For over 100 years, the Vilna Shul has stood nestled in Boston’s Beacon Hill — an outpost of Jewish immigrant history in one of the city’s most popular, most historic neighborhoods. While rooted in its Jewish cultural history, it’s also a building that has known change. Starting in the 1950s, when the Jewish community began to filter out of the neighborhood, the synagogue fell into a period of disuse, then disrepair. Restored by a Jewish community initiative in the 1990s, it now operates as a cultural center, honoring Boston’s Jewish immigrant history as a new generation walks through its doors for educational programs, entertainment, public art exhibits and historic tours.

In the latest chapter in an old building’s history, a merger between the Jewish Arts Collaborative and the Vilna Shul — alongside a planned multimillion-dollar capital renovation to transform the synagogue’s historic sanctuary space into a center for Jewish performing arts —  aims to cement the redbrick synagogue as a one-stop shop for Jewish culture in Greater Boston.  

“It’s not just that the Boston Jewish community rescued the Vilna shul from being destroyed. They have rescued this story of the Jewish immigrant history of this community,” Laura Mandel, formerly JArts’ executive director, told eJewishPhilanthropy. “Now through our partnership, through the artists and the program vision that we are creating together, we’re really gonna be able to illuminate those stories.”

Following the merger, which was voted on in late January and announced this week, Mandel stepped into the role of managing director of program strategy and impact at The Vilna. Both the Vilna and JArts’ core programs will continue, and JArts’ three signature events —- Hanukkah at the MFA, Be The Change at the Fenway and the Community Creative Fellowship powered by CJP — will be absorbed into the Vilna’s programming. There will be no layoffs from either organization in the process, Dalit Ballen Horn, The Vilna’s executive director, told eJP. 

“There’s a vision for us to become a center, a living museum by day that tells the Jewish immigrant story, and a center for arts and culture by night,” she said. 

According to Ballen Horn and Mandel, the decision to unite seemed obvious to the two organizations, which both operated on similar budgets for a similar target audience. By joining together, it was clear to both organizations that they could streamline their operations while also deepening their impact in the community.

“JArts and Vilna combined are now what will be one of the largest mailing lists in the Greater Boston area for this kind of work,” Mandel told eJP.

Preceding JArts’ founding, there was a longstanding vision of creating a Jewish cultural center around Boston’s Greenway park, said Mandel. Though the building never came to fruition, the hope for a physical home for arts programming remained. And for the Vilna, a new strategic plan, a desire for expanded arts programing, and a desire to meet the needs of young Jews longing for Jewish cultural connection amid rising antisemitism, led to the opportune moment for the two organizations to join forces. 

“The Vilna and JArts are vibrant treasures of our community, and their coming together marks an exciting step forward in nurturing Jewish culture holistically,” Marc Baker, president and CEO of Combined Jewish Philanthropies, the city’s Jewish federation, said in a statement.

According to Ballen Horn, the organizations also hope the merger stands as an example of the ways consolidating complementary organizations can create a broader impact within a community.

“The goal is not to live in a world where you have so many options and so many people working separately, unwilling to consider combining that power to make something that’s more effective for the community,” Ballen Horn told eJP.