By Ashton Ward
Sunday marked the realization of a dream for the Jewish congregation of Temple Har Shalom in Park City. For the past four years, members of the congregation have been making plans for a building to serve as a home for their community, and Sunday, Oct. 7, 2006, they broke ground for a new facility that will be completed in 2008.
“I hope the sun will always shine on Temple Har Shalom,” said Drora Oren, executive director, standing by the hole where her community”s home is destined to be built.
The congregation, which was started about 12 years ago, has grown from a few families meeting in each other”s homes to more than 260 families meeting in rented or donated space over the years.
“It took 12 years of work as a congregation, but four years hard work to find a home,” said Paul Zane Pilzer, congregation member. “It”s really exciting because you know it”ll be there when you”re gone.”
Bob Richer, county commissioner for Summit County, spoke at the groundbreaking. He shared stories of his experience growing up in a Jewish community, first in the Northeast and later in the deep South, where he said he experienced anti-semitism for the first time.
At a rally he attended during his university years he was given a pin with the motto “we are one,” and since that time has kept the pin and its message with him.
“I know Temple Har Shalom in our community here will bring people together,” he said, holding the pin aloft. “In the end, we are all one.”
Park City Mayor Dana Williams also gave a brief address.
Har Shalom, which means mountain of peace, is the name that the congregation chose for itself years before they were looking for land, but when they found a lot to build on it was beschert, or fate, that its natural backdrop is a mountain, Pilzer said. It is the second Jewish temple to be built in Utah; the first was built more than 100 years ago.
“This is a big event, to build a permanent location,” Pilzer said.
The 22,000-square-foot building will have two stories and capacity for about 400 people. The $7 million budget for the building has been paid for completely by donations to the temple, said Sara Klein, campaign associate.
The congregation, now about 260 member families, will not find their new building to be an empty cavern, said congregation president Scott Adelman in his address at the groundbreaking.
“Ten years ago people came to Park City to ski,” said Rabbi Joshua Aaronson. “Now they come because there”s a Jewish community.”
Aaronson noted the special meaning the groundbreaking had because it fell on the weekend of Sukkot, a holiday in observance of the 40 years of wandering the Israelites spent in the desert without a permanent home. Like Temple Har Shalom, the Israelites were searching for a permanent home, he said.
Architect Alfred Jacoby, known for his work re-building synagogues in Germany, designed the synagogue – his first in the United States, Klein said.
“It”s about not copying the past and moving forward,” she said.
When completed, the synagogue will serve as a house of worship and home to the area”s Hebrew school, as well as host other congregation events.
