Take Me Out To The Synagogue

 

By Sheryl DeVore

SOUTH BEND, Indiana — When Andrew Berlin purchased a losing baseball team with the goal of improving park attendance and scores, he didn’t realize that he would also be repurposing a century-old synagogue that could have easily succumbed to the wrecking ball. The CEO of Berlin Packaging, a Chicago-based business with nearly 100 locations nationwide, hit a home run on both counts.

Today, the abandoned synagogue not only houses the team store of Indiana’s South Bend Silver Hawks – complete with the original bimah and Star of David atop the building’s turret as well as the blessing of the local Jewish community – but also has earned a spot on both the National and Indiana Registers of Historic Places ensuring the building’s survival in perpetuity.

In addition, under Berlin’s leadership, the Silver Hawks are back in the game. As of this writing, the team had the lead in their division after a 4-1 win against the West Michigan Whitecaps on June 14, 2014. Much of the credit goes to Berlin’s multimillion-dollar renovation of the team stadium and its amenities to breathe new life into the ballpark.

The story begins in 2011, when Berlin purchased the then-ailing South Bend Silver Hawks, a Class A minor league team affiliated with the Arizona Diamondbacks. The team hadn’t won a title since 2005, and attendance numbers were plummeting.

Berlin, already part owner and investor with the Chicago White Sox, liked the idea of owning the Silver Hawks in part because of the Diamondbacks connection. “I thought, by owning the team, I’d likely get to see future baseball stars, and the quality of the players would be great,” he says.

He agreed to keep the team in South Bend for at least another 20 years and to invest his own money to upgrade the stadium. Changes ranged from a complete stadium facelift with new seats, new suites and a higher-quality menu with regional craft beers, to the addition of family-friendly amenities such as a playground, a water park and Kids’ Fun Zone with giant inflatables. In a little more than a year, attendance nearly doubled.

Originally, Berlin also planned to build a new team store. Before the construction got under way, however, he discovered the shuttered synagogue sitting just outside the stadium walls. Berlin, who is Jewish, was intrigued.

The building dates back to 1901, when it opened as the Sons of Israel Synagogue. At the time, the community was thriving and at least six synagogues graced the neighborhood. They closed one by one as worshipers began to move to newer areas. The Sons of Israel congregation was the last to shut its doors, with services continuing into the late 1980s. By the time Berlin bought the Silver Hawks, the building had fallen into disrepair and was owned by the City of South Bend.

Despite its dilapidated state, Berlin immediately felt a connection. The stained glass windows, huge brass chandelier, intricate wooden bimah and tin roof ceiling needed TLC, but the beauty of the building as well as its spiritual legacy spoke to him.

“It needed a new roof, new plumbing, and a lot of work, but it offered an opportunity to preserve both local and Jewish history as well as to create a team store with a unique character,” he says. “It was an idea that had to be explored.”

Berlin decided to meet with Jewish community leaders in South Bend to gauge their support for the idea. He found strong interest as well as Talmudic backing for converting the synagogue for another use.

“When a synagogue is no longer used as a house of worship, the Talmud says that it stops being a synagogue and can be used for another purpose,” he says. “That sealed the deal for me in terms of moving forward.”

The City of South Bend gave Berlin ownership of the building. The ballpark’s left field wall was torn down and the stadium fence pushed out and around the building to bring it into the Silver Hawks property.

Berlin invested $1 million in the synagogue’s restoration, including spending $40,000 on the chandelier alone and commissioning paintings with some baseball and Old Testament humor. One painting, for example, shows animals boarding Noah’s ark with a storm coming. The painting is titled “Rain Delay.”

Berlin gave the local Jewish Historical Society the pews, Torah and other items for their archives or for other synagogues.

The team store opened in the renovated synagogue during the 2012 baseball season with a ceremonial lighting of the refurbished chandelier.

“We had 150 people in this room when we kicked on the light for the first time,” Joe Hart, president of the Silver Hawks, told Lake Michigan Shore, a publication of The Times of Northwest Indiana.

Hart says he heard people in the room reminiscing about times they attended the synagogue there. They said they liked what was done with the building, he says.

Berlin says some baseball fans know the store was a former synagogue and others don’t. What’s important, he says, is that the memory of this house of worship is being kept alive. The building’s presence on the federal and state historic place registries will protect it from demolition. The founders of the Sons of Israel congregation would be proud.

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Preceding provided by the South Bend Silver Hawks