With a small permanent Jewish population, South Haven's synagogue was most crowded on summer Sabbaths, when Chicago Jews flocked to the Michigan shore for vacations in the 1920s and 1930s. Before the Great Depression, the First Hebrew Congregation built this eclectic little brick synagogue, marked by a prominent decorative gable end reminiscent of Flemish or the then-fashionable Mission-style gables, and also marked by a similarly fashioned entrance and a large round Star of David window above an arched triple window. This building strikes an exotic foreign note in an otherwise unremarkable streetscape.
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First Hebrew Congregation
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