The sign out front says Bethel Evangelical Baptist Church.
But its sanctuary is filled with remnants of the building’s past, especially the stained-glass windows with Hebrew letters dancing through fragments of vibrant reds, oranges, blues and yellows.
The Delray Beach church complex was home to Temple Emeth, a Conservative synagogue for 40 years until 2014, when the congregation sold the property to the church due to shrinking membership.
Who would have thought it would serve as a temple again?
It will, albeit briefly, when Temple Beth Shira, a Reform congregation without a permanent home, conducts its High Holy Day services at the church, at 5780 W. Atlantic Ave., beginning Sept. 22.
“It feels like a sacred space for Jews,” said Beth Shira’s rabbi, Sharon Steinberg. “And the location is so central, we knew it would be a good fit for the holidays.”
Temple Emeth opened in 1974 and became a lively worship and social mecca for the many World War II-generation Jews who retired to Delray Beach from the 1970s to the 1990s.
But in the 21st century, the congregation began to suffer from declining membership and financial problems. These challenges reflected national trends of dwindling religious affiliation among America’s Jews, Rabbi Gerald Zelermyer, who led the congregation for its final two years, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 2014. He said the temple had 355 members when it closed, down from about 2,000 in 1996.
Temple Emeth merged with Temple Torah west of Boynton Beach, also a Conservative congregation, with the combined membership called Temple Torat Emet, a name the Boynton Beach synagogue still carries today.
The Rev. Evens Jules, Bethel Evangelical’s pastor, said his church leaders wanted to make room for their growing membership when they learned the synagogue was looking to sell its 5.4-acre site 11 years ago.
“We needed a bigger place with more parking,” he said. About 600 people come to church each Sunday morning, he said, and its previous small building in Delray Beach was unable to accommodate the hordes, which had to worship in three shifts.
Jules said he has always felt comfortable in Temple Emeth’s former sanctuary, including its Hebrew stained-glass inscriptions. He said he learned to read Hebrew during his seminary training.
“They say ’emet,’ which means truth,” Jules said. “They are words of the Old Testament. So we kept them.”
The sanctuary also contains the remnants of the synagogue’s ark, where Torah scrolls are stored for weekly reading. The ark, built into a wall, is now empty and covered with a video screen.
There are two crosses in the sanctuary, one on the pulpit lectern and one above a Haitian flag. Steinberg said these are easily removed for Beth Shira’s upcoming services.
“It feels very Jewish to me, not like a church,” said congregant Joy Parks, a Boynton Beach resident who was playing the piano during a recent High Holy Days rehearsal at the church.
Helaine Sikora, a congregant from Boca Raton, also attended the rehearsal. She will read from the Torah during the High Holy Days and expects her tears to flow: Her mother, Dorothy Zimmerman, was the first woman to be called to the Torah at Temple Emeth in 2000.
It was a controversial moment. The Conservative movement, which works to balance traditional Judaism with modern life, had been allowing women to read from the scriptures on the Sabbath since 1955, but each congregation made its own rules. Some at Temple Emeth were not happy to offer women a privilege that had been reserved for men.
“Some gentlemen walked out,” recalled Sikora, a retired Broward County teacher.
Sikora decided to join Beth Shira about 12 years ago, connecting with its assortment of age groups and high-spirited music program. She never thought she would revisit the old Temple Emeth, where her family made history.
“My mother broke the barrier here,” Sikora said. “It’s an honor to return.”
