The Boston Globe reports,

Open your eyes now inside Boston’s oldest synagogue, the Vilna Shul on Beacon Hill, and it’s easy to imagine a time when Stars of David adorned more than 50 synagogues around the city, alongside steeples and crosses. This was the Boston of another era, because the latter half of the 20th century saw once-thriving Jewish neighborhoods in Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, and the West End disappear as Jews moved to the suburbs, leaving behind historic synagogues, some of which were converted into churches.
But today, Jews here, though certainly not without disagreements, are in an unfamiliar state of solidarity. A younger, increasingly active Jewish community has emerged in the last decade to restore Boston’s oldest standing synagogue, rejuvenate its biggest one, and help to re- shape a religious landscape in the city. Why now? Because for the first time in a long time, the younger generation of Jews has a clear vision that its parents’ generation supports: education.”

Full story.