Synagogue restoration begins with masonry repair and lintel replacement

By Terry Fear
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The process of restoring United Hebrew Congregation’s historic synagogue began in the fall of 2015, when Indiana Landmarks offered UHC’s board an opportunity to take part in a training initiative with Sacred Places Indiana.

Through that training and the resulting grants, we have begun the actual restoration.

But we would not be on this journey without generous donations from congregation members, former members and friends. To date, UHC has received $30,000 in grants made possible by Sacred Places Indiana and funded by the Lilly Endowment. Our Restoration Fund continues to grow as we prepare to apply for additional grants.

UHC’s restoration has begun with Phase One: Critical Limestone Masonry Restoration and Lintel Replacement. Midwest Restoration Inc. from Paris, Ill., is completing that work.

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Ellie Loeb Merar to return for CANDLES talk; student rabbi set for fall 2018

By Terry Fear
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Ellie Loeb Merar, a Terre Haute resident from 1937-1943, will speak at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 19, at CANDLES Holocaust Museum & Education Center.

Before World War II, Ellie’s parents Emma and Albert Loeb owned a store in Lauterecken, Germany. Starting in 1933, then 7-year-old Ellie and younger sister Stella endured anti-Semitic instructors in school, while Nazis targeted the family’s store.

The Loeb family left Germany in 1937 and came to live with family in Terre Haute. Blanche Loeb Wolf and Carl Wolf, grandparents of late former United Hebrew Congregation president Ed Wormser, sponsored the Loebs.

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We’ve lost Estelle and John Corrigan, but celebrate Robert and Izaak

By Patty Lewis
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I am so sorry we have lost a beautiful woman and our friend, Estelle Corrigan, this past month.

Estelle and John Corrigan were a beautiful couple. I loved to listen to them tell how they met and how much they loved dancing.

When I think of Estelle and John as a young couple, I think of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. When I think of them now, I think of them dancing in a ballroom holding each other and gazing at each other with so much love. They both will be missed as part of our congregation.

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Kylynn bids farewell to Terre Haute: Each scroll, and congregation, has its own story

By Student Rabbi Kylynn Perdue-Bronson
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Much as time and care go into our generic, daily, Jewish lives, an inordinate amount of care goes into crafting, reading or lifting a scroll.

The first time someone picks up a Sefer Torah scroll really conveys the weight of the book. Maybe that is the reason we keep using this ancient technology. The scroll has the heft of a toddler, is at least as cumbersome and is almost as holy.

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