14 | NOVEMBER 26 • 2020
JENNIFER LOVY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Last Aliyah at
Iron Mountain
F
or more than a cen-
tury, the Jews of Iron
Mountain gathered and
worshiped at a small but pre-
viously vibrant congregation
in the western portion of the
Upper Peninsula. The remark-
able history of this shul, called
Anshe Knesseth Israel, came to
an end earlier this year when
board members made the diffi-
cult decision to close the syna-
gogue and sell the property.
With less than a half-dozen
known practicing Jews in the
area, and no real income to pay
the utility bills, it was no longer
viable to have a congregation in
this former mining town.
The synagogue’
s closure
leaves two remaining congre-
gations in the Upper Peninsula,
one in Marquette, and the other
in Houghton. A third congrega-
tion in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada,
attracts members from across
the river in and around Sault
Ste. Marie, Mich.
Although no one from Iron
Mountain was surprised to
see the synagogue wind down,
former congregants expressed
sadness about the conclusion of
a significant piece of Jewish his-
tory in the Upper Peninsula.
“It’
s sad to see your childhood
synagogue close, but we knew
it was going to happen. There’
s
no longer a Jewish community
in Iron Mountain,
” said Wendy
Russman-Halperin. Her fam-
ily moved there in 1961 from
Miami when her father, a phy-
sician, accepted a job there with
the local V
.A. hospital. She was
in third grade at the time.
Following her graduation
in 1971, Russman-Halperin
left Iron Mountain to attend-
ed Brandeis University. One
of the reasons she chose the
Massachusetts school was to
further explore her religion.
There, she wrote a paper on
the history of the Jews of Iron
Mountain, based on interviews
conducted with five generations
of Jewish residents. In 2009, it
was published by the Jewish
Historical Society of Michigan.
At the time of publication, the
Jewish community had dwin-
dled to 10 residents.
“We were raised to leave
Iron Mountain. There’
s no way
it could survive,
” said Jeffrey
Kushner, 65, a cardiologist now
living in Madison, Wis. “
Any
sadness I’
ve experienced is more
about the people than the actual
building. It was a tight Jewish
community with approximately
15 to 20 families. When I think
about the synagogue, I remem-
ber all the families and the spe-
cific places where everyone sat
for services.
”
Kushner was born in Iron
Mountain in 1955 and gradu-
ated high school with former
NFL coach Steve Mariucci
and current Michigan State
University basketball coach
Tom Izzo. He left his home-
TOP: The shul resembles a house on
the corner. ABOVE LEFT: The shul’s
interior. ABOVE MIDDLE: A close-up
view of the bimah. ABOVE RIGHT:
The original building was a church.
continued on page 16
As tiny Jewish community dwindles,
historic U.P. shul fi
nally shuts its doors.
ON THE COVER
PHOTOS COURTESY OF ANSHE KNESSETH ISRAEL FORMER MEMBERS