In a downsizing age, a temple tries as well

Milton synagogue hopes to sell major portion of its Route 138 site

Custodian Derrick Banks adds a memorial plaque to the wall in the Adas Shalom and Anshei Sfard Chapel in Temple Shalom. Below, congregants gather in the synagogue's sanctuary. Members would like to sell a portion of the site to a commercial developer. (PAT GREENHOUSE/GLOBE STAFF)

It was the center of the South Shore's Jewish community in the decades after World War II. As families moved from Boston, Temple Shalom in Milton grew rapidly and a Hebrew school was added.

Membership peaked in the 1960s and 1970s, when more than 600 families belonged. It was a special place, very social, with dances, plays, and close friendships built on years of attending worship services and school.

But as Jewish families continued migrating farther from Boston, to such towns as Sharon, membership declined to less than one-fourth its peak, and now the temple faces a precarious future.

To reinvigorate the congregation and put it on a more stable financial footing, the temple has developed a plan that involves selling a large chunk of its 4 acres on Blue Hill Avenue, possibly as commercial property on the busy street.

The rambling temple that is too large for the current congregation and too expensive to maintain would be torn down. In its place would be a new, smaller temple on the leftover property.

But turning a parcel into commercial property has members concerned about how the plan will be received in the residential neighborhood. Two years ago, a much larger proposal to turn the Department of Public Works yard on Randolph Avenue into an upscale shopping plaza ignited intense neighborhood opposition, which killed the plan.

So congregants of Temple Shalom, which is close to Mattapan Square, are trying to keep the rest of the town involved along the way. They have started reaching out to town officials and neighbors in meetings and mailings.

"It needs to be a win for the congregation, and the neighborhood, and the town," said Paul Etkind, a former president of the temple, who is still involved. He is sensitive to the needs of neighbors, as well as the congregation.

No one wants a commercial building that doesn't fit, he said, pointing out that the congregation will have to live with what is built on the property as well. About 90 percent of the congregation lives in Milton, most near the temple, he said.

He added that plans are very fluid. Temple leaders are not sure how much they could sell the property for, but hope to have enough to build a smaller building and have money left over as an endowment. The new structure would also house the Campbell School, a private preschool and kindergarten that rents space there now.

The temple has a long way to go before it can sell the property as commercial. The land needs to be rezoned, a complicated process that requires approvals from the Planning Board, as well as a two-thirds vote at Town Meeting. All the meetings would be public, giving neighbors several opportunities to voice concerns.

"It is on Route 138, but it is also surrounded by residences," said Emily Keys Innes, chairwoman of the Planning Board. "That could be tricky. Could commercial work there? Possibly.""

It would depend on the type of business and how it was set up, Innes said.

Though specific plans have not been presented, some neighbors are already upset.

Elaine Schaffner, who lives on the street behind the property, said she is worried about building a commercial property in a high-density residential area.

"We're sympathetic to their situation," she said, acknowledging the temple's fiscal problems, "but we would like to see maybe a few more residential homes and to keep the zoning the way it is."

Another neighbor, Vivian Fleitman, also opposes a commercial use, but finds herself in the ticklish situation of being a member of the temple as well.

Fleitman, who hosted a meeting on the plan at her house that she said drew about 40 neighbors, is afraid that commercial development would bring teens running wild, trash, and traffic that would endanger children attending a nearby school. She would like to see an assisted-living facility built on the site.

"No way are we going to have commercial there," she said. "It's already a dense area."

The area was anything but dense when the temple began. In the 1940s, Jewish men formed the Milton Hebrew Men's Club, which after a few years became known as the Milton Hebrew Center, according to "The Early History of Temple Shalom," by James Rosenbaum.

By 1949, the group wanted to build a temple, but ran into opposition from some people in town, who thought the building would be more of a social center. Members feared the opposition stemmed from anti-Semitism, but after a public hearing, permits were granted and Temple Shalom's first building was constructed that year.

The town had sold land to the temple at a low price, and would later do so again, which members interpreted as a way of repaying the members for the original problems.

Since then, members of the temple have become "woven into the beautiful, colorful fabric of Milton," said Rabbi Alfred Benjamin, who was recently awarded the Community Builder Award from a town nonprofit that celebrates diversity.

But as membership declined, congregants have wrestled with whether to merge with another temple or to try to move forward.

The building, even if creaky, features many beautiful touches that could be placed in a new building, such as a stained glass window that is a memorial to Holocaust victims and memorial plaques that honor congregants who have passed on, with lights that are lit during the Hebrew month they died.

But it is showing its age. Its single-pane windows leak heat to the outside like sieves. Heat and maintenance cost $10,000 to $12,000 a month, which is rapidly draining off reserves.

After long study that began in 2005, members decided to stay and try to grow. They hired Benjamin as a full-time rabbi, the first in several years. The temple now has about 135 families, which leaders hope to increase to about 200 families.

The building has about 20,000 square feet. What the temple needs is 6,000 to 7,000 on two levels, members said. "We just want to build something appropriate for a small-town synagogue," said Etkind.

Matt Carroll can be reached at mcarroll@globe.com.