Seaside Jewish Community breaks ground on expansion

Hundreds of Seaside Jewish Community members celebrated a $1.25 million expansion with a ceremonial groundbreaking Jan. 5.

Before leading the congregation in a blessing of the construction site, Seaside Jewish Community Rabbi Emeritus Beth Cohen said the expansion is the community’s first building project. Be strong and of good courage, and there will be help to the finish, she said.

Founded in 1997, Seaside Jewish Community is the only Jewish congregation in southern Delaware. In 2006, Seaside bought the property where the building now stands. Seaside now serves more than 600 members.

Seaside Jewish Community House Committee Chair Mat Ash said the expansion is being funded through an allocation from Seaside’s reserve funds, a capital campaign and a $50,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security through the Delaware Emergency Management Agency. Ash said roughly 80 percent of the capital campaign goal has been reached. 

Ash said the 4,200-square-foot project will double the size of the sanctuary, offer space for classrooms and social areas, improve accessibility, update the kitchen, add new security, and improve video and communication systems. Ash said he expects the project to be completed in the third quarter of 2020.

The groundbreaking happened to coincide with solidarity marches taking place across the country in response to a rise of anti-Semitism. From the police positioned outside to congregational leaders beginning the ceremony by pointing out building exits, an undeniable feeling of cautiousness surrounded the ceremony.

U.S. Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester said she was at the groundbreaking to support the community and to address anti-Semitism. Family, faith and love is how to be stronger than the hate, she said.

“When I dig that dirt, I’ll be pouring my love into that hole,” said Blunt Rochester. “Together we’re sticks in a bunch, and that bunch is unbreakable.”

Ash said safety was a big consideration for the new building. There used to be a feeling of safety in a sleepy, out-of-the-way town, he said.

“We never probably were.”

For the most part, though, the groundbreaking was a celebration.

Capital Campaign Chair Marilyn Feldman thanked Epworth United Methodist Church, Seaside’s Holland Glade Road neighbor to the south, for allowing Seaside to use church space in the future. In about a month, Seaside won’t be able to use its existing building and its congregation will be a bunch of wandering Jews, said Feldman, who added the only response from Epworth representatives was, “As long as it doesn’t take 40 years.”