Cranford synagogue turns 90 with birthday bash

By Lauren Matthew

Special To The Jewish State

Temple Beth-El Mekor Chayim in Cranford celebrated 90 years within the Jewish community Sunday with daylong festivities and a look back on what -- and who -- made the synagogue successful.

The day included dinner, singing, dancing, entertainment, and a tribute to the synagogue's past presidents, as well as a celebration of Israel's 60th Birthday.

According to past president and event chairman Stephen Solomon, planning for the birthday bash began as early as September. Picture-taking for the day's program and memory books began, he said, right after the High Holidays.

The Book of Memories included a program for the concert, as well as articles written by most of the synagogue's past-presidents. It also included congratulatory letters from public officials, including the governor, state senators, and U.S. congressmen.

Solomon said that the planning of the event was done by "almost every member of the congregation… at one time or another." He credited the synagogue members with a high level of participation.

But a large part of the planning, Solomon said, involved rooting through archives and pictures of the synagogue's past. Some, he said, were made into posters. Solomon said that notes of the president who planned the 50th anniversary of the shul were found, as well as ledger books back to the 1920s and 30s. Ledgers list dues in 1917 as six cents per month, or $6 a year.

"There's a note in there... where they talk about taking up a collection to cover an expense, and we would use the excess for a good time... and then tally it all up and there's about 9 cents left for a good time," Solomon said, laughing.

TBEMC began life as two different synagogues, Temple Beth-El of Cranford and Westfield, founded in 1917, and Temple Mekor Chayim-Suburban Jewish Center in Linden, founded after World War II. In 1998, the two synagogues merged.

Past presidents were singled out for honors, he said, because it seemed as though they gave up the most time to make the shul work.

"When you ask, 'How did this happen?' it was those people who decided to take times out of their lives and put personal lives on hold and be in charge," Solomon said.

On Monday, current synagogue president Bruce Solomon told The Jewish State that the anniversary celebration could not have gone better; he called the day "superb."

The shul's cantor, Elana Cohen, is finishing her fourth year as a student at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Solomon said, and she had a large part in planning the concert portion of the day. Musicians that Cohen knew from New York, some also cantorial students, gave what Solomon called a "modern feel to real variety of Jewish music, everything from liturgical from Ladino to Israeli tunes to Yiddish Second Ave. theater."

The musicians, he noted, were actually rock musicians and have a Led Zeppelin cover band called Led Blimpie.

"The congregation was just blown away," Solomon said.

The event was always, he said, meant to be an all-day party.

"Hitting 90 years as a temple and still thriving and growing and being a vital part of the Jewish community in central New Jersey is a great accomplishment, and I really wanted us to celebrate ourselves," Solomon said.

The congregation did indeed celebrate themselves; past presidents from as far back as the 1960s came to the event Sunday, he noted. And Solomon, who will shortly leave his post as Elliot Ballen takes over the presidency, called the day "the best sendoff a boy could ask for."

Solomon said he'd heard people say that the highest honor that the Jewish community can pay someone is that person the presidency of a synagogue.

"A lot of us joke about the burdens and the time... but the reality of it is that every president I have met from TBEMC's history said it was a tremendous honor to be asked to serve as president," he said. "I echo that, I really do."

During a candle lighting ceremony, the children and teens of the congregation were asked to stand before everyone -- as the future not just of Judaism, but of the synagogue and the community.

"I wanted our congregation to see that, to make it real," Solomon said. "[It was] a celebration of both temples, and it really was a great look ahead into our future, and I think our future at TBEMC is very bright."

"We had people there who had beaming smiles on their faces," he continued. "It was a terrific celebration."

A benefit, Solomon explained, of serving as president of TBEMC is that the shul gives a free funeral in the sanctuary to past-presidents. He said he doesn't plan on using that benefit any time soon.

"The trick is," Solomon said, "that means the synagogue has to be here when I do."

While 90 years is certainly a milestone worth celebrating, Solomon said TBEMC is far from just fading into the background.

"We're going to make it to 100," he said.