18 | JUNE 9 • 2022 

OUR COMMUNITY

K

ehillat Etz Chayim 
— a small Modern 
Orthodox congrega-
tion that has met in members’ 
homes and in space rented from 
Congregation Beth 
Shalom since its 
founding in 2018, 
has purchased a 
building of its own 
in north Oak Park.
The building, 
on the corner of 
Coolidge and Talbot, now hous-
es Harmony Montessori Center, 
which offers nursery, preschool 
and kindergarten programs. 
The two women running it 
are retiring, said Kehillat Etz 
Chayim’s Rabbi Asher Lopatin, 
but the center’s programs will 
continue through the summer. 
Etz Chayim will then make 
some renovations. 
Lopatin said he does not 
anticipate using the building 
on a regular basis until after the 

High Holidays.
The structure was built for a 
church. The Michigan branch 
of Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter 
Ring, a Zionist workers’ group 
founded in 1900, owned it for 
many years before selling it to 
Harmony Montessori in 2008. 
(In 2019, the group changed its 
name to Workers Circle.) 
Kehillat Etz Chayim’s 
President Dr. Michael Singer 
of Huntington Woods said 
the synagogue’s new location, 
within walking distance of all 
of Huntington Woods as well 
as large parts of Oak Park and 
Berkley, “will enable us to con-
tinue our individual and com-
munal growth and provide a 
house of learning and prayer for 
the entire community.
” 
For himself and his family, 
he said, having a permanent 
location will offer “a sense of 
stability and security that is very 
comforting.
”

The building’s size is perfect 
for Etz Chayim, which has 40 
member families, Lopatin said. 
The main room should be able 
to seat about 150 people com-
fortably and is larger than the 
chapel the congregation has 
been renting from Beth Shalom. 
 
Usually 60 to 100 people attend 
Shabbat services, including 
children and teens. For bar and 
bat mitzvah services, which can 
attract several hundred people, 
the congregation may still need 
to rent the sanctuary and/or 
social hall at Beth Shalom.
For Shabbat evening and 
some weekday services, Etz 
Chayim congregants have been 
meeting in members’ homes — 
outdoors when possible during 
the pandemic. After the renova-
tions, they’ll be able to use their 
new building every day.
The 3,500-square-foot 
Coolidge building has a large 
parking lot, and Lopatin envi-

sions being able to construct 
a canopy or marquee for large 
kiddush receptions or meals.
The building is in great shape 
and most renovations will be 
cosmetic, he said — but those 
may be substantial. The con-
gregation hopes to remove the 
drop ceiling to create a more 
open feeling. The restrooms, 
now designed for toddlers and 
preschoolers, will have to be 
completely rebuilt.
Etz Chayim closed on the 
building June 3, after securing 
approval from the city of Oak 
Park to use it as a synagogue.
“We’re so excited,
” said 
Lopatin, who also works as 
executive director of the Jewish 
Community Relations Council/
AJC. Although the congrega-
tion is tightknit, the difference 
between being a minyan and “a 
real shul” is having a building 
of one’s own, he said. “We are 
really finding a home.
” 

Kehillat Etz Chayim purchases building in Oak Park.
A Home of Its Own

Rabbi Asher 
Lopatin

BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Front and back views of the building that will become home to Kehillat Etz Chayim.

BARBARA LEWIS

