When Temple B’Nai Israel in White Oak, PA, held its final Shabbat service in April after 113 years, it felt like the end of the line. But for Nik Jakobs, a 40-year-old rancher from rural Illinois, it was a call to action.

Jakobs offered to relocate as much of the synagogue’s sacred materials as he could — the Torah, and even the stained-glass windows — to Sterling, Ill., where he’s planning to build a new synagogue on a two-acre cornfield next to a Lutheran church.

Alongside the synagogue, Jakobs also plans to erect a Jewish museum to honor his grandparents, who survived the Holocaust.

“If we build it, they will come,” Jakobs said.

Nik Jacobs holds the Torah from a century-old synagogue in White Oak, PA, to be moved to a new

synagogue he will build in Sterling, Ill. A moving truck is in the background.

Benyamin Cohen photo