A few years ago, Paul Sorenson and his wife, Katie Garland, were walking through the Botanical Heights neighborhood when Sorenson spotted a building with Stars of David etched in stone on the brick facade and in stained glass windows. Sorenson had heard about an old, vacant synagogue in the neighborhood, and it turned out they had stumbled upon it.
He asked the developers he eventually bought a home from about the synagogue. They told him they had purchased the building and were looking for a tenant.
“We said, ‘Hold on a second; we’ll get back to you.’ And that’s when we pulled the team together and started our conversation with” Jewish Federation of St. Louis, Sorenson recalls.
That discussion led to MaTovu, a Jewish center at 4200 Blaine Ave., which opened on Oct. 5. …