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

