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A New Beginning At Central Synagogue: A year after a devastating fire, the resilient congregants of the historic temple hold a `spiritual groundbreaking' amid $40 million restoration.
SUSAN JOSEPHS
STAFF WRITER
Rabbi Peter Rubinstein will never forget the Friday-night service of one year ago -- when a fire raged and the roof came crashing down on Central Synagogue's historic sanctuary. Still, members of the Manhattan congregation persisted in holding services at its nearby community center because in prayer and togetherness lay "our tree of life. No one knew what was happening across the street," recalls the congregation's spiritual leader. "But our services didn't stop ... even the midst of trauma."
Recently, members of Central Synagogue, a Reform congregation made up of some 1,400 families, gathered on East 55th Street in front of their still-damaged, heavily scaffolded landmark building to "commemorate how the city responded at the time of the fire," says Rabbi Rubinstein. "The service also served as a spiritual groundbreaking. We acknowledged the beginning of our rebuilding effort."
On the first anniversary of the fire that destroyed its physical home and led to a frantic search for a suitable space to hold High Holy Days services, Central Synagogue can no longer be called a synagogue in crisis. As its sanctuary undergoes a $40 million restoration and rebuilding process and the congregation prepares to hold Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur services again in the New York State Armory, its membership has...