McHenry County Jewish Congregation, recently at risk of dissolving, finds new home at McHenry church

With both dwindling membership and an aging building, the McHenry County Jewish Congregation just months ago was facing the prospect of disbanding.

Instead, the congregation spent Sunday moving its torah scrolls and other sacred texts to its new home in McHenry, where it will share space at the Tree of Life Unitarian Congregation’s church.

[ PHOTOS: McHenry County Jewish Congregation moves to new home at McHenry church ]

The two faith communities had many years ago shared a building off the Woodstock Square that’s now home to Blue Lotus Buddhist Temple.

Bruce Weiss said he “was there on Day 1″ of the Jewish Congregation in January 1979. The congregation was housed in the basement of the Unitarian church before moving to the former space off Ridgefield Road near Crystal Lake that it’s now in the process of selling.

For a while, the Jewish congregation “grew by leaps and bounds,” Weiss said, adding it the synagogue rented a trailer to accommodate Sunday School classes. Back in the early 2000s, the synagogue was thriving, former congregation president Ellen Morton. said. There were more than 100 students attending Sunday school, and there were many families with young children.

But at last count there were just four students attending Sunday school, Morton said. Shabbat services tend to have an attendance of nine to 22 people, while high holidays can have an attendance of 35 to 50 people.

“We still have a wonderful core of people,” Weiss said.

It’s been 20 years since Morton was congregation president. With its recent move, she has been going through files to decide what is kept, what is tossed, and what will be buried.

“I was looking at our membership director and old photos. So many people are gone,” Morton said. “They moved, or are no longer affiliated, or have passed away. There are very few of us left.”

The dwindling enrollment might just be a sign of the times, she said. Both churches and synagogues have seen the number of faithful decline in recent years.

“People no longer see the need to affiliate” with a house of worship “and Judaism is a complicated religion” for youths who need to learn a whole other language for their bar or bat mitzvahs, she said.

It’s been a bit of a roller coaster in the past few weeks, since the congregation voted to sell its building near Crystal Lake. The 110-year-old former school’s upkeep had become too expensive for the membership to cover.

Once the building went on the market, an offer came quickly, Morton said. While not finalized the sale is under contract, pending a zoning change request to the county.

In some ways, the sale of the building is similar to parents selling the home their children grew up in, Rabbi Maralee Gordon said.

“We want people to understand that the congregation is going to continue. They need to separate the congregation from the building. You are not losing your family,” Gordon said.

Everyone who has had a connection to the local Jewish community was invited back on Sunday for the old building’s de-consecration.

Morton said it was “much more emotional than I expected” to move out.

After the de-consecration, the congregants headed over to Tree of Life. Tree of Life parishioners were on hand to welcome their new neighbors, and a sign out front read “Welcome MCJC.”

At the new space, there was a brief ceremony during which the torah were brought into the new sanctuary. Sunday’s events also featured a Q&A session and building tours, and members from both congregations also got to know each other.

“I’m relieved that we found such an accepting congregation to take us in,” Morton said.

Sue McCowin, the Unitarian Congregation board president, said her church is “so honored to be able to provide” a home for the congregation. She told members of the Jewish group who gathered in the sanctuary, “Please feel like this is your home.”

McCowin said she and others had read a previous Northwest Herald article about the Jewish congregation and its search for a new home. Afterward, she said she called Gordon about moving in.

“It was kind of organic,” McCowin said.

McCowin said to her knowledge, no opposition to the move was raised amongst the congregation.

“It was more delight than objection,” McCowin said. Of the ceremony, McCowin said, “I found it very moving.”

Beth and Dave Osten moved to Johnsburg a few years ago, and the new facility is about half the distance from their residence. The Ostens are looking forward to meeting Tree of Life congregants.

Beth Osten said it was “a hopeful thing for me” and it is “sort of a start of a larger community.”

While going through the files and boxes, Morton and others also found old prayer books and other religious writings that include the Hebrew name for god. By tradition, those cannot be thrown away or burned. The materials will be

The materials will be buried in accordance with Jewish tradition at later the Woodstock Jewish cemetery.