Day 6-Brooklyn Heritage Tour

Day Six we decided to spend in Brooklyn.  We started off by visiting the synagogue where Scott's dad was Bar Mitzvah'd in 1955.  The synagogue was built in 1924, and is now on the National Register of Historic Places.  We were the only people there, except the secretary, who was so sweet and kind.  Her name was Edith and she gave us a personal tour.  It is breathtaking..

This is the Bima, with the Ark (where they keep the Torah scrolls) behind the podium.

The beautiful stained glass rotunda ceiling.

Stained class windows line the sides of the entire sanctuary (?!)

The large stained glass window on the other side was broken during Hurricane Ivan(?) I think last spring.  They removed the glass and are having it repaired, but it will cost $50,000 to repair and reinstall.  And, although you can't tell from the pictures, the whole place is in desperate need of renovations.  The plaster is crumbling, it needs paint...etc.  Due to changing demographics in the neighborhood the membership for a conservative synagogue has fallen dramatically over the last few years.  Their current membership is around 300 and the majority of those members are 80+.  They have received a $100,000 matched donation grant, but a membership of 300 mostly senior citizens can't begin to raise that much money.  It's so sad.

Took a picture of the kids in front of the Bima, since these Milders won't ever be Bar/Bat Mitzvah'd!

It's a Shul with a pool!  Seriously, indoors.  It was put in when the building was built and has a beautiful mosaic tile surrounding it.

This is a Torah that survived the holocause that one of the members helped sneak out of Nazi Occupation.  

This was probably the highlight of our day.  Edith was so filled with pride over that building and it's history and the work that God has done there.  Makes me so sad that such a beautiful, historic building that was built as a testament to God and their faith is crumbling.  They will be in our prayers.

The synagogue was just half a block from the building that Scott's dad grew up in...

We then drove the three blocks over to the building where his mom grew up!

By then it was time for some lunch, so what better than Coney Island!!  Nathan's Famous, of course!

Hard to believe I took this in 2012!

The kids wanted to run down to the water, and Mandy wanted to hunt for shells...

This was what I was on the hunt for while we were there...Italian Ice!

On our way out of Brooklyan, we wanted to stop and show the kids where some of their grandmother's family was buried.  It is Jewish tradition that you name your kids after relatives that have passed.  You don't necessarily have to use their actual name, but the initials.  Grace's middle name is Emma-Rose.  Emma is after Scott's paternal grandmother.  Scott's grandfather had a younger sister named Rose.  His father died when he was in his teens and he had the responisbility of raising her.  When she was 14 she was diagnosed with leukemia.  In 1929, there wasn't much that could be done and she died.  He always felt like it was his fault that he couldn't afford better care for her.  So....we decided to give her name to Grace as well.  She is buried in Brookly and I wanted to take Grace....

In the Jewish tradition, her headstone is a tree trunk with no branches to signify a life cut short before she had the chance to marry and have children.

Scott's grandma Anne that Mandy was named after... "Amanda"...

The cemetaries here are nothing like the ones we have at home.  Because space is such a premium there is literally no space at all between the graves.  We left our rocks and headed back to the car just as it started to rain.  From there we headed out to Montauk!  I will post all about our awesome digs here in my next post.

Brooklyn Blessings,
Leslie