Capital Campaign for Our New Building

A Capital Campaign to Benefit a New Home for Congregation Beth El

Securing a Home... Securing a Future.

A little history…

The development and growth of Congregation Beth El has been an important part of Conservative Jewish life in the greater New London community that began almost 100 years ago. However, several years ago, our Board recognized that the demographics and economics of the current Jewish population had changed and Beth El became challenged with keeping and attracting new members.

Following most national trends, membership declined significantly and our building at 660 Ocean Avenue became physically and financially difficult to maintain. The facility was sold in 2017 to LEARN, an educational resource center. We packed up years of memories and we entered the next phase of our Congregation.

Space was rented from Crossroads Presbyterian Church and Temple Emanu-El in Waterford, and an office was established on Shaw Street in New London. During this time, we continued looking for a new home of our own. In the interim, Beth El continued to remain vibrant by offering services and other programmed events and even survived Covid-19 through Zoom and other creative solutions.

After exhaustive searching, we have purchased a new site for Beth El at 33 Kenyon Road in Waterford, CT and plan to build a modest synagogue at that site. Plans are out for competitive bidding and have been shared with the members of our Congregation. We hope to break ground by the summer of 2024. Our building will maintain Beth El as a strong, vibrant, and innovative synagogue offering options to a wide variety of individuals and families.

Why are we engaging in a capital Campaign?

Our Capital Campaign goal is to raise $600,000.

Although proceeds from the sale of 660 Ocean Avenue will contribute significantly to the new synagogue, we still need additional funds.

BE PART OF BETH EL’S FUTURE!

We thank those members who have already made generous commitments, and we look forward to hearing from everyone.  Beth El is a community which values every member. We welcome, need and deeply appreciate every single donation and pledge.

We want to give everyone an opportunity to contribute and to ensure the future of our congregation. 

We plan on applying for grants and any other available funding sources in our community. You can help us build for the future. We are a diverse community with varied resources. Every donation/pledge is valued, needed, and greatly appreciated. We want to include you in the building of our new spiritual home. We want Beth El to be a destination for intellectual, cultural, and community events and to thrive for many years into the future.

 Please help us to complete this project.

What will be included in our new building? 

Our new building, located on 2.55 acres and projected to be 3500-4000 square feet, will offer many features:

• A sanctuary, social hall, kosher kitchen, terrace, and administration offices.
• An east-facing sanctuary with 80 seats and additional seating options based on configuration.
• Easy access to Routes I-395, 85 and I-95 and surrounding towns.
• No stairs or steps to allow full accessibility including restrooms.
• Moveable seating and furnishings for multi-purpose usage.
• A terrace for outside services and social events.
• State-of-the-art audio/visual technology, enhancing religious services, programming and community events
• A custom-designed ark that will be enclosed to allow for flexible use of the sanctuary.
• Security-conscious design.
• A building designed to welcome Jewish and interfaith families and people of all backgrounds, ages, and orientations.
• A destination for religious, intellectual, cultural, and community events.