The Ames Jewish Congregation, 3721 Calhoun Ave., centers on community.

Although the congregation is small, members strive to keep their synagogue and community going.

“We’re a very small, a very close community where everyone pitches in,” said Jean Marcus, president of the congregation.

Joseph Rosenbloom, a rabbi emeritus from St. Louis, commutes to Ames one weekend each month to lead Sabbath services. The remaining services are lead by members of the congregation.

Sabbath begins Friday at sundown and ends Saturday when three stars are visible in the sky.

“Jewish people so loved the Sabbath that, rather than make it go from sundown to sundown, we make it last a little bit longer by waiting for three stars in the night sky,” Marcus said.

Friday services begin at 8 p.m. and consist of song, prayer and the reading of the Torah, the five books of Moses handwritten on a scroll, Marcus said.

The synagogue was formed by two Jewish families in Ames who wanted a place of worship closer than Des Moines, Marcus said. The families sent letters to all the Jews they knew, and, in January 1962, the Ames Jewish Congregation was formally created. The congregation met in a room of the Memorial Union each Friday night until the summer of 1962 when the members started a building fund and began looking for a new meeting place. A reverend from the First Baptist Church offered his church for meeting space.

Although the offer was free of charge, the congregation insisted on paying rent. They met in the church until they found rooms for rent on Main Street.

The congregation renovated a former bowling alley and held services and religious classes there until the landlord died and his children asked the congregation to vacate the space, she said.

The reverend from St. David’s Episcopal Church offered part of his church’s land at a good price.

The congregation accepted and built their synagogue next door to the church.