I buried hundreds of old Jewish books. Inside each was a Jewish heart. (Adam Jones/Creative Commons)
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(New York Jewish Week via JTA) A long-awaited construction project at our Manhattan synagogue, Ansche Chesed, is about to begin. Off in the distance we can glimpse our expanded lobby with improved safety and disability access, our renewed social hall, and our comfortable and professional offices.
Before we can build, we must demolish. For a century-old building with poor storage space, that means clearing out crannies stuffed with all sorts of oddities. (Our favorite find: a 1907 letter from the wife of the treasurer, whose numbers apparently were not adding up. She implored the board to leave her husband alone already, that he was out of town,