Temple Sinai has been located at 509 Broadway in downtown Saratoga Springs since 1966, but whether or not they'll stay there is another matter.
"We're bursting at the seams," Rabbi Jonathan Rubenstein said, whose
temple has recently brought the issue before its congregation.
"In 1986 when my wife [Rabbi Linda Motzkin] and I came here, there were about 60 families in the congregation. There are about 230 households now," Rubenstein said.
In 1995, the temple built an addition onto the historic building to help accommodate their educational programs, providing much needed classroom space. But Rubenstein said that the temple's growth has been slow but steady over the last 20 years, and since the new addition was built the temple has welcomed nearly 80 new households.
"We're managing," Rubenstein said, but indicated that more space would be nice, "for our educational programs and for other functions, such as congregational suppers or large holiday services."
After the votes were tallied, 58 percent of the congregation was in favor of staying at their current location, with the remaining 42 percent voting for a change of scenery.
"It wasn't the mandate that the board was looking for," Rubenstein said. The Temple Sinai board was hoping that one side would come out on top with 66 percent of the vote, which was not the case.
"But I think that we have a community that will get behind whatever direction we decide to go in. Whichever solution they decide on is going to be a good one. I really feel that way," Rubenstein said.
Temple Sinai isn't the only religious institution with a swelling base in Saratoga Springs. Pastor Joe Galarneau of Saratoga Abundant Life Church said that, "Over the last three weeks we've had five new families each three Sundays."
Such growth isn't all that typical, but Galarneau said there could be a number of reasons for the increase in attendance.
"There are a couple of churches that aren't having services right now because they're building new buildings. So there's a lot of activity going on that makes it very difficult to say what's contributing to it," Galarneau said.
For Rev. Paul Borowski of St. Clement's Roman Catholic Parish, attendance at his church has remained more or less, "status quo." But what he has noticed, partially due to the current economic downturn, is a dramatic increase in the number of residents participating with the church's outreach programs.
"We assist people with food and we also assist people with their rent. Just in the past few months we've noticed a greater influx of people who are coming to get assistance," Borowski said.
The growth has been so drastic that St. Clement's has more than tripled the number of hours their outreach program is open during the week. The church has gone from 3 days a week for 2 hours each day, to a full 5 day week for 4 hours at a stretch. In order to meet the high demand, Borowski said he and the church turned to the parishioners for help.
"What we did is ask the parishioners," Borowski said. "Normally we might be able to do it by ourselves, but we asked a number of parishioners, 'Would you help us?'"
The response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic from members of the church, especially when it came to helping out with the parish's food pantry whose stock was stretched thin.
"We'd been making a weekly pitch asking our parishioners when they went shopping if they could maybe buy an extra box of cereal or an extra can of soup. We have close to 3,000 families on the books, so if every family brought a little something, our food pantry would be refurbished," Borowski said. "And it really was. The parishioners who come on a rather weekly basis truly did respond. They were fantastic."
"In 1986 when my wife [Rabbi Linda Motzkin] and I came here, there were about 60 families in the congregation. There are about 230 households now," Rubenstein said.
In 1995, the temple built an addition onto the historic building to help accommodate their educational programs, providing much needed classroom space. But Rubenstein said that the temple's growth has been slow but steady over the last 20 years, and since the new addition was built the temple has welcomed nearly 80 new households.
"We're managing," Rubenstein said, but indicated that more space would be nice, "for our educational programs and for other functions, such as congregational suppers or large holiday services."
After the votes were tallied, 58 percent of the congregation was in favor of staying at their current location, with the remaining 42 percent voting for a change of scenery.
"It wasn't the mandate that the board was looking for," Rubenstein said. The Temple Sinai board was hoping that one side would come out on top with 66 percent of the vote, which was not the case.
"But I think that we have a community that will get behind whatever direction we decide to go in. Whichever solution they decide on is going to be a good one. I really feel that way," Rubenstein said.
Temple Sinai isn't the only religious institution with a swelling base in Saratoga Springs. Pastor Joe Galarneau of Saratoga Abundant Life Church said that, "Over the last three weeks we've had five new families each three Sundays."
Such growth isn't all that typical, but Galarneau said there could be a number of reasons for the increase in attendance.
"There are a couple of churches that aren't having services right now because they're building new buildings. So there's a lot of activity going on that makes it very difficult to say what's contributing to it," Galarneau said.
For Rev. Paul Borowski of St. Clement's Roman Catholic Parish, attendance at his church has remained more or less, "status quo." But what he has noticed, partially due to the current economic downturn, is a dramatic increase in the number of residents participating with the church's outreach programs.
"We assist people with food and we also assist people with their rent. Just in the past few months we've noticed a greater influx of people who are coming to get assistance," Borowski said.
The growth has been so drastic that St. Clement's has more than tripled the number of hours their outreach program is open during the week. The church has gone from 3 days a week for 2 hours each day, to a full 5 day week for 4 hours at a stretch. In order to meet the high demand, Borowski said he and the church turned to the parishioners for help.
"What we did is ask the parishioners," Borowski said. "Normally we might be able to do it by ourselves, but we asked a number of parishioners, 'Would you help us?'"
The response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic from members of the church, especially when it came to helping out with the parish's food pantry whose stock was stretched thin.
"We'd been making a weekly pitch asking our parishioners when they went shopping if they could maybe buy an extra box of cereal or an extra can of soup. We have close to 3,000 families on the books, so if every family brought a little something, our food pantry would be refurbished," Borowski said. "And it really was. The parishioners who come on a rather weekly basis truly did respond. They were fantastic."
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