Jewish Community News

News: May 2008

Congregation Emeth purchasesfirst ever permanent home

Established 30 years ago by a group of 12 families in the South Santa Clara County, Congregation Emeth realized a long anticipated dream last month  with the purchase of its first permanent home. 
   Officially closing escrow on April 15, 2008, the new spiritual home is  located at 17835 Monterey Road in downtown Morgan Hill.  The congregation plans to begin using the building by mid-June, and will have full use by this year’s High Holy Days.
   Emeth President Michael Oshan and Treasurer Barry Freund have been actively searching sites and negotiating terms for the past nine months in anticipation of this momentous move.  “We are so pleased!” Oshan said.  “For the first time, anyone looking for a Jewish presence in Morgan Hill, Gilroy, and the surrounding areas will know exactly where to look! We intend for our new spiritual home to serve as the center of the Jewish Community in the South Silicon Valley. Our welcome mat is out!”
    New and smaller sized synagogues often have to operate out of rented space for many years, transforming church social halls and other recreational facilities. While the people clearly make up the  soul of any synagogue, members and leadership will attest that it is taxing not to have a place to call home.
    “In the past, we were guests in several locations, for both worship services and religious school and we dealt with the attendant requirements of setting up and tearing down, combined with the underlying worry about not offending our hosts,” explained Paul Crompton, Emeth’s immediate past president. “We never enjoyed the freedom to have a bimah that met our needs and desires, or to construct a Holy Ark to appropriately house our precious Torah scrolls.  As a community, we have sojourned for over 30 years and now are finally able to establish permanence in the community.”
    The 6200 square foot space will have a main sanctuary that can  seat more than 300, a   large multipurpose room,  classrooms for kindergarten through high-school-age students, a rabbi’s office, gift shop, library, full commercial kitchen, and ample outdoor space for a children’s playground.  “We now have the facility to be a full-service synagogue, serving all ages,” said Oshan.
    The new building comes at an opportune time, as Emeth has been experiencing considerable growth. In the past two years membership has surged by almost 40 percent.