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A Jewish farmer drove 600 miles to rescue a century-old synagogue. Now he’s building a new one in a cornfield.

JL;DR SUMMARY Nik Jakobs, a Jewish farmer from Illinois, is on a remarkable mission to revive Jewish community life by salvaging a century-old synagogue in Pennsylvania. 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

Temple Bnai IsraelHolocaust LegacyJewish MemoryJewish Community Legacy ProjectJewish FarmingSynagogue PreservationCommunity RevivalRural JudaismNik JakobsPennsylvania Illinois Connection

Places mentioned

White Oak, Pennsylvania, United States
"That mission is what brought him from a cattle farm in Sterling, Illinois, to the town of White Oak, in western Pennsylvania, on this warm May morning, with a plan to carefully remove the sacred objects of a dying synagogue and use them in a new shul in a cornfield 600 miles away."
Sterling, Illinois, United States
"He is building a synagogue and a museum in his hometown a sanctuary for his congregation, and a refuge for Jewish memory. A place that smells like cow pasture and hope."
McKeesport, Pennsylvania, United States
"A small-town synagogue in the hills of western Pennsylvania, closing its doors after 113 years, is the kind of unnoticed final chapter that happens often in places like McKeesport and White Oak towns where the steel mills are silent, the storefronts are shuttered, and the synagogue is often the last to leave."
Washington, Pennsylvania, United States
"Temple Bnai Israel wasn't the only place offering up its past. Beth Israel in Washington, Pennsylvania founded in 1891 sold its building in 2024. They heard about Jakobs quixotic quest and shipped what they could."

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Retrieved 2025-06-05 05:31:00 UTC
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