No I did not spell school incorrectly. It is a word for synagogue, Yiddish I think, I heard the above title tonight at a meeting of well connected preservation people and Jewish leaders. Our mission: to save the oldest synagogue in Buffalo from demolition. It is a gorgeous building, built in 1905 and with a very distinctive onion shaped dome. The building has been abused, unfortunately, and by my own coreligionists. A rather sobering desecration, with looting unchecked and eventually the City of Buffalo declaring it unrepairable.
We accomplished a lot and nothing at the same time. We formed a committee, developed a methodology and prepared to save the Schul. But we were divided on what to save. Just the Schul? Or all the endangered religious buildings? Or the world? Even grown up, respected people disagree and squabble, which is sad. Even when we agree on ninety-nine percent of the material, we still disagree.
Why do buildings matter? This was a question we had to wrestle with tonight. What is in the building? We struggled for words. It is an anchor of the neighborhood. It is a cultural memory. At heart, we were all trying to articulate one belief. The building is sacred. God was worshipped here. We shouldn't tear it down, because God was worshipped here. But what do you do afterwards? Reuse it? For secular purposes, like an artist's studio? Or keep it in the religious family, so to say?
And this seems the purpose of civilization,or at least of Christian civilization. To renew, to keep alive, to make alive again, to resurrect things. Cities can be populated again.a. Rivers can be cleaned, skies cleansed, and the wild places tamed. This is the world renewed, and it will happen one day.
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