It was inspiring and historic as members of Temple Adas Israel—which proudly relates on its website being Long Island’s oldest synagogue—returned to what has been their spiritual home in Sag Harbor for 125 years.
The congregation had homes away from home during the renovation of Temple Adas Israel thanks to the big-heartedness of First Presbyterian Church in Sag Harbor, widely known as Old Whaler’s Church, and the Cormaria Retreat Center. Services were held inside the church, built in 1844, and also on its front lawn, and virtually from the church, too. Old Whaler’s also provided office space for Temple Adas Israel’s rabbi, Dan Geffen, and administrators Eileen Moskowitz and Shelley Lichtenstein.
A string of services were held on the lawn of the Cormaria Retreat Center of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, a global Roman Catholic community. The retreat center opened in 1949 in Sag Harbor.
Sag Harbor has a tradition of acceptance of others.
It is where SANS—the Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest and Ninevah Beach Subdivisions Historic District—is located. It began as a summer retreat for African-American families who otherwise were not allowed at beachfront resorts, pools or beaches. There’s a Native American population—very right considering Sag Harbor and the rest of Long Island were the ancestral lands of Native Americans before Europeans, by hook and sometimes crook, acquired it. These years, many Latinos have found a place in Sag Harbor.
Regarding Jews, a 1902 Sag Harbor Express article reported “a recent census indicating a total population of 3,438” of Sag Harbor and told of how its “population is cosmopolitan…there are about 650 adults of foreign birth,” and “about 500” Jews which would be nearly 15 percent of Sag Harbor’s population at a time when Jews were not welcome in much of Suffolk County, and elsewhere.
The large percentage of Jews in Sag Harbor was due to Joseph Fahys opening a watchcase factory there in 1881. Fahys or his representatives would go to New York and seek out Hungarian Jews arriving in this country who were engravers (an art among Hungarian Jews), and also engravers coming from Italy, and bring them to Sag Harbor.
That Sag Harbor Express article went on that “some arrived from Ellis Island by steamer to be greeted at the docks by townspeople crying, ‘Jerusalem is coming. Jerusalem is here!’”
The vision for a renovation of Temple Adas Israel began with its former rabbi, Leon Morris, and architect Lee Pomeroy who drew up initial plans. Rabbi Morris with his family moved to Israel in 2014 where he is president of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. Pomeroy passed away in 2018. Rabbi Morris was succeeded by Rabbi Geffen. Lee was succeeded by another noted architect, Bill Chaleff of Water Mill-based Chaleff and Rogers.
Overseeing the project was contractor Roy “Buddy” Wines and his Southampton-based company RLW4. Said Wines in a temple teleconference at the start of 2023: “In 30 years, it was one of the most challenging jobs I’ve done, because of the lot size, the depth and detail. It’s challenging, but is exciting. It makes you alive.” Tom Ackerson, who also spoke of his excitement doing the work, was project manager.
There were only minor changes in the footprint of the building. The synagogue’s exquisite sanctuary has been left essentially at it has been. The huge amount of renovation involved digging out a basement, expanding other portions of the building and making improvements including adding an elevator for the disabled, and creating the Ronald and Jo Carole Lauder Center for Jewish Education. The Lauders, of Wainscott, are members. He is president of the American Jewish Congress and former U.S. ambassador to Austria. His late mother, Estee Lauder, was a member. The matching Lauder grant was crucial to the congregation affording the $7.3 million project. The stunning stained glass windows done by Sag Harbor artist Romany Kramoris, using 10,000 pieces of glass, have received vital protection.
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Cantor Kevin McKenzie, with a guitar, sang during the walk led by Rabbi Geffen.
Back at the synagogue, overflowing with people, Rabbi Geffen spoke of the ties between the synagogue and Sag Harbor and of “this unbelievable gift that is in front of us and pushing it further forward, of doing even more good, of seeing the world outside and acting in it to bring peace, to bring justice, to bring joy, to bring celebration, to bring community.”
And Sag Harbor Mayor James Larocca followed telling of “my friendship with this faith,” how the synagogue “has been an intimate part of Sag Harbor,” and offering congratulations speaking several passages in good Hebrew.