Congregation Looks Back On 50 Years Of Worship

Reprinted with permission from the Hartford Currant Company October 25, 2001

Congregation Looks Back On 50 Years Of Worship

By: STEVEN GOODE, Courant Staff Writer October 25, 2001

WINDSOR -- It all started with a small minority in a small town. Sixteen families meeting in each other's homes in Windsor every week to practice their religion and to teach their children about the history of their people.

Determined to find a common ground to gather, study and pray, the families gave and raised money, forged friendships with people of other faiths and eventually built their own synagogue, known as Beth Ahm, or house of people.

On Saturday, past and current members of the congregation will gather to celebrate its 50th anniversary and to commemorate the efforts of those who made their place of worship a reality.

"We were young and ambitious and had a strength and a desire," said Irving Wasserman, one of the congregation's founders and a past president.

Those traits came in handy as the founders took financial risks, held raffles and promoted wrestling matches to build the cinder block synagogue.

"We did everything that was legally possible to do," Wasserman said.

They also relied on the friendship and trust of Christians who lived in the neighborhood that congregation members hoped to build in. Those neighbors spoke on behalf of the congregation when a zoning issue arose about building in a residential area.

"I think they realized we deserved to have a place of worship," Wasserman said.

On Sept. 11, 1960, the synagogue on Palisado Avenue opened it doors, and it has been a venue for services, religious schooling, rites of passage and a sense of community ever since.

Wasserman said no single event in the congregation stands out over the past half-century. What does come to mind are the young people who came of age through religious ceremonies such as bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs.

"Every one was a significant event," he said.

Marla Adelsberger, who began attending Beth Ahm when she was about 2 years old, was among those who had a bat mitzvah at the synagogue. She also was married there, and her daughter, Rachel, had her naming ceremony there.

For Adelsberger, 45, the congregation offers a place of comfort and familiarity, a place that might be called "heymish" in Yiddish.

"It's homely, but warm and kind," she said. "It's very humble."

Adelsberger, who lives in Suffield, said she now enjoys watching Rachel, 9, grow up in the same atmosphere she did. She also likes the relationship that she and other members have with their rabbi, Alan Lefkowitz.

For information about Congregation Beth Ahm and its 50th anniversary celebration, please call 860-688-4499.