Selma's Temple Mishkan Israel hires new programs director, launches plans for renovations

Historic Temple Mishkan Israel in Selma has hired a new director of community programming to move the congregation into the future.

The board hired Stephanie Butler to lead their programs, a move that that board says is long overdue.

Butler has worked in Jewish communal life in Birmingham and previously in Dothan and said her focus will be restoring the 126 year old synagogue and building a slate of programs that reconnect the temple to Selma’s wider community. 

Board President Ronnie Leet said the hire marks a turning point after decades of discussion about how to preserve the building and revive Jewish life in Selma. 

“We have been talking about what we needed to do here at Temple Mishkan Israel to excel our vision and our mission,” Lee said. “We needed to fix our problem, and that is to get somebody that can move us to this next level. Stephanie fit the bill perfectly.” 

Leet said the temple can become an economic and cultural driver for Selma. “We want people to come here and spend money and hear our Jewish story of Selma and see our beautiful building,” he said.

Butler said her first priority has been getting to know Selma and its people.

“Selma is a really nice place. Really nice people,” she said. “There is so much beauty and heritage and history and so many amazing stories that people want to share. My first objective is to make sure I’m really getting to know Selma.” 

Born in Pittsburgh and raised partly in Birmingham and South Florida, Butler has spent much of her adult life in Alabama. She first connected with Temple Mishkan Israel in 2019 when she brought her Dothan congregation to Selma for a Friday night service. That visit, she said, showed her the depth of the temple’s history and the potential for its future. 

More from this section

FIFA’s Haiti jersey ban echoes the long campaign to discredit and downplay the Haitian Revolution

Evidence of ‘siege warfare’ discovered in ‘cradle of civilization’

How gas prices have changed in Mobile in the last week

“There are so many opportunities,” Butler said. “There are opportunities in interfaith relationships, opportunities in the arts, opportunities in theater. We want to bring groups together.” 

She refers to a November program that paired an African American choir singer with a rabbi for an evening of jazz and gospel, drawing 180 people to the sanctuary. “It proves our point that we can be an integral part of the Selma community,” she said. 

Butler said restoration of the building will be a major undertaking supported by grants and donors. She has been reviewing decades of documents and correspondence and said she is struck by how many people across the country remain invested in the temple’s success. 

“There are people with no personal connection to Selma or Mishkan Israel who just want to see it thrive,” she said. “We are really looking forward to reaching out to those people and figuring out what we can build.” 

Board Chairman Jerry Siegel, a Selma native whose family has deep roots in the city’s Jewish history, said the temple’s story is far larger than the building itself. 

“What makes Selma special is the people,” Siegel said. “I have been gone a long time, but I have never lost contact. People have changed, but that sentiment has not.” 

Leet said the temple’s mission now extends beyond preserving its past. “We have moved beyond just brick and mortar,” he said. “We have moved to what we think we can do for Selma, for this community.” 

Butler said she hopes residents will reach out and introduce themselves. “I want to meet everybody,” she said. “If anybody sees me out in the street or wants to reach out, please do. I look forward to meeting as many people as possible.” 

For more information, the Temple can be reached at 334-412-3355.