The R.I. Jewish Museum is a gift

PROVIDENCE – What would you want for your 84th birthday?  Would it be a gourmet dinner in a lavish restaurant or front-row seats at a Broadway show?

Recently, I had the bashert (meant to be) unexpected pleasure of meeting Linda Kassed Baer Nieberg.

I had just finished giving a tour of the Rhode Island Jewish Museum, where I am president, and as I walked to my car, a van with out-of-state plates was idling in front of the Sons of Jacob Synagogue, which houses the museum. One of the four occupants asked if I could let them in to see the building. I was inclined to say no, but then he said his 84-year-old mom wanted to have a nostalgic birthday weekend and show them where she had spent her childhood.

That was a gift I could not deny her or her children.

As we walked where the first founders walked in 1906, over 117 years ago, Linda smiled as she recognized familiar spaces and corners she’d once roamed with her grandparents, Sophie and Louis Grossman, of 36 Goddard St. She saw a photo on the wall in the first-floor sanctuary and exclaimed that she saw familiar faces sitting at a table in the Biltmore Hotel. She was ecstatic at the sight of some of the names on the original memorial windows and plaques.

In the second-floor main sanctuary, I believe Linda giggled at the sight of the women’s balcony, where she and her mother and grandmother used to sit, looking down at the men davening.

Linda told me that when she was a child, she had lived in the Smith Hill neighborhood from 1939 to 1948. She mentioned that her dad, Frank Kassed, owned a store on Westminster Street called the Providence ShoeBox. She shared her memories of shopping at Waldman’s Fruit Store, Aron’s Butcher Shop, the Cheese Store and Guttin’s Bakery, where her Aunt Rose worked.

Linda’s son, Adam Baer, and daughter and son-in-law, Wendy and Mike Schramm, were also quite enchanted with the awesome frozen-in-time synagogue. I sensed their appreciation that they were actually standing inside a building filled with countless examples of museum-worthy murals, books and religious memorabilia.

I understood: Whenever I am in the synagogue, the spirit of the founders from 1896, who dreamed of building a monument for generations to come, always takes my breath away.

When we went upstairs into the main sanctuary, their eyes widened in awe, and they gasped just like all the others who have toured the Rhode Island Jewish Museum.

During the whole tour, Linda’s son photographed his family’s reactions to this miraculous sacred place in desperate need of restoration. Her daughter stood on the bimah, and with her beautiful voice, chanted a psalm that the domed ceiling embraced and that sent chills of joy into our souls.

After the visit, Linda wrote me a thank-you email, which is excerpted here:

“I told my children that I would love to revisit RI and the places that were meaningful to me growing up. The house on Goddard St, the Sons of Jacob (and Rhode Island Jewish Museum), the cemetery, Narragansett beach, and having RI clam cakes were the highlights of my birthday trip.

“My son is an amazing photographer and was one of the youngest to win a Guggenheim fellowship. He works in film in NYC and travels often to Germany, from where his other grandparents, Erich and Lotte, were fortunate to have emigrated in the late 1930s.

“My daughter’s spontaneous singing was very moving to me too. Your mission to save this beautiful and historic synagogue is heartwarming. I pray your family is safe in Israel and that peace & love will prevail for all.”

Sons of Jacob (and the Rhode Island Jewish Museum) has joined forces with Partners for Sacred Places (https://sacredplaces.org),  the only national organization to focus on historical houses of worship. This nonsectarian, nonprofit organization’s mission is to support older and historic sacred places by helping them and their community to sustain the active use of its structure. Watch for details as we schedule a roundtable for neighbors, friends, civic leaders, creative thinkers and potential partners.

SHELLEY PARNESS is the president of the Rhode Island Jewish Museum.

Anyone interested in virtually seeing the RIJM/SOJ can go to The Rhode Island Jewish Museum to share in what Linda and her family experienced. (www.rhodeislandjewishmuseum.net)