Congregation Sons of Zion passes historic synagogue to a growing Holyoke church
HOLYOKE – Congregation Sons of Zion now meets in a former mill building, reusing a remnant of the industrial capacity that brought its immigrant founders to the Paper City at the dawn of the 20th century.
The new worship space for the Jewish community stands in contrast to the 19,000-square-foot sanctuary and community center at 378 Maple St., with its soaring stained-glass windows, that Sons of Zion once occupied a few blocks away.
The Congregation Sons of Zion building on Maple Street, Holyoke, was sold recently. (Jeanette DeForge/Republican staff)republican
"But if we don't have money. We don't have a choice," said the congregation's president, Joanne Saltman. "It was a difficult process."
Many religious groups have gone through the same process, selling buildings and downsizing as congregations shrink.
On Nov. 7, Congregation Sons of Zion of Holyoke Inc. sold the former synagogue and its property to a church, Templo Pentecostal La Hermosa, for $550,000, according to documents on file with the Hampden County Registry of Deeds. The synagogue moved its operations to 380D Dwight St. a few years ago.
"They are a wonderful Puerto Rican church," Saltman said. "And they are working over there, fixing up this old building."
The church plans to retain the stained-glass windows, one of which holds the likeness of a menorah, said Olaida Irizarry, wife of Templo Pentecostal La Hermosa's pastor, Confesor Irizarry.
"It's a beautiful building," Olaida Irizarry said.
The old synagogue occupies a central location in Holyoke's downtown and is used sometimes for food distribution.
"It is a good place to help people," she said.
Confesor Irizarry founded the church 17 years ago and has seen its membership grow to more than 100. Before the move, congregants met in a smaller church on Pine Street in Holyoke.
Sons of Zion also started in rented space in South Holyoke — in 1904, Saltman said.
The Jewish population in Holyoke grew with immigration and expanding families. The congregation bought 378 Maple St. – built in 1890 as a meeting hall for French-Canadian immigrants – and converted it into a synagogue.
In the late 1940s, as servicemen returned from World War II and a baby boom began, Sons of Zion and another synagogue, Congregation Rodphey Sholom , cooperated to build a 15,000-square-foot Jewish Community Center at 378 Maple St., opening it in 1950.
"Of course, over the years the kids grew up and moved away," Saltman said. "The older people died. The manufacturers moved out of Holyoke."
The congregation voted in 2022 to sell. For a time it looked like the alternative school Lighthouse Holyoke would buy the building.
But Lighthouse instead bought and moved into the former Gateway City Arts.
The synagogue started meeting at 380D Dwight St. a few years ago. The space has a social hall and a chapel. "It's all we need," Saltman said.
Today, the congregation has 60 to 70 members, down from 200 a few decades ago. Many are elderly. Sons of Zion draws about a dozen or so members to its Saturday shabbat services.
The space sits at one end of the converted mill from Holyoke Cannabis.
"Which few of our older members objected to," Saltman said. "Most of us find it whimsical."
Read the original article on MassLive . Add MassLive as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
