Dell Jewish Community Campus. Courtesy: Shalom Austin

By Allison Teegardin and Wendy Goodman

25 years ago, a vision took root — a dream of a community united in faith, learning, and connection. What was once an idea, became a reality, a sacred space where generations could come together, grow, and inspire one another. Before the Dell Jewish Community Campus stood as the heart of the Austin Jewish community, gatherings took place in different, smaller places — with the hope for something greater.

When Michael and Susan Dell acquired the lush land of the Hart Family Ranch on Hart Lane in 1992, they, along with other Jewish community leaders, convened, planned, and raised the more than $8 million needed to open the Dell Jewish Community Campus.

The community has flourished on the Dell Jewish Community campus – becoming more than just a place of learning, gathering and worship. The shared space has become a beacon — a pillar of strength and inspiration, paving the way for others and redefining what it means to be a Jewish community.

Included on the Dell Jewish Community Campus with the Shalom Austin offices, the Dell Jewish Community Center and Shalom Austin Jewish Family Service’s central office, are Congregation Agudas Achim, Temple Beth Shalom, Congregation Tiferet Israel and Austin Jewish Academy.

Rooted in shared values but distinct in purpose, the campus’ institutions each offer something essential. This unique campus model brings people together in meaningful ways. Here’s how each institution plays a vital role in that story.

Congregation Agudas Achim

Congregation Agudas Achim, the second oldest synagogue in Austin, started at Seventh Street and San Jacinto in 1924, expanded on San Jacinto in 1930, then relocated to Bull Creek in 1963, before moving to the Dell Jewish Community Campus and opening in 2001 where it lives today. CAA is currently led by Senior Rabbi Neil F. Blumofe and Associate Rabbi Gail Swedroe.

Rabbi Blumofe recalls the groundbreaking for the CAA Education Building on December 5, 1999. “It was Sunday and the second day of Hanukkah. While our sanctuary wasn’t built yet, many members of our community gathered in celebration and excitement to dedicate our space for learning. We immediately moved in and had the privilege to see the construction of the sanctuary over the next several months. However, even before this, I remember the many planning and visioning meetings that addressed not only how we would utilize the space for CAA, but how we would act as generous and committed campus partners to others on the DJCC. Moving onto campus was a game changer for Jewish life in Austin. It was and remains very inspiring.”

The architecture of the building is as fascinating as the congregation’s history and impact in the community. Designed by the renowned architecture firm Lake Flato Studio, CAA is a striking blend of modern design and natural materials, featuring vaulted ceilings, warm wood accents and expansive windows that fill the space with light.

Reflecting about how the campus has evolved over the past 25 years, Rabbi Blumofe said, “Early on, we dreamed of stages one and two and beyond — and to see Temple Beth Shalom, Jewish Family Service, the arrival of B’nai Abraham, and the new era of Shalom Austin take shape is exciting. We continue to dream of ways that we can serve our CAA community and how we can continue to be both good stewards and partners.”

“[The Dell Jewish Community Campus] is a central address for Jewish life in Austin. It is a centerpiece in our dynamic Jewish rhythm and life,” Rabbi Blumofe said. “The campus enables us to dream our dreams, centralizes our resources, and allows us to provide for others from a position of strength and generosity beyond these important spaces.”

Past president of Congregation Agudas Achim in 1996-1998, Alan Sager was an instrumental part in helping to move CAA from its Bull Creek location to its new home on the Dell Jewish Community Campus.

On Yom Kippur in 1997, Alan Sager delivered an energizing speech to the Congregation Agudas Achim congregation. “We have voted to relocate to the new Jewish campus. There we will build a synagogue that will provide us with an inviting and supportive environment. If the campus is all that we hope it will be, it will be a light unto all other Jewish communities in America. It will be an important part of our legacy! But it cannot be the only part,” Sager said.

Sager says it was a huge community undertaking to make the dream of the new congregation building on the campus a reality, “The important thing for me is that getting to the opening from Phil Spertus broaching the idea perhaps in 1991 to the opening of the building took a lot of work and commitment from many parts of the community.”

Temple Beth Shalom

Also celebrating their 25-year anniversary of its establishment this year is Temple Beth Shalom which broke ground on the Dell Jewish Community Campus on May 6, 2012. Temple Beth Shalom started with 12 member families, having services with student Rabbi Geri Newburge who visited certain times of the year. In 2002, Rabbi Alan Freedman joined TBS and led the congregation until 2023 when he transitioned to serve as Rabbi Emeritus. TBS is now led by Senior Rabbi Eleanor B. Steinman and Assistant Rabbi Will Hall.

After nearly a decade from when Temple Beth Shalom leaders began planning with the DJCC about making their permanent home on the campus and fundraising to bring the dream to life, TBS opened its new three-story, 21,000 square-foot building in December 2013. In a November 2013 Jewish Outlook article, Rabbi Alan Freedman said, “the new building will give the congregation a sense of having a central place that has not existed in the previous 13 years of the congregation’s existence.”

In the early days before their synagogue was built, TBS held services at the Early Childhood Program’s (now Zeifman Family Early Childhood Program) multipurpose room. Steve Gellman, who along with his wife, Lynne, was one of the first co-vice presidents of TBS and chair of the Temple Beth Shalom Building Steering Committee recalls, “We would borrow a Torah from Congregation Agudas Achim and place it in a portable ark and then return it after services.” TBS also had temporary office space at CAA where the partnership between the two was immediate.

Gellman says that locating on the Dell Jewish Community Campus was an important reason that the congregation formed. “On the campus, we are an important part of the center of Austin Jewish life. There is a synergy created by being on the campus that we would not experience if we located elsewhere. We host and co-host community events, we can share our space with others, and others share their space with us. We belong, and hopefully we make a meaningful contribution to this partnership,” Gellman said.

Rabbi Steinman expressed how the growth on the campus has been amazing to witness in the past few years. “Temple Beth Shalom and the DJCC [Dell Jewish Community Campus] are important to one another because we

members of both organizations. We also have the opportunity to serve the diverse needs of our people and share resources that enable us both to streamline our back-end operations,” Rabbi Steinman said.

“Being a part of the Dell Jewish Community Campus has been an integral part of the life of Temple Beth Shalom since its founding. Although shared physical presence is important, it is the campus concept that remains central to the mission of Temple Beth Shalom. Being part of a larger campus community has added immeasurably to the ruach and to the growth of our congregation. We are proud of our 25 years of partnership on the campus and of being part of what makes the Dell Jewish Community Campus home for so much of Austin Jewry,” Rabbi Freedman said.

Congregation Tiferet Israel

Congregation Tiferet Israel, Austin’s Modern Orthodox synagogue, began in the early 2000’s by a small group of committed people who wanted to see an Orthodox community take root in Austin.

Rabbi Dan Millner recalls when he first joined CTI in the summer of 2014, they gathered in the multipurpose room at the ECP for Shabbat services and in a classroom at the AJA for weekday minyanim. “Though small in number, it was immediately clear that the members of the congregation were deeply committed to CTI’s future. They were not only willing, but also eager, to invest in and grow our community — both within the walls of the shul and beyond,” Rabbi Millner said.

On August 30, 2015, the oldest synagogue building in Texas and a registered Texas Historic Landmark, B’nai Abraham, was relocated from Brenham, Texas to the Dell Jewish Community Campus and became the home for Congregation Tiferet Israel.

B’nai Abraham was originally built in 1893 and operated as Brenham’s only Jewish house of worship through the mid-1960s.

The Toubin family played an instrumental role in the effort to move and preserve the historic synagogue. In the November 2014 Jewish Outlook, Jay Rubin, former Shalom Austin CEO, said, “Leon Toubin, a Brenham native, fourth generation B’nai Abraham member and longtime civic and business leader, with his wife Mimi, have lovingly preserved synagogue and welcomed visits by individuals and groups throughout the past half century. With the blessing and support of the Toubin family, the synagogue will once again echo daily with the sound of Jewish prayer, learning and lifecycle ceremonies by relocating to a new site on the 40-acre Dell Jewish Community Campus in Austin.”

Rubin continued, “Although B’nai Abraham will not retain its official historic status as a result of the move, it will visibly and meaningfully link past generations of Jewish individuals and families from small towns across Texas to a vibrant Jewish future in Austin.”

The B’nai Abraham synagogue has now served as the home for Congregation Tiferet Israel for ten years on the Dell Jewish Community Campus.

Rabbi Millner notes that the Dell Jewish Community Campus is essential to their operations. “Not only does it provide exceptional security, which is now, sadly, on the forefront of many of our minds, but it also offers so many rich resources for CTI to utilize. Beyond the material, however, the campus provides us with a common meeting ground — a place for Jews to gather, be together and connect,” Rabbi Millner said.

Rabbi Millner said “when the B’nai Abraham synagogue became part of the Dell Jewish Community Campus, we were presented with a unique opportunity to redefine ourselves and find our collective voice as an institution. Thanks to the hard work, dedication, and ambition of our members, CTI is steadily moving closer to the vision that so many of us imagined back in that ECP multipurpose room,” Rabbi Millner said.

Austin Jewish Academy

Included on the Dell Jewish Community Campus is the Austin Jewish Academy, a Jewish day school for children in kindergarten through eighth grade. While not affiliated with any movement or synagogue, it is rooted in Jewish values and open to all children regardless of religious affiliation.

“Over the years, I’ve seen the campus

presence and in the number of people who fill it each day. New facilities and expanded spaces have created a more vibrant, dynamic environment, while increased community involvement has made the campus feel more connected and alive than ever,” AJA Program Director Dana Nisenfeld said.

Austin Jewish Academy was founded in 1997 by Senior Early Childhood Program Director Dana Baruch in an effort to fill a vital need in the community for a Jewish day school. Igniting two of her passions, Judaism and education, Baruch and her husband Mike Krell opened their home to host several committees who all worked to make the dream of a Jewish day school in Austin a reality. An existing 501(c)(3) was already formed at the time Baruch became involved, so she recalls taking “the baton” and together with others “running with it.” AJA began in the 1997-98 school year sharing space at the old Congregation Agudas Achim building on Bull Creek. In its first year, they enrolled 11 kindergartners and one mixed first/second grade class with nine children.

With the land for the Dell Jewish Community Campus already purchased by the time AJA started, Baruch says they were hopeful they would move their school there and in fact did so in their third year. “There’s shared spaces, shared opportunities with different community members, such as when ECP and AJA do presentations for the senior luncheons,” Baruch said. What is more, there’s a benefit to those who work within shared spaces. “To be part of a larger community, not just institutions but people as well. It’s important to have colleagues to share and be thought partners with,” Baruch said. “Shalom Austin in tangible and intangible ways is an incredible support to AJA.”

Another benefit of having multiple institutions on a shared campus is the natural flow and comfort that comes with being familiar. “When you are familiar with something, you are at ease, and ready to begin the next thing instead of worrying about ‘who I am with’ or ‘where am I,’” AJA Interim Head Kari Loya said regarding the impact this has on students. Not only does this benefit the students, Loya says the parents enjoy the routine and familiarity of being on the same campus as do the students and are happy to stay connected with friends they make along the way.

Loya also pointed to the shared campus security resources as something that attracts parents to AJA. “As an educational leader it’s important to talk about safety and security on campus. Historically, that was taken for granted though we can’t anymore. We are very grateful to be on this campus with the security it provides,” Loya said.

Dell Jewish Community Campus

Whether it is through shared resources, shared spaces, networking, or community events, the institutions all operating independently, yet collaboratively on the Dell Jewish Community Campus are all contributing to the vibrant Jewish Austin ecosystem on the campus.

“What we’ve built here is more than a shared campus – it’s a living example of how community and collaboration can thrive together. By bringing these incredible Jewish institutions into one 40-acre space, we’ve created a warm, safe and cohesive environment that strengthens each part while elevating the whole. It’s a model others are looking to as a blueprint for what’s possible when we come together with a shared purpose,” Shalom Austin CEO Rabbi Daniel A. Septimus said.