MILFORD, CT — With a nickname like “Bagel Beach,” it's easy to picture Woodmont's typical vacationer. Since the early 1900s, this borough of Milford, Conn., has been the summer escape for hordes of Jewish New Yorkers. And since 1925, they've been joining the locals for services at The Hebrew Congregation of Woodmont.
National Historic Landmark Saved by the Unlikeliest of Newcomers
MILFORD, CT — With a nickname like “Bagel Beach,” it’s easy to picture Woodmont’s typical vacationer. Since the early 1900s, this borough of Milford, Conn., has been the summer escape for hordes of Jewish New Yorkers. And since 1925, they’ve been joining the locals for services at The Hebrew Congregation of Woodmont.
Or so thought Joel Levitz.
When Levitz, a 62-year-old restaurant owner, and his wife Leslie moved from Fairfield, Conn., it was admittedly more for the beach than the bagels. Still, they imagined their new community to have a full-service shul. What they found instead was a small summer congregation that was growing steadily smaller. Weekly services were only held from July to roughly September, ending with Yom Kippur. Between an aging population and a lack of interest among the younger set, the synagogue’s schedule was slowly contracting to the point where a full service took place only five weeks each summer.
“There was no mechitzah at the time,” recalls Levitz, who was bothered by the absence of the traditional separation between men and women, “but it didn’t matter. No women came anyway!”
By 1995, as with so many small-town synagogues, the Hebrew Congregation seemed to have run its course. Unlike those other locations, though, its home was a National Historic Landmark in a community rich with Jewish tradition. Levitz was not about to see it fade into the breeze off nearby Long Island Sound.
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We love you Shney
Zayer Shayn
Gushing…