Farewell to the Jacksonville Jewish Center
Metro Jacksonville bids farewell to yet another significant, historic, urban Jacksonville property to fall victim to the wrecking ball: Springfield's former Jacksonville Jewish Center.
History of the Jacksonville Jewish Center
Three years after the Jewish Center relocated to Mandarin, the Labor Department bought the property for $400,000 and opened it in 1979 as the Jacksonville Job Corps Center to train and educate 150 high school dropouts. The Corps operated at this site for 26 years, before moving to a new home in 2005.
Above: The Jacksonville Jewish Center in 2006. At the time, there was talk of mix-use redevelopment plans to include additional museum space, lofts and limited retail/sidewalk dining facing the park's bandstand, fountains, and soccer and baseball fields. Bad economic conditions would delay this dream and April 25th's fire would forever end it.
Photographs by Daniel Herbin
Quote
There were only five orthodox Jewish families in Jacksonville when the sentiment for the creation of a traditional Jewish congregation began to crystallize. By 1901 their number had grown to forty, and they realized their dream by incorporating as the Hebrew Orthodox Congregation B’nai Israel on December 6, 1901.https://www.jaxjewishcenter.com/Public/history.htm
By 1907, the membership of B’nai Israel had increased to seventy-five, and the congregation erected a synagogue on the corner of Jefferson and Duval Streets in the Lavilla neighborhood. The lot was purchased with a down payment of $50 and a total cost of $25,000.
In 1926, the congregation hired a rabbi ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, who introduced Conservative Judaism and the synagogue-center concept as a means of strengthening and perpetuating Judaism in our growing community. To that end, in 1927 a down payment was made on a more spacious site in Springfield, facing a park at the corner of Third and Silver Streets, while Congregation B’nai Israel assumed a new identity for itself as the Jacksonville Jewish Center.
Over the next thirty-five years, the Jacksonville Jewish Center expanded its facility to meet the needs of a growing congregation. By 1959, the impressive campus of three large buildings housed a two-story main sanctuary complete with balcony and choir lofts, a chapel, library, social hall, school, playground, auditorium/gymnasium, banquet facility, bridal lounge, meeting rooms and offices.
With an eye to the future, property at 10101 San Jose Boulevard in Mandarin was acquired in November, 1963. The following summer, the synagogue’s day camp moved to the new site, where a recreational park with an Olympic-size pool and playing fields had been built. Renovated and improved throughout the years, the synagogue’s summer camp and schools continue to use this facility
Groundbreaking on the synagogue-center complex took place on September 16, 1973. On Sunday, January 11, 1976, a caravan of automobiles followed an open truck upon which Center dignitaries sat carrying our priceless Torah scrolls from the ark at Third and Silver to their new home in Mandarin.
Three years after the Jewish Center relocated to Mandarin, the Labor Department bought the property for $400,000 and opened it in 1979 as the Jacksonville Job Corps Center to train and educate 150 high school dropouts. The Corps operated at this site for 26 years, before moving to a new home in 2005.
Above: The Jacksonville Jewish Center in 2006. At the time, there was talk of mix-use redevelopment plans to include additional museum space, lofts and limited retail/sidewalk dining facing the park's bandstand, fountains, and soccer and baseball fields. Bad economic conditions would delay this dream and April 25th's fire would forever end it.
Photographs by Daniel Herbin