{"id":11209,"date":"2009-09-29T18:08:52","date_gmt":"2009-09-30T02:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=11209"},"modified":"2009-09-29T20:57:54","modified_gmt":"2009-09-30T04:57:54","slug":"yisroel-pensack-san-francisco-orthodox-shul-plans-4-5-million-building-upgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=11209","title":{"rendered":"Yisroel Pensack: San Francisco Orthodox Shul Plans $4.5 Million Building Renovation and Partial Redesign"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Congregation Chevra Thilim, which describes itself as &quot;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfshul.org\/templates\/articlecco_cdo\/aid\/633813\/jewish\/About-Us-Contact-Information.htm\">San Francisco&#8217;s oldest Orthodox congregation<\/a>,&quot;  has launched a $4.5 million fundraising drive to renovate, partially redesign and  upgrade its  large sanctuary and   social hall.&nbsp; The  project  also includes plans for new classrooms as well as   new or   upgraded chapel, library,  office, kitchen and bathroom facilities.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In  an    announcement  during Yom Kippur services yesterday, congregation vice president Jay Bakaler said 25 percent of the sum required for the project has already been raised.&nbsp; Major funders  have promised to match donations raised by the congregation, he added.&nbsp; The estimated cost of   the first phase  the two-stage plan &#8212;  renovation  of the sanctuary   &#8212; is  $2.5 million, Bakaler said.  &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Last  Shabbos, the synagogue  unveiled a  tabletop  model showing  proposed changes to the existing structures.&nbsp; At that time, Rebbetzin Chani Zarchi, coordinator of project  planning,  said Shabbos and Yom Tov prayer services will  be held in the social hall while the sanctuary is  being renovated. She said the congregation hopes to begin  work as soon as possible &#8212; perhaps  as early as March &#8212; to take advantage of a recent 30 percent decline in construction costs attributable to the  general economic downturn.<\/p>\n<p>The congregation&#8217;s rabbi, Shlomo Zarchi, and his wife Chani are adherents  of the Brooklyn-based  Chabad-Lubavitch chassidic sect.&nbsp;  Congregation Chevra Thilim is not officially affiliated with Chabad, although it disseminates  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfshul.org\/dailystudy\/default.htm\">Chabad-Lubavitch educational materials<\/a> via a link on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfshul.org\/\">shul   website&#8217;s home page<\/a> and has introduced some Chabad customs in the liturgy.<\/p>\n<p>Beth Sholom, a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bethsholomsf.org\/\">Conservative congregation<\/a>  located nearby in  San Francisco&#8217;s Richmond district, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bethsholomsf.org\/about-us\/history.html\">completed construction of a new sanctuary building in May, 2008<\/a>, at an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jweekly.com\/article\/full\/34991\/-wow-factor-beth-sholom-moves-into-dashing-new-digs\/\">indicated cost<\/a> of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bethsholomsf.org\/beth-sholom-news\/press-kit.html\">$15 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>(Disclosure: I live near Congregation Chevra Thilim and regularly attend Shabbos morning and Yom Tov services there.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Congregation Chevra Thilim, which describes itself as &quot;San Francisco&#8217;s oldest Orthodox congregation,&quot; has launched a $4.5 million fundraising drive to renovate, partially redesign and upgrade its large sanctuary and social hall.&nbsp; The project also includes plans for new classrooms as &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=11209\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1161,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3583,165,40,577,18,1029,209,18818],"tags":[19146,19142,19077,19145,19143,19144],"class_list":["post-11209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brooklyn","category-chabad","category-conservative-judaism","category-hasidim","category-orthodoxy","category-san-francisco","category-synagogue","category-yisroel-pensack","tag-beth-sholom","tag-congegation-chevra-thilim","tag-fundraising","tag-redesign","tag-renovation","tag-upgrade"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11209"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11222,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11209\/revisions\/11222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}