(Jewish Group) Jewish community buys back Montana's first synagogue from Catholic Diocese

[Behind the Aegis]

After extended campaign, Jewish community buys back Montana’s first synagogue from Catholic Diocese

The Jewish community in Montana closed a deal Thursday to reacquire the state’s first synagogue, built in 1891, returning it to Jewish ownership for the first time in 87 years.

The Montana Jewish Project, a nonprofit organization, purchased the two-story Helena synagogue for an undisclosed amount from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena after a nine-month fundraising effort to turn the space into a Jewish community center.

The group is not planning to hire a rabbi or build a congregation, but it will offer High Holiday services and other community-wide events for the roughly 100 Jews it estimates lives in the state’s capital city.

Rebecca Stanfel, the group’s president, said now that the funding has been secured, the community will “foster a sense of larger community for all of Montana’s Jews” by hiring a traveling director of programming to oversee education, speakers and cultural events.

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