The synagogue of Congregation Beth Shalom (the Northern Illinois Jewish Community Center) is located at 820 Russell Road in DeKalb, IL. We opened this building in 1967, and have been operating here continuously since then. Most Jewish community events, and all services, are held at the synagogue, including the High Holy Days. The building is also used by Northern Illinois University Hillel.
The main entrance to the synagogue is located off Russell Road, with a secondary (handicapped accessible) entrance from our parking lot. Our parking lot is located immediately behind the building, with spaces for twenty-eight vehicles including two handicapped spaces. There is additional street parking along Russell Road, as well as overflow parking (weather permitting) on our grass area just to the north.
The main level of the building consists of the sanctuary, library, office, and restrooms. The sanctuary, which can seat up to 80 people, has moveable chairs and can be easily reconfigured for a variety of worship services and activities. When full seating capacity is not needed the back of the room can be set to host onegs as well as large group meetings. A major remodeling project, to improve security and adapt our main floor to provide accessibility for social events, is planned to begin soon.
The CBS library contains over 1,200 volumes of Judaica and books of Jewish interest. There is a meeting table and chairs for small group discussions (up to 8 people), as well as comfortable chairs for reading and study. Three restrooms are also available on the main floor: men, women, and a larger family/handicapped accessible room with a child changing table.
The lower level is accessed from stairs both inside the building and outside from our parking lot. Downstairs there is a large, multi-purpose function room, several storage rooms, two refrigerators and a full service professional kitchen.
In addition to our synagogue building, Congregation Beth Shalom also oversees the local Jewish cemetery, Garden of Shalom. It is located at the Fairview Park Cemetery just east of South First Street and north of Fairview Drive in DeKalb on the south side of DeKalb.