A Serious House No Longer, Ctd

Jonathan Eig describes how Andrew Berlin, owner of minor league baseball team the South Bend Silver Hawks, converted a dilapidated synagogue on Coveleski Stadium grounds into a ballpark gift shop:

When Berlin bought the team, he held a meeting with members of the Jewish community and proposed moving the perimeter of the stadium to enclose the synagogue. The team needed a new gift shop, and it seemed a shame to waste such a beautiful old building. He had already pledged to spend $2.5 million of his own money on ballpark improvements. Now, he said, he would spend an additional million dollars on the synagogue’s restoration. The city of South Bend transferred ownership to Berlin.

“It wasn’t exactly what we had hoped for,” said David Piser, president of the Michiana Jewish Historical Society and one of the last Sons of Israel congregants. A Jewish museum would have been preferable, but Piser feared that the building might be knocked down if no use for it was found. Ultimately, everyone agreed that a gift-shop synagogue was better than no synagogue at all.

At one point in the discussions, Berlin proposed painting a target on the synagogue’s roof to encourage Silver Hawks batters to hit home runs. The idea was not received warmly by Piser or by some of the other Jewish community leaders. Today, the roof of the building is covered with an ad for Toyota.

Previous Dish on deconsecrated churches here.