B’nai Israel Synagogue up for sale a second time

The Star of David is centered on each of two wrought iron gates on the south side of B'nai Israel Synagogue. (FRED LYNCH ~ flynch@semissourian.com ) [Order this photo]

On Main Street, set a block apart from downtown, a part of Cape Girardeau's past stands out among nearby buildings. The one-story synagogue in Cape Girardeau, dressed in stuccoed brick with an Islamic and Spanish architectural style, has been used little since the early 1970s.

Now on sale for the second time, former members of Cape Girardeau's Jewish community say they're disappointed — but not surprised.

"There aren't any Jews in Cape to take an interest in it," said Harry Samuels, a member of the Cape Girardeau Jewish community from 1931 until 1948.

The synagogue is being sold by John and Jerry Wyman after they took over ownership from Martin Hecht in 2003.

Many former members of Cape's Jewish community can remember a time when the orthodox synagogue was widely attended by Jews from the surrounding area.

Samuels said when he left Cape Girardeau in 1948 to attend Washington University in St. Louis, there were regular services every Friday night at the synagogue.

"I think there were probably a dozen Jewish families in Cape Girardeau and another dozen within a radius of 50 miles," Samuels said.

Jewish families would come from Anna, Ill., Benton, Mo., Sikeston, Mo., and Charleston, Mo., to attend the synagogue, said Sydney Pollack, a resident of Cape Girardeau's Jewish community from 1927 to 1989.

For various reasons, the Jewish community in Cape Girardeau has become almost nonexistent. Samuels said after the fourth generation of Jews in Cape Girardeau began to move away around 1950 the community stopped growing.

Lionel Minnen, whose father, David, helped establish the synagogue, said the Jewish community started to lose support after World War II and throughout the 1950s when shopping centers away from the downtown area started to take away business from retail stores, which were popular business ventures within the local Jewish community.

"It wasn't a good deal to move out near the shopping centers, because the rents were so tremendous that nobody could support the rent," Minnen said.

The Minnen Store, operated by David Minnen, closed in December 1965. The Minnen Brothers Clothing Store, operated by David and his brother Henry, closed April 30, 1941.

But not all Jewish-owned stores went out of business. Martin Hecht maintained the clothing store his father began in 1917 until 2004.

Some Jews moved out of Cape Girardeau because life was more "advantageous" in other places, Dessie Sewel said. Sewel, Lionel's brother, left Cape Girardeau in 1948 to attend Washington University. She eventually moved to Memphis, Tenn., with her husband because he had a good job and she liked the larger Jewish community.

Moving away

After graduating from Central High School in 1976, William Pollack dreamed of owning radio stations and attended Arizona State University to study communications and business. He was also reluctant to compete against the Zimmer Radio Group in Cape Girardeau because they gave him his first job in radio. He later moved to Memphis to start his own radio business.

The move away from Cape Girardeau, by the fourth generation, was "a natural occurrence" by some in the Jewish community, said Sydney Pollack, who owned Pollack Hide & Fur Co. and Pollack Steel Supply Inc.

Since 1989, Sydney has lived near three of this children in Memphis. The fourth has also moved out of Cape Girardeau.

"After World War II, with the spread of transportation it became easier for people to travel to larger communities," William Pollack said. "The probability to meet single Jewish guys and girls was greater in larger communities."

By the early 1970s it became difficult to find a full-time rabbi, or 10 adult males, a requirement in Judaism to practice in a synagogue. By 1989 services were only being held on high holidays, Sydney said.

A long history

The B'nai Israel Synagogue of Cape Girardeau was constructed in 1937 after the Jewish community's 450-year-old Torah, which was being kept in their meeting spot in Cape Girardeau, was incinerated in a fire, said Dr. Frank Nickell, director of regional history at Southeast Missouri University.

In 1937, the 450-year-old Torah had been brought back by Isaac Becker, a Sikeston merchant, who after visiting his father in Germany told him life for Jews in Germany was getting bad and the book would be safer with him.

Over the years, various members of Cape Girardeau's Jewish community have tried to revive the group. Rhon Abraham moved to Cape Girardeau in 1999 and was enthusiastic about the city's Jewish awareness group that began meeting in 2002. She was disappointed when it stopped meeting around 2005.

"I was willing to do it with someone else, but no one stepped up to the plate," Abraham said.

At the time the group was active, Abraham said they were meeting at someone's house about once a month to put together cultural events and plan meetings with other Jewish communities in Paducah, Ky., and St. Louis. Currently, Abraham attends Friday services in Carbondale, Ill.

Selling the synagogue

Since May 27, the synagogue has been up for sale. In 2003, the property was bought by John Wyman from Martin Hecht. Originally, Wyman had wanted to revamp the building's interior and build either a children's library or a not-for-profit Jewish museum.

"We bought it with the intent to save it," Wyman said.

Wyman said his efforts for the children's library didn't work because it wasn't the right time.

Betty Martin, director of the Cape Girardeau Public Library, said the library board of trustees didn't feel the children's library would draw enough people to justify the expense of maintaining it.

Wyman said the not-for-profit museum was hard to get going because volunteers were hard to find.

While they owned the building, he and his wife worked to get it in better shape. They have installed a new roof and fixed support beams for the floor boards. In 2004, they obtained a place on the National Register of Historic Places, which made future repairs to the synagogue tax-deductible. Wyman said the status educated people about the building's historical significance and helped convince them it shouldn't be torn down. He said he hopes someone will buy the synagogue and will turn it into a public venue.

Since the synagogue has been up for sale, many potential buyers have looked at it, but no contracts have been written, said Adrienne Poe, a real estate agent at Realty Executives & Cape County. A coffee shop, a bookstore and an antique shop are some of the ideas Poe has heard about. She's also heard a church would like to buy it. She said nobody she's talked to has wanted to tear it down.

adohogne@semissourian.com

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A marker describes the B'nai Israel Synagogue that was built in 1937 in Cape Girardeau. (FRED LYNCH ~ flynch@semissourian.com) [Order this photo]

The B'nai Israel Synagogue in downtown Cape Girardeau is a Spanish Colonial Revival style building with Islamic influences. (FRED LYNCH ~ flynch@semissourian.com) [Order this photo]

Ceramic tiles decorate the main entrance to B'nai Israel Synagogue within a stuccoed portico that is entered through Islamic pointed horseshoe arches on three sides. (FRED LYNCH ~ flynch@semissourian.com) [Order this photo]