Our Story
Bonnie Schaefer sat in Boone’s St. Elizabeth Catholic Church on August 4, 2007. She watched Nicholas Gentile stand at the podium and chant his Bar Mitzvah Torah portion, as a huge crucifix hung on the wall behind him, covered in a white cotton sheet. Bonnie leaned over to her wife Jamie and asked “why don’t we have a synagogue in Boone?” They looked at each for an instant, then Bonnie said to Jamie and Marla Gentile “Let’s build one!”
Years earlier, in 1974, a small group of Jewish residents from and around Boone, met and formed a congregation that was named the Boone Jewish Community. For many years, they held Friday night services in members' homes and in meeting places at Appalachian State University. Then for many more years the Jewish community was invited to bring their prayer services to several local Christian houses of worship. The welcoming doors swung open at the Unitarian Fellowship, St. Luke's Episcopal Church, and St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church, but, oftentimes, high-holy holiday services were missed because the spaces were already in use.
Our Boone Jewish community was deeply grateful for this kindness shown to us by our Christian neighbors, but knew it was now time to have a place of our own.
With the announcement in September 2008, that the generous donation of one million dollars from Bonnie and Jamie Schaefer would allow us to start fundraising for a building of our own, it was decided — with a majority of congregational votes, to rename the Boone Jewish Community to the Temple of the High Country. Plans for the new temple were literally on a roll! Determined, Jamie and Marla Gentile then set off on their bikes — The Check Riders rode across the high country to pick up donation checks securing the fund, allowing them to break ground on the Temple of the High Country in May 2010.
The Temple of the High Country became the home of the Schaefer Jewish Community Center in gratitude for the initial idea, donation, and fundraising efforts of Bonnie and Jamie Schaefer. With the Schaefer’s forward thinking and The High Country Jewish community and others, our doors opened on June 22, 2012.
We were overjoyed at our good fortune, and blessed this magical moment by reciting the Shehecheyanu prayer – the prayer of thanks.
