CONGREGATION RODFEI ZEDEK
ESTABLISHED IN 1875
FIFTH HOME COMPLETED IN 2000
STATUS REPORT
AS OF THE DEDICATION
SEPTEMBER 15-17, 2000
FACTS
- Ground Breaking, 5/99; Cornerstone Laying, 10/99; Dedication, 9/00
Square Feet: approximately 32,000
Main Sanctuary seats 320
Chapel seats 50 and expands to seat 75
Parking for 45 cars
Library will accommodate computers with Internet connections
Architect: Philip Kupritz
General Contractor: Kipley Construction
FUNCTIONS
The building serves the spiritual, educational, and communal needs of Congregation Rodfei Zedek and the educational, social, and secular Jewish needs of the Hyde Park community through the Hyde Park Jewish Community Center. The building includes
- Main sanctuary on the ground floor and chapel on the second floor for worship and study
Atrium and lobby for meeting and socializing
Gift shop
Synagogue administrative offices
5 classrooms, each accommodating 12-15 students
4 meeting rooms plus 1 computer room
JCC facilities include 2 early childhood education rooms, adult education rooms, full gymnasium, aministrative offices
DESIGN PRINCIPLES
The building was designed to blend with dominant architectural styles of its immediate environment, to welcome the community through its soaring doors, to encompass and engage its congregants in observance and education, and to create a new setting for many of its earlier religious treasures and design features.
The interior furnishings were selected by an interior design committee. The committee, working within a budget, established the following operating principles:
- Reuse good quality, aesthetically pleasing furnishings, weighing restoration costs against replacement costs;
Retain key architectural elements whenever possible;
Coordinate the furniture and fabrics throughout the building;
Balance aesthetics, functionality, and durability;
Stay within budget.
We were fortunate to have the services of the architect in charge of interior design at a major Chicago architectural firm. He donated many hours of time to helping us select the basic finishes. He guided our choice of flooring - tile, carpeting and linoleum - as well as the fabric and wood finishes in the main sanctuary. Once we chose the deep red of the sanctuary carpeting to complement the Valeska stained glass windows, we coordinated the remaining flooring and upholstery with the same deep red.
The main Sanctuary is designed in the style of traditional Ashkenazi synagogues, with the baal tefillah and Torah reading placed in the center of the congregation under a skylight. In the Sanctuary, we were able to refurbish the sanctuary seating and bimah chairs as well as retain the Ner Tamid, the bimah menorot, and the Agam window (to be placed in the north wall window) from the earlier Simon Sanctuary and the Valeska windows from the earlier Lanski Chapel.
We have a new ark, designed by Phil Kupritz, which is inscribed with the words, “We will do and we will hear.” The rabbi’s lectern and the Torah readers’ table have not yet been completed. The sound system includes equipment for the hearing impaired and extends into the social hall as well.
In the Atrium and Lobby, we will soon have sofas and chairs and rugs so that people can meet informally in small groups for social and congregational purposes. Or just sit and be contemplative. We can seat about 200 people for meals in the atrium. We have a sound system in the Atrium so we can use it for dancing, for receptions, or for large meetings.
We can seat about 250 people in the Social Hall at tables, and about 350 people when we open the social hall to the main sanctuary. Because most of our social hall furniture was close to 50 years old, we chose to replace all of the tables and chairs in the social hall.
In the Chapel, we elected to use moveable seating so that the chapel could be used for study as well as for tefillot. The seating, chosen for its comfort, design and stackable features, can be easily moved as our needs change during the course of the day, the week, or the year. While the ark is new, its doors are the familiar gates from the ark in the previous main sanctuary. The filigree moorish Ner Tamid, rewired and polished, came from in front of the Ark that was built into the stage of the earlier Newberger Auditorium. The wall sconces over the book cases formerly flanked the ark in Newberger; they have been polished and rewired.
The Library is situated in the midst of our classrooms and meeting rooms so that it is a central presence in our lives. Like the chapel, it is designed for maximum use so that individual students can work in quiet or a small study group can learn in an intimate setting. The shelving in the back has yet to be installed. These shelves will be used to display frequently used texts and important documents in our synagogue’s history.
We were able to use the JCC’s office supply company and its experienced representative to guide us through the many choices we had to make. By working with one rep and limiting our major purchases to two different manufacturers, we were able to stretch our furnishings budget. We chose to sacrifice the elegance of individually furnished, single function rooms for the more casual flexibility of durable, stackable, collapsible, moveable, interchangeable furniture for use in rooms with multiple purposes. For example, the chairs in the meeting rooms, library and chapel are the same design, differing only in the color of the upholstery which coordinates with the flooring in their respective rooms. The 250 social hall chairs were chosen for their articulated backs and seats which make them comfortable for prolonged sitting, like during services, and for their low maintenance features, which make them easy to clean after meals. The thirty adult size classroom chairs are the same design as the social hall chairs, although a different color, so that there is some visual continuity should we need to set up with more than 250 chairs. Our 45 new tables can be moved throughout the building.
Like the seating, the furniture in the administrative offices was chosen with an eye towards the aesthetically pleasing, the functional and the durable. Many of the finishes used in the offices are repeated throughout the building, such as in the library and in the Braille Institute/Computer Room.
Before we moved, we inventoried and appraised all of the Hebraica and Judaica in our museum cases and in our three arks. When the new display cases arrive (three for the alcove in the west wall upstairs and one for the atrium), we will unpack and catalog our collection. We have asked a group of knowledgeable members to review our art collection and make recommendations for cleaning, reframing and display. The Ashet Chayil stained glass window from the previous sanctuary will be back lit and hung in the northeast corner of the second floor.
The white High Holiday torah mantels and our green velvet torah mantels have just come back from being repaired and hand cleaned. As we unpack the Torah crowns and breastplates, we will set aside those in need of repair and establish a long-term schedule for repair and maintenance.
The yahrzeit plaques were gathered from many places in the old 5200 building. Because the bronze plaques were several different sizes, they were difficult to combine and mounting them required much more contiguous wall space than we have available. We chose to recast them in a uniform size in brushed stainless. The 1600 plaques have been organized by Hebrew month; the current boards allow for an additional 400 plaques. The cost of recasting the yahreit plaques was not substantially more than the cost of mounting the variously sized bronze plaques. The endowment plaques, formerly in the front lobby near the administrative offices, as well as the pictures of our clergy will be rehung in the second floor meeting rooms.
FINANCING
The new building will cost $5.0 million to complete. Funds from the building have come through:
- the sale of about half of our former property to the Akiba Schechter Jewish Day School for $1.5 million;
a loan from the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago to the Hyde Park Jewish Community Center for $1.0 million, of which about $875,000 went to the building and the remainder for JCC furnishings
the on-going capital campaign which met its first goal of $1.5 million and is close to its second goal of an additional $500,000.
The Hyde Park Bank has provided a loan of up to $1.0 million dollars to carry us through while campaign pledges are being met and to finance the difference between our available cash and the cost to complete the building.
We will continue the capital campaign through the end of the current calendar year.
WHAT IS TO COME
Clearly, we await the arrival of many of our furnishings. In the Main Sanctuary, theTorah Reader’s Table and Rabbi’s podium have yet to be constructed. The atrium furniture will arrive in a few weeks, hopefully before the High Holy Days. The library furnishings, including the display shelves, are not complete. The museum display cases on the second floor and in the lobby will be delivered in late fall. Two of our stained glass windows have yet to be hung. The filler for the Valeska windows is yet to be installed (the filler is on the top rather than the bottom because the weight of the windows require that they rest on the building’s foundation).
We have had our share of delays: fire plugs sitting in the middle of driveways, cabinetmakers stung by bees, lost checks found six months later on the city hall desk where they had been delivered. We are in the middle of a boom building economy with custom materials and custom craftspeople in short supply. We have encountered the usual and normal delays as well as the absurd and ridiculous delays. We will let you know, primarily through the bulletin, as the finishing touches are put into place. For those of you whose generosity have made these particular furnishings possible, we apologize for the delay. We will call to let you know when your gifts arrive.
GENEROSITY
The generosity of many congregants has been deeper, wider and more loving than can be imagined. Many people have given financially while others have donated their professional and business skills. And some have given in all three areas. For at least a dozen congregants, building our new synagogue became a second day job. And profound thanks go as well to our clergy and our executive director, working out of cramped and dispiriting settings, who have held us together under several roofs for almost two years.
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