Intermountain Jewish News

The historic BMH synagogue building on 16th and Gaylord St. is alive with the sound of construction.

The once majestic structure was a beacon of Jewish life in downtown Denver from its dedication in 1921 until 1969, when the congregation moved to South Monaco.

After the BMH property was sold, it witnessed multiple and generally unsuccessful incarnations.

This time around, the grand old synagogue will not house Jazzercise classes or ethnic cultural centers or other half-baked projects that never got off the ground.

Church in the City, a Christian congregation that met in a former Safeway on Colfax and Josephine for many years, bought the building in September.

But the church is not merely trading one space for another.

BMH is being restored to its original physical beauty –– brick by brick, sconce by sconce, stained glass window by stained glass window.

Michael Walker, CIC’s senior pastor, waits beneath the façade that still proclaims Beth Hamedrosh Hagodol in elegantly carved stone.

Walker can barely contain his excitement.

Denver Jews are a bit more wary.

Some are pleased that BMH –– once the spiritual home to thousands of Jews –– is being rescued from prolonged disgrace.

Others remain skeptical because of the religious ideology motivating the renewal.

That ideology is not only Christian, but messianic –– which elicits negative feelings from some members of the community who grew up in the old BMH.

Once thing is clear. In a couple of months, BMH will look almost like it did when it was one of the most prominent buildings in Denver.

When Walker first saw the inside of BMH last winter, he was appalled.

Everything was covered in pigeon droppings. Satanic messages and graffiti snaked along the walls.

Undeterred, Walker and his church decided to buy the property.

Walker has carefully studied archival photographs, architectural renderings and newspaper clippings of BMH during its heyday.

He saw the stained glass windows that were moved to Monaco and are now being faithfully reproduced to go inside the old sanctuary.

“We’re making this place into everything it was supposed to be,” Walker says. “It has been vacant and void of any type of G-dly worship for decades. Right now it’s a junk pile –– but we’re going to make it beautiful.”

While funding to restore and update BMH is pouring in from many sources, the Anschutz Foundation is the major contributor.

Walker says that CIC’s membership is very diverse: whites, African-Americans, Latinos, Africans, “rich, poor, educated and uneducated.”

CIC’s outreach to at-risk youth, teen parents, the needy and homeless has become a model for area churches.

Groups as diverse as East High, Urban Youth Ministries and Bill McCartney’s The Road to Jerusalem Foundation heartily endorse CIC’s purchase of the BMH property.

Walker describes Church in the City as “a non-denominational church with a Jewish bent. Our members understand that the whole Christian faith was Jewish to begin with. We already observe Passover and Sukkot, and I’ve done Passover seders in Latin America, Europe and the Czech Republic.

“Our members will love worshipping in a synagogue. That’s all Christians used to do in the beginning.”

In this respect, CIC resembles many churches that are trying to make a deeper connection to what they view as the Jewish foundations of Christianity.

But there’s more to the story.

Michael Walker, who was born Jewish, is a “messianic” Jew, who believes the messiah has already come.

Bringing his flock into one of the most historical synagogues in Denver Jewish history is the fulfillment of a personal dream. It also signals the start of a branch messianic congregation called Synagogue Beth Abraham, named after his Orthodox grandfather’s shul in the Bronx.

Both Beth Abraham and CIC will hold services at BMH –– Beth Abraham on Saturday, and CIC on Sundays.

“I believe Beth Abraham is going to be big,” says Walker, who is 63.

“I don’t want to cause distress to the Jewish community,” he says, cognizant of Jewish animosity toward the messianic movement. “And I understand that they might have objections. Ninety-nine percent of Jews are still waiting for the messiah.

“But I don’t knock on people’s doors. I don’t proselytize. That has never been done to me, and I would never do it to anyone else.”

Walker says the majority of comments he’s heard from the Jewish community are positive.

“Sure, there will be other reactions, given my background,” he concedes. “But for the most part, I think anyone who had a history with and love for this place will be pleased.”

Inside the BMH entryway, workers tip their hard hats. Hammers pound. Drills spin. The smell of fresh paint chokes on dust and memory.

“The main entrance will be transformed into a wall of Jerusalem stone,” Walker points. “It will be like the Western Wall. People can insert their prayer requests, which will be periodically taken to Israel.”

A large screen monitor will broadcast life from the Western Wall 24 hours a day.

“It will be like walking into the Holy Land,” he says.

Temporarily hidden beneath protective cardboard is the circular stone mosaic that countless feet avoided out of respect each time they entered the synagogue: “BMH –– 1897.”

That was the year the Orthodox congregation was founded.

The room behind the main entrance, which church members already call Fellowship Hall, is where CIC will feed up to 600 homeless individuals each month.

Navigating through wires and equipment, Walker enters the old BMH kitchen, where workers have exposed the original 1919 brick wall.

Walker then climbs three flights of sanded stairs that are in the process of being repainted and arrives at the main sanctuary.

Even with all the tools, movement, noise and general disarray, the old BMH sanctuary resonates with long ago Bar Mitzvahs, weddings, funerals and Shabbat prayers.

The altar, painted the color of Jerusalem stone, is virtually complete. A fixture that will soon become “the Eternal Light” hangs above the old ark. Someone is donating Torah scrolls that will go inside the ark.

Despite the surrounding activity, light streams undisturbed from the enormous windows on either side of the sanctuary.