Last Sunday, August 18, two congregations with long connections inaugurated sharing a building and worship space. The McHenry County Jewish Congregation (MCHC), which just sold its building near Ridgefield, officially moved in to the Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist Congregation (TOLUUC) edifice at 5603 Bull Valley Road in McHenry.
MCJC said goodbye to their building earlier in the day as they removed their mezuzot and deconsecrated it while sharing memories. At 4 pm members came Tree of Life and placed a mezuzah on a front door post as they consecrated our building and moved their Torah scrolls and Ark into their new home.
MCJC former home in Ridgefield
After the ritual members of TOLUUC’s Fellowship ministry provided a welcome reception to celebrate our new entwined relationships.
The event culminated months of discussions and planning by both Boards, Rabbi Maralee Gordon, and finance and building and grounds committees. There are a lot of details to be ironed out to share space and time. MCHC will hold worship services on rotating Friday evenings and Saturday mornings and will hold special Holy Day services as well. Classes and meeting will be held during the week using basement space. TOL will continue to hold worship services at 10:45 Sunday mornings and use upstairs spaces for religious education classes, meetings, community events, and special programs.
In September both congregations will have a joint worship celebrating their new connection and relationship.
But the connection began decades ago when the Jewish Congregation was just beginning. The Congregational Unitarian Church in Woodstock—an earlier incarnation of Tree of Life—welcomed them and provided space for their services and holy day observances. MCHC remained there until they could purchase their building in Ridgefield. The Church continued to invite temple members to lead at least one service annually. In turn CUC members were invited to special Passover Seders. Some individuals and families were active members of both congregations. The two congregations shared many social concerns and members often worked side by side on issues like gun violence, marriage equality, women’s rights, reproductive freedom, immigration justice, and in the defense of democracy. Both congregations helped lead and hold solidarity and support vigils and events when terrorists targeted Jewish congregations and businesses, Islamic mosques and schools, a Sikh temple, or LGBYQ welcoming churches. They were always allies against hate.
Rabbi Marilee Gordon has been a regular guest speaker and worship leader at TOLUUC Sunday services for about four years. She retired from MCHC in 2016 Rabbi to spend time with her far-flung family but returned to the congregation to help lead it through a difficult and emotional transition. And on a personal note Rabbi Gordon and I share a fifty-year-old connection of our own—we were both members of the Chicago Seed staff collective, the hippie underground newspaper in the turbulent years of the Vietnam War, Black rebellion, and the emergence of modern militant feminism and the ecology movement.
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When she led her Congregation into the McHenry building escorting the Scroll of the Torah members were greeted by Tree of Life’s social room gazebo featuring original stained glass windows from the Woodstock church representing the spiritual traditions from which Unitarian Universalists draw wisdom and inspiration and in turn honor. One window has a Jewish Mogan David.
This coming Sunday at 10:45 Rabbi Gordon will return to the Tree of Life pulpit to address the elephant in the room for American Jews and their friends and allies—the ongoing carnage of the Israeli assault on Gaza. Her message, in Can We Talk About Israel and Palestine? asks “We are so used to taking sides on any issue or situation. This blinds us to complexities and compassion.” Rabbi Gordon will share a different way to frame this.
Coffee and conversation will be shared following the service.
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