Kol Ami Synagogue newclippings, 2002 - 2014

Kol Ami was founded in June 1998 after the congregations of two conservative synagogues in Meriden and Waterbury rejected a plan to merge and move to Cheshire. The temple held services for a time in space it rented at a local Veterans of Foreign Wars hall before moving into the Highland Avenue location in March 2001 in Cheshire.

When Beth Israel Synagogue in Bristol closed its doors in 2000, it bequeathed its ritual items and cemetery to Kol Ami. After the congregation sold its building on Orchard Street, it donated the remaining $240,000 in its general fund to Kol Ami, which was used to renovate a former office and showroom space on Highland Avenue in Cheshire. Beth Israel’s congregants were made lifetime members of Kol Ami.

The new synagogue opened in March 2001, securing a certificate of occupancy 20 hours before celebrating its first bar mitzvah in the new building. The congregation hired its first and only full-time cantor, Dorothy Goldberg, in 2010. Goldberg left in 2011; Rabbi Joshua Ratner took over as spiritual leader in 2012.

Kol Ami closed in June 2014. Congregants who were still active made alternate arrangements with other area synagogues.

Sources:

“Kol Ami closes doors in Cheshire.” New Haven Register, 26 July 2014, www.nhregister.com/connecticut/article/Kol-Ami-closes-doors-in-Cheshire-11365131.php. Accessed 12 Oct. 2021.

“Sign of the times in Jewish suburbia.” CT Jewish Ledger, 28 May 2014, www.jewishledger.com/2014/05/sign-of-the-times-in-jewish-suburbia/. Accessed 12 Oct. 2021.