Some big changes are happening at the corner of Vaughn and Green streets in uptown Harrisburg. The brick building once known as Riverside Elementary School has been replaced with dug-up earth and huge pieces of construction equipment. A chain-linked fence and trailers surround the property.
It’s all part of the work being done to build a new Chisuk Emuna Congregation synagogue at 3219 Green St. by this time next year.
In April 2009, right before Passover, an accidental fire decimated the former synagogue at 5th and Division streets. It left the building uninhabitable. Since then, the congregation has held events at the Jewish Community Center on Front Street. In October 2010, members broke ground for a synagogue at its new location.
“It’s going to be gorgeous,” one neighbor, who lives across the street from the construction, said. “I can’t wait for it to open,” agreed another neighbor. Both declined to give their names.
Carl Shuman, president of Chisuk Emuna congregation, said, “We have enjoyed getting to meet our new neighbors and we want Chisuk Emuna to be a place in which they, too, take pride.”
“Great excitement,” Rabbi Ron Muroff said, visiting the site one afternoon. “To see a building is rising is very exciting and the building will serve a higher purpose.
“We hope this new home will allow us to serve our members, serve our communities in ways we weren’t able to before, and move from strength to strength.”
The 15,000-square-foot contemporary building will be smaller than the 200,000 square feet at Chisuk Emuna’s former home, but it will provide the same services and more.
The new building will be one level instead of three, beneficial for older members of the congregation and for visitors with special needs. There is hope for a garden to grow vegetables to share with neighbors and those in need within the community.
While Riverside Elementary, which had been re-named Thomas Morris Chester School, no longer exists, gone the way of the wrecking ball, a member of the Chisuk Emuna congregation had actually been the principal there for years.
“I’m delighted that Jay Krevsky’s grandchildren will be attending Hebrew school at the site where he nurtured so many other children,” Shuman said.
The construction means the end of the old school’s popularly used grassy slope.
“Riverside Elementary’s hill probably won’t be available any longer for winter sledding,” Shuman said. “[But] I hope that we’ll be able to develop programs for our children, and for the children of the neighborhood, that will be as rewarding and leave them with equally happy memories.”
Rabbi Muroff said: “The story of one small congregation partnering with other congregations within the Jewish community, with Christians, Jews, Muslims, others; there’s something good going on, something is happening here.”
Chisuk Emuna is looking to open its new home in a year. It has raised $2.8 million of the $3.5 million needed, thanks to the generosity of its congregation along with the community. If you would like to make a contribution, you can do so by mailing it to: Chisuk Emuna Congregation, P.O. Box 5507, Harrisburg, PA 17110. You can also find out more by going to www.chisukemuna.org
