PALM BEACH DAILY NEWS
October 14, 2024
New Synagogue in Palm Beach unveils Colonial-style renovations
By Jodie Wagner (Government Reporter)
A two-year effort to renovate New Synagogue’s Palm Beach location is complete.
The Modern Orthodox temple founded in 2000 by Palm Beach resident and Slim-Fast founder S. Daniel Abraham recently unveiled its new sanctuary, rabbi’s study and social area.
The spaces were rebuilt and redesigned from their former modern look into a Colonial style inspired by Touro Synagogue of Newport, Rhode Island. Built in 1763, Touro is the oldest synagogue in the United States and is a National Historic Site.
New Synagogue is housed in the penthouse suite of the Palm Beach Hotel, 235 Sunrise Ave.
“It was our vision to … create a space that resonated deeply with our American and our Jewish values,” Rabbi Abraham Unger, the temple’s executive director, told the Daily News. “It was inspired by the Touro Synagogue in Newport, which was an early Colonial-era synagogue founded by Spanish and Portuguese Jews who came to Colonial America. We wanted that feel of being deeply rooted in the American story while also speaking strongly to a loyalty to Jewish tradition.”
Work on the renovation project got underway in July 2022, two years after the start of the COVID pandemic. Temple administrators said the pandemic affirmed the essential role of community and the importance of growing it.
“I think COVID certainly left us all with a deepened recognition of the value of community and coming together, but we have also been very cognizant of meeting people where they are,” Unger told the Daily News last year. “We welcome all to a traditional Jewish spiritual experience of prayer and fellowship.”
As part of renovation work, the synagogue was reconfigured to match the Touro’s Sephardic-influenced design, whereby the bimah (the reading desk for the prayer leader to conduct services) is located toward the back of the center of the congregants, and the women’s section frames the men’s section, which is located in the middle of the sanctuary.
Synagogue officials also were inspired by the Touro Synagogue in the temple’s furnishings and interior décor, Unger said.
As currently configured, the temple can seat about 90 people.
“It’s rejuvenating,” Unger said of the renovations. “We have this beautiful home now in which to worship, in which to gather in community. It’s infused our lives with an even deeper spirituality, because space matters. Presentation matters. The beauty of a space of worship where you sing your historic songs and say your historic prayers and grow spiritually really does matter. Environment matters and space matters, so it’s just rejuvenated our whole spiritual life, and I think, hopefully, the spiritual life of the whole broader Palm Beach community, both Jewishly and beyond.”
Unger declined to disclose the cost of the renovation, which occurred in “sections and chunks” over a two-year period and was interrupted briefly because of COVID-related closures. The synagogue remained open throughout most of the construction period, Unger said.
“We did go through some periods of closure, obviously during COVID, and then bits and pieces after that,” he said. “But we’ve been open consistently for a long time.”
Synagogue officials said they strive to provide a welcoming environment for families no matter their affiliation.
New Synagogue does not have a formal membership. Most of its regular worshipers live on the island, Unger noted, but the synagogue draws guests from as far south as Miami.
“It’s our belief that anybody who wants to can come and pray,” Unger said. “You don’t need to have a fee that you pay, or membership dues, or meet any qualifications. You just have to come in with your spirituality and pray amongst us. All are welcome. Take a place in the pews, and reflect, recite, think, listen and just be present.”
For information on New Synagogue, visit www.newsynagogue.org/ or call 561-514-4064.
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