Omaha Temple Starts Tri-Faith Campus
A Reform congregation in Omaha, Neb., has broken ground on a new synagogue building as part of a tri-faith campus.
The 140-year-old Temple Israel broke ground Sunday on a building that will seat 900 in its sanctuary.
The campus is set to include a mosque, an Episcopal church and a center for all faiths. Each of the buildings will be built on a four-acre plot of land, with an additional nine acres of green space, the Omaha World Herald reported.
Rabbi Aryeh Azriel told the newspaper that the tri-faith center will be a place where all religions can come “to study, to learn and to celebrate. It’s going to be a home.”
The synagogue building is scheduled to be completed in August 2013. The other buildings are still in the planning stages.
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
— Alyssa Katz, editor-in-chief
