NEWS: Montana synagogue returns to Jewish community

Jews in Helena, Mont., have high hopes for building

The Jewish community in Montana’s state capital has not had a place to gather in 80 years. But a group of Helena Jews is set to change that by buying back the old synagogue that was built more than a century ago and sold soon after for $1.

Completed in 1891, Temple Emanu-El was the first synagogue built between St. Paul, Minn., and Portland. It initially served hundreds of Jewish people who came to Helena during the gold rush.

But both gold and Jews quickly dwindled.

The building was sold for that minuscule amount to the state of Montana in the 1930s after the Jewish community became too small to keep it running.

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