An art museum is set to be built in a historic synagogue that predates the Salt Lake Temple

Salt Lake City, Utah – It houses Utah’s first permanent Jewish house of worship and is the state’s oldest synagogue. In fact, it was finished in 1891 before the Salt Lake Temple. The B’nai Israel Temple was once described as having “an air of quiet elegance” by the Salt Lake Tribune.

Michah Christensen, a Salt Lake resident who recently paid $3 million for the historic synagogue, said, “I’ve wanted this building for a long time.”

Anthony’s Fine Art, the Christensen family business, is about half a block from the synagogue.

Christensen revealed, “I have a connection to this building.” My great-grandfather, Philip Fitzler, was a member of this congregation, and I am half Jewish and half Mormon pioneer. It feels like a full circle.

The structure has served as a school, office space, and restaurant in the decades after it was no longer used as a synagogue in the 1970s.

Christensen’s plans are more imaginative. “Creating a museum was the goal from the beginning,” he exclaimed.

The Salt Lake Art Museum, the city’s first new fine art gallery in thirty years, is already under construction.

Christopher Jensen, an architectural historian and realtor who helped Christensen buy the building, explained that when it was constructed and opened in 1891, it was one of the largest and most elaborate structures in the region.

The aging synagogue was a reflection of Utah’s Jewish community’s increasing power.

Jensen continued, “The Mormon pioneers actually favored the Jewish community as the favored people or the favored gentiles at the time.” “They conducted a lot of business in this valley, and it provided them with a space to worship, gather, and form a community.”

Architect Philip Meyer of Berlin created the synagogue, basing it on the city’s Fasanenstrasse synagogue. Frederick Auerbach, Meyer’s uncle and a Utah businessman, recruited Meyer into the project.

According to Jensen, “[Philip Meyer] ultimately returned to Germany and became the principal architect for the Prussian state and the imperial household.”

Meyer passed away in a Nazi extermination camp in 1943. “I believe he plays a significant role in this tale of architectural brilliance, which is evident in the B’nai Israel Temple,” Jensen stated. “It serves as a sort of signature for him and his work.”

Christensen, who has devoted his life to art and Utah arts, seized the chance to purchase the synagogue when it was put up for sale.

“We reached out to Chris Jensen and were able to make an offer and purchase it after I found out that they were planning to build apartments around this building and that its future was uncertain,” Christensen said.

Jensen claims that the building isn’t protected locally, though. Jensen said, “It could have been leveled because it’s not a local landmark.” “We purposefully brought buyers in that were going to preserve it and that are going to keep it as much as they can to its original form.”It will serve as an excellent illustration of the potential of historic preservation and the benefits that a well-managed historic site can provide to the community.

Christensen claims that the historic synagogue’s acquisition and conversion into an art museum came at the ideal moment.

“The entire objective is to honor Utah art and Utah artists,” he said. According to the most recent U.S. census, Utah has more artists per capita than any other state in the union. However, our museums are the second-worst in the state, after West Virginia.

Christensen believes that when the building’s new version opens next year, it will serve as a vibrant neighborhood gathering place, much like it did for his own family.

Because my great-grandfather was a member of this congregation, I simply feel a general sense of stewardship toward the community and my own family.