closes, Wise said the board will embark on the process of selling the building.
“We are a very family-oriented group that’s mostly been together for years and years and years,” Wise said.
In its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, Randallstown and the Liberty Road corridor had a large Jewish population with several congregations, including Adath Yeshurun, Beth Israel, Liberty Jewish Center, Moses Montefiore-Woodmoor Hebrew Congregation, Randallstown Synagogue Center, Temple Emanuel and Winands Road Synagogue Center.
Jeff Seidel is a Baltimore-based freelance writer.
Photo of Winands Road Synagogue Center by Jmore Editorial Intern William Linker
This year’s Community Block Party at the JCC of Greater Baltimore will feature classic cars, giant inflatables, games, a rock-climbing wall and roller skating rink, and strolling entertainers.
Marc Terrill talks with Michael Bresler, CEO and President of Broadheights, an AI consulting group, about the opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence.
For 35 years, the late Deborah Brodie, aka Bubbie Cookie, amassed a collection of over 200 Jewish ritual objects, which she used to teach her Hebrew school students with special needs.
In a recent talk at Beth Tfiloh, Elisha Wiesel called on Jews to cultivate joyfulness in their faith and sense of community.