Longtime Iowa City Synagogue prepares for move to Coralville

The Agudas Achim Congregation will soon have it's services split between four locations as it prepares to move to a new location in Coralville.

Damaged during the floods in 2008, the Synagogue, which has been in it's current E. Washington Street Location since 1951, has outgrown it's current location. The congregation will soon relocate to the former Gold's Gym building at 401 Oakdale Boulevard, Rabbi Jeff Portman said it may be another six months before they are able to get into the space.

Portman said he and the roughly 200 families who are part of the congregation have enjoyed the convenient downtown location, though all are looking forward to having all their services available under one roof in the near future.

"We needed a religious school, we needed to grow, and we needed to get away from the flooding," Portman said. "We wanted to stay here because the location is ideal, but we had to move because it's in a flood zone and the city won't let us to expand much."

Until the synagogue is able to move into it's new location -- which could be as far as eight months away -- the congregation's Sunday school program will remain at Willowwind school in Iowa City, as it has for the last few years and the Hebrew school will now be held at the Zion Lutheran Church, also in Iowa City. Until then, it's services will be divided, and much of it's property will be moved into a storage unit.

Friday and Saturday services will be held at the Hillel House and the congregation's offices will be located at Terry, Lockridge and Dunn on Mormon Trek Blvd. until the Synagogue is able to move into it's new space.  The congregation had to move it's school after the flood in 2008 left the basement of their space condemned.

But Kineret Zabner, principle of the school, said she and Portman aren't worried about losing membership during the transition.

"We're hoping to gain membership once we move because we think people are going to be excited about our new space," Zabner said.

Portman said the congregation's new space is double the size of their current location, which will make room for all of its services. He also said the space will allow them to have a larger area for celebrations and social events as they have previously been forced into a narrow space in their Iowa City location.

"The biggest benefit will be having everything under one roof," Portman said. "This is a great opportunity for the synagogue and it's membership."