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A Jewish farmer broke ground on a synagogue in an Illinois cornfield. His neighbors showed up to help.

JL;DR SUMMARY Nik Jakobs, a 41-year-old Jewish farmer in Sterling, Illinois, is transforming his two-acre cornfield into a synagogue for the Temple Sholom congregation, which has been a fixture of local Jewish life for over a century. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish HistoryHolocaustSynagogueCommunityIllinoisRural AmericaInterfaith PartnershipTemple SholomNik JakobsJewish Farmer

Places mentioned

Sterling, Illinois, United States
"Around 75 people gathered on the edge of the field this week in Sterling, Illinois, a two-hour drive west of Chicago,"
McKeesport, Pennsylvania, United States
"Many came from Temple Bnai Israel, a 113-year-old synagogue that closed down in 2025. It served generations of Jews in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, now a ghost town since the steel mills closed."
Netherlands
"trip they took to the Netherlands to visit the towns where the Jakobs family survived the Holocaust."

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Cairo Item ID 81885
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2026-05-09 05:31:00 UTC
Curated 2026-05-09 08:30:55 UTC