MERCAZ Newsletter Spring 2001
The Fuchsberg Center: Construction Update
by Debbie Efraim and Yitzchak Jacobsen

Renovations begin in March on the exisiting youth hostel at the Fuchsberg Center. Dormitory space will increase, allowing the expansion of the NATIV post-high school program from its current 50 students to over 100.

The hostel building, 2 Agron Street, now houses the Israel offices of the United Synagogue, which will be moving down the block to the recently purchased Rapaport Building, also on the Fuchsberg campus.
The United Synagogue is projecting that the hostel will open concurrently with the 50,000-square-foot Youth & Education Center now under construction at 6 Agron, which will also have dorm rooms. Together, the buildings will enable the Fuchsberg Center to house more than 200 people. The newly renovated hostel building will also include two kitchenettes, student lounges, study areas and lecture halls.

At the Youth & Education Center, builders have already poured the second floor ceiling. Visitors can drive down to the parking level, using the completed parking ramp, then walk to the finished classrooms, auditorium, kitchen, and dining rooms. By venturing through scaffolding, visitors can also view the first dormitory floor. When complete, the structure will have eight floorsÑthree underground and five above ground.

The building at 2 Agron boasts a colorful history, dating to the turn of the century. It served as a mission for an adjacent Protestant church, both of which were purchased in 1972 by David Zucker and Morris Speizman, who then donated the building to United Synagogue. The church building now is the Congregation Moreshet Yisrael synagogue. Besides the United Synagogue offices, the building at 2 Agron also houses the Beit Bernstein Youth Hostel, the NATIV and USY pilgrimage offices and adult education programs. During its nearly 30-year existence, Beit Bernstein has hosted a Gulf War emergency medical station, army units on educational tours, border police protecting the city, backpackers from throughout the world, UN soldiers, Protestant theological students and, of course, students on USY Pilgrimages. The current renovations will bring this venerable building into the twenty-first century.