AMVETS completes purchase of synagogue for national headquarters
Construction will start soon at AMVETS’ new national headquarters at the former Beth Israel Synagogue in Washington.
“We’re working through it,” said Joe Chenelly, executive director of AMVETS. “We’re aiming for a ribbon cutting in March for the headquarters.”
The sale of the synagogue at 265 North Ave. to AMVETS was finalized in June at a price of about $525,000. The national veterans organization will move its headquarters from Washington, D.C., where it’s been based for nearly 80 years.
The building will house the organization’s offices, but will have enough space to host meetings and community events. About 30 employees will work there.
Chenelly reiterated this week that Washington County is an attractive location for a number of reasons, such as being among the top counties in the country in veterans per capita. Plus, the cost of living is 40% lower than in Washington, D.C.
“It’s a wonderful community,” he said. “There’s a very, very high percentage of veterans in the area. It’s very centrally located. That was a huge selling point for our membership. There’s certainly a much more reasonable cost of living than the Washington, D.C. area. We love the two buildings we ended up purchasing. Every day, it seems like we have a new positive experience with someone in the community that we’re working with to make this all happen.”
For David Posner, a longtime member of the Beth Israel congregation and past president, the eventual sale of the synagogue came with sadness.
“It is a very, very sad day, but I would make the observation that this is happening with many of the other congregations of many denominations everywhere, constantly,” he said.
Posner recalled the congregation as thriving when he became a member more than a half-century ago.
“Now, we cannot get enough people to pray in the building on a regular basis,” he said. “It became prohibitively expensive to maintain.”
Beth Israel Synagogue was built in 1955, but the history of the congregation dates back to 1891. As part of the sales agreement, the congregation retains use of a smaller chapel on the property, which seats about 25 people, for the next 20 years. Posner said it has not been used in a while because of the low numbers, and the chapel becomes quite warm in the summer.
Services have not been held regularly at the synagogue for quite some time, and instead take place remotely, which Posner leads every Friday night.
“We continue to exist as a group; we just don’t own the building anymore,” Posner said.
Posner said it is still to be determined what will be done with the money from the sale.
“Because we are a charity, we can’t give it to ourselves,” he said. “We will put it to a charitable purpose, once we figure out what that should be.”
His wife, Marilyn, took care of finding homes for the synagogue’s contents, such as a framed portrait of the congregation’s first rabbi, Jacob Goldfarb, who served from 1891 to 1941, numerous books and various other items. Four colleges and universities were recipients of prayer books.
“Some of our Jewish artifacts went to other congregations who could use them,” she said. “I did my best to find appropriate homes for them. I was looking for good homes. I wasn’t just sending them away. I was sending them where I knew people could use them in good faith.”
Washington Mayor JoJo Burgess welcomed AMVETS to the city.
“As a veteran, I’m very welcoming to them being here,” he said. “It’s good for the city of Washington. AMVETS is a nationally known organization. Little Washington has pulled their headquarters from big Washington. How could we not be happy about that? They have a lot of plans to be involved in the community. It can only be very positive. It’s going to help our vets and with some of the things they want to do, it’s maybe even going to outreach to some of our children that want to go to the military.”
AMVETS also is moving into the former Laboratory Elementary School, which will be used as a family services center to provide traditional housing and services for veterans and their families who are in financial crisis.
In March, AMVETS was the highest bidder in an auction for the building at 99 Manse St. in South Strabane Township. The price, including auctioneer fees, was $269,500.
Chenelly hopes that the building also will be open for business in March.
The Trinity School District ceased using the school in February 1995. For several years, the building was leased to Intermediate Unit 1 for educational programs until July 2022, when the IU moved to its McMurray campus.
Trinity School Board voted in July 2023 to sell the building to Kelsall Properties LLC for $200,000 to be converted into apartments, but the sale was blocked in Washington County Court of Common Pleas. It was eventually sold at auction in October 2023 to Kelsall, but the deal fell through.
Chenelly said the buildings have been cleaned and assessments and surveys have been conducted.
“The planning and design phase are completed,” he said. “We’re getting down to the nitty-gritty work. We have the floor plans. We’ve been able to solidify the number of apartments we’re putting in the school. We’ve also entered into a memorandum of understanding with South Strabane so they can continue to use the parking lot on the side of the building that is closest to the park, which I know was very important to them. We’re happy to be good neighbors.”
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