YOUNGSTOWN — Congregation Ohev Beth Sholom hosted a dedication during a two-day celebration following a $1 million renovation and addition to the inside and outside of the building.

Sarah Wilschek, executive director of the congregation, said this is the first major renovation to the 111-year-old building since the mid-1950s.

She said a campaign called “Securing Our Future” raised the funds for the project, which included adding an elevator, making the building enhanced for the Americans with Disabilities Act and security updates.

Wilschek said the congregation was very supportive of the efforts to get the project completed.

The two-day celebration included a dinner and special services.

Rabbi Courtney Berman thanked all the donors who helped make the renovation possible.

“This is a very special moment for all of us. It has been all of you who have made this possible to renovate this sacred beautiful space,” Berman said. “The project has been a long time coming and is now a reality. We should all have pride radiating from our faces and warmth in our hearts with what has been accomplished.”

Jason Bostocky, capital campaign co-chair and president of the congregation, said after a year of construction, the sanctuary is welcoming everyone.

“Today we celebrate the rededucation of our synagogue and in doing so we remember the generations who came before us,” he said. “We remember their legacy and the foundations that they laid long before us. This building will continue to have meaning and purpose to all who come here.”

He said the dedication and creativity of the congregation allowed for the project. Bostocky said the committee members did their part by focusing on fundraising, logistics and project design.

“Together we showed what teamwork really means and transformed a dream into a reality,” he said. “We have built a foundation strong enough to hold our history, our present and our future. We are part of something enduring and larger than ourselves.”

Congregation Ohev Beth Sholom is a merger of three congregations of Temple Beth Israel of Sharon, Pa., Ohev Tzedek in Boardman, and Rodef Sholom in Youngstown.

Wilschek said while preparing remarks for the rededication event, she looked into the archives at Congregation Ohev Beth Sholom.

“What I found was not only a record of building campaigns and capital improvements, but something far more powerful: a sacred conversation across generations;” she said.

Wilschek said she found handwritten appeals from Temple Beth Israel, fundraising letters from Ohev Tzedek, asking members to support a new building on Glenwood Avenue, and detailed plans from Rodef Sholom’s 1915 dedication, Strouss Hall’s creation in 1947, and the 1955 expansion of our Tamarkin Chapel and Religious School Wing.

“All these documents — different congregations, different fonts, different buildings, different decades — shared a common thread: our community has always believed in building for the future,’ she said.

Wilschek said the capital campaign was not just to modernize a structure, but to build a spiritual home that is safe, accessible and vibrant for everyone.

She said the new entrance bears the inscription ‘From Generation to Generation.’

“As a supporter of the project wisely observed, it is the essence of who we are,” Wilschek said. “Her words capture the deep truth we experienced in this process: that each generation must make space for the next, and that the act of building is a sacred obligation.”

Wilschek said over the past year, the congregation answered the call.

“We came together to design, fund and build a sacred space at 1119 Elm St. that honors our past while embracing the needs of the future,” she said.

“We installed an elevator that makes our sanctuary truly accessible, redesigned entrances to welcome all with dignity, and invested in aesthetics and functionality alike — from lobby furnishings to digital donor displays and a living history wall that tells the story of our legacy congregations.”

Wilschek said 12 years ago, in 2013, as Temple Beth Israel merged with Rodef Sholom, Marlene Epstein expressed hope that the merger would create a much stronger entity, assuring the future survival and future of both congregations.

“Now, following our most recent campaign, we are seeing her vision become reality,” Wilschek said.