Jackson, Wyoming has its first-ever dedicated synagogue and Jewish community center — and the state’s first synagogue building in over 70 years.
For over 30 years, Jackson Hole Jewish Community had been meeting in rented spaces. Last August, the non-denominational egalitarian Jewish congregation opened the doors of its new synagogue and community center in downtown Jackson.
Among its founding members, a group that is still to a large extent intact, is Mary Grossman, who has been part-time executive director since 2010.
“When I started with this group 30 years ago,” Grossman recollects in a recent conversation with the Intermountain Jewish News, “we would test the waters every other year or so.”
Change had been coming to Jackson for some time. The Four Seasons opened in 2005 and the Yellowstone-adjacent town became a luxury wedding destination.
“We organically started to lean more toward needing a permanent space,” she says. Covid and the Tree of Life attack in 2018 solidified the decision.
For over 10 years, Grossman had been looking at spaces on the sly. She and the former board president would text each other real estate listings.
While Jackson has grown, that hasn’t necessarily led to a larger permanent, year-round community. Transients may spend only a week in the town itself. That includes Jewish families, some of whom have become JHJC members but have never been seen. Its current membership is 130 families.
In January, 2024, a 1970s brutalist-style building in downtown went on the market for $3.5 million. It was a building that for years people thought resembled a 1970s-suburban synagogue — from the outside. Inside, it was a very different story.
The office building was going to require a complete gut renovation.
After the congregation unanimously approved the sale, its leadership went to work.
“We needed five-and-a-half million dollars quickly,” says Grossman, who had just departed for a five-week trip to Tel Aviv.
Nevertheless, together with lay rabbi Josh Kleyman, “we raised $6 million in two months. A donor came forward with almost a million dollars, and the rest of the membership came up with the rest.
“No out-of-towners, no people we didn’t know.”
The fundraising campaign included an endowment and securing all the financial commitments by the end of that calendar year.
With all pledges in hand by Dec. 31, 2024, the building’s transformation began.
Founding member Larry Thal, an architect, designed the interior.
Grossman and her co-director Brad Adams worked on the interior design.
Members who are “world class artists” provided more color. Shannon Troxler Thal, Larry’s wife, painted the murals now on the sanctuary walls.
The Ner Tamid was created by local glass artists Laurie Thal (also a founding member) and Dan Altwies. The two also created the fused colored glass sanctuary windows and refurbished the existing windows, which were among some of the building’s elements that were kept. Others included the hardwood floor.
But massive changes, including a new, light-filled ceiling for the sanctuary, were part of the transformation. The building is now home to a commercial kitchen, library, beit midrash and art room that will be used for religious school.
A high-tech security system is also in place. There’s also an outdoor courtyard.
Funding for a gut renovation wasn’t the only challenge. JHJC had to apply for a change of use for the building. The municipality, she says, “gave us a hard time and made us spend $100,000 on redoing the sidewalks and parking.”
The active congregation has never had huge fundraising campaigns, she says.
“Everyone pays their dues or a little extra. But this was a big ask.”
Where a close-knit, long-term friendship group could fracture over a project like this, “We’re very lucky,” says Grossman of JHJC and its founding and longtime members.
“We’re a single, equal group of people. Even after all our fights, we still go to the beach together, go to the lake together. We see each other every single day.”
The building officially opened to coincide with the congregation’s signature annual event, Swingin’ Sabbath. Prior to the program, there was an open house. Grossman’s children Esther, 30, and Isaac, 25, flew in from Berlin and Brooklyn, respectively, for the celebration. The two grew up with the congregation.
Mary’s husband Judd Grossman, a full-time musician, serves as the congregation’s cantor.
Swingin’ Sabbath, says Grossman, is an outdoor event that draws people from outside the community. Last August, it drew a Jewish woman who had only recently moved to town. She followed the sounds of the Hora outside of her apartment building. Fast forward and this school teacher will also be teaching at JHJC’s religious school.
Not having a federation or any umbrella organization can be a challenge, says Grossman.
But it’s a challenge this upstart congregation has met and overcome with agility, professionalism and creativity.
Next time you’re in Jackson, you can visit a sanctuary like no other — with views of the stunning Grand Tetons in almost every direction.
© IJN 2026
