After 2-plus feet of rain-soaked snow cracked the ceiling beams of Temple Beth Shalom's sanctuary, the Arnold congregation hopped from hotel to country club to tent before settling into a set of trailers as its makeshift place of worship.
There, synagogue leaders say, they made do - housing their holy scrolls in a closet, praying on movable seats - all the while working toward the day they could afford to build a new home.
Today, more than three years after the February 2003 storm that drove them from their sanctuary, the 240-family Reform Jewish congregation is set to celebrate the construction of a $4 million building - one designed to accommodate a growing membership.
"It's much more than replacing a sanctuary that's gone," said Rabbi Ari J. Goldstein, Beth Shalom's spiritual leader. "Anne Arundel County is not a mecca of Jewish community and Jewish experience. ... It's up to us to maintain Jewish community here or it's not going to happen, and that's what this sanctuary really represents."
With the permit process still in the works, Goldstein and other synagogue officials said today's groundbreaking is ceremonial. It will coincide with the last day of religious school.
They expect construction to start next month and are looking forward to the day when they can move into the 14,000-square-foot sanctuary and social hall.
While the congregation has tried to make the trailers "presentable," "There's certainly not the same feeling of spirituality there," said Beth Plavner, who co-chairs the synagogue's capital campaign. The campaign has raised about $2.1 million.
"I'm looking forward to the real thing," she said.
Beth Shalom's groundbreaking is one of two major events celebrating Jewish life at Anne Arundel County's synagogues today. The other, at the traditional Kneseth Israel congregation, is a 100th anniversary gala expected to draw more than 300 people. It will also feature a tree planting and a dramatic presentation of the congregation's history.
The county also is home to a third congregation, the Conservative Kol Ami in Annapolis.
"I think to maintain our presence was formidable," said Anna E. Greenberg, who co-chairs Kneseth Israel's 100th anniversary committee. For years, she said, it was the only synagogue in the county. "We were very diligent about remaining a unifying force. We made ourselves known in the community."
