This town lost most of its Jews. But not its Judaism.
A century-old Orthodox synagogue in a Rust Belt town lost most of its congregation, its rabbis, and almost everything else — but not its daily minyan
Small Town
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News An Alabama millionaire offered Jews $50,000 to move to his town. 16 years later, what’s left?
Dothan’s Temple Emanu-El synagogue made national headlines with a bold plan to revive Jewish life
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Holy Ground A Jewish farmer drove 600 miles to rescue a century-old synagogue. Now he’s building a new one in a cornfield.
All four of Nik Jakobs’ grandparents survived the Nazis. Now this Jewish cattleman is honoring them — and a shuttered Rust Belt synagogue — by building a new sanctuary and museum in rural Illinois
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Culture What do you do with a Jewish cemetery in a town without Jews?
Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, once had a thriving Jewish community. What happened when their dead were left in one woman’s care?
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FIRST PERSON As a rabbi in a small town, I understand the Jewish class divide — and how to close it
Rural congregations have a fraction of the resources of their big-city cousins, writes the head of the Center for Small Town Jewish Life
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News Synagogue for sale: What does coronavirus mean for this historic building?
For the last year, one of Dr. Michael Bukstein’s duties as synagogue president for B’nai Sholom Temple, the oldest synagogue in the state of Illinois, has been trying to sell its beautiful and unique building. Located in the small city of Quincy, the building is in a neo-Byzantine style of architecture, with detailed brickwork and…
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News Seeking Jewish Future in Small Latin American Towns
(JTA) — The youthful group of 60 drew their chairs around tables strewn with jars of markers and the occasional Rubik’s Cube, nearby chalkboards at the ready for jotting down big ideas. The conference hall was suffused with a can-do vibe that wouldn’t have seemed out of place in Silicon Valley. But high-tech was not…
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News Southern Jews a Dying Breed as Small-Town Communities Dwindle Fast
Bert Rosenbush Jr. enjoys a bittersweet form of celebrity in his hometown of Demopolis, Ala.: He’s the last living Jew there. It’s a form of prominence he shares with Phil Cohen of Lexington, Miss. In Natchez, Miss., Jerold Krause is one of just a dozen Jews left. And Selma, Ala., a town that was central…
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