After more than five years of fundraising and 15 months of wandering between Highland Park High School, Glencoe Union Church, and an office building on Skokie Boulevard, Am Shalom officially moved back into our beautifully renovated building at 840 Vernon Avenue on August 31, 2008. 

Through the Building on Traditions, Shaping our Future campaign, our community came together to raise more than $16 million to renovate and update every inch of our building. It was great to be home and to be in a facility with expanded office space, a beautiful community court, a combined Crown Room and auditorium for the High Holy Days, an intimate Chapel, a handicapped accessible Sanctuary, a second floor filled with classrooms and – very importantly – central air conditioning. 

We were so proud that the project came in ON TIME and right on budget. Just two weeks later the global financial crisis of 2008 began. We were either incredibly smart, incredibly lucky, or both.