English: Destiny Christian Church, 905 College Avenue at Madison Street, Niagara Falls, New York, January 2023. Dedicated in November 1968 after two years of construction, this impressive building - initially the home of Temple Beth Israel - was a work of the local architectural firm of Bazemore & Grove who here furnish a design that is full-throatedly Modernist in style, displaying an "exhilarating freshness and a striking newness... a welcome departure from centuries-old architecture" (in the words of then-acting rabbi Samuel Porrath) in which sleek lines, right angles, flat roofs, and simplified repetitive forms predominate; a reflection, so the architects said, of the simplicity of the Jewish faith. Ringed by a single-story outer portion housing offices, classrooms, and a social hall, the design centers on a majestic sanctuary whose loftiness is accentuated by an emphasis on vertical lines: in addition to the projecting metal supports intercalated between the window columns, ribbing the façade are numerous narrow metal slats painted red. The design went on to win an award from the Western New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The second Jewish congregation to have been founded in what's now the city of Niagara Falls, Beth Israel dates back to 1898, when ten local Orthodox families began meeting for Sabbath services in a rapidly changing line of rented commercial spaces and private residences in and near downtown. Their first purpose-built temple, a two-story brick Byzantine structure located on Cedar Avenue in what's now the home of Pioneer Memorial Seventh-day Adventist Church, served the congregation from its completion in 1912 until its replacement with the building seen here. Despite steady growth, Beth Israel struggled financially for the majority of its existence: unable to afford a full-time rabbi or to operate a Hebrew school until several decades after its foundation, the congregation made do with the assistance of the rabbi from Temple Beth El, Niagara Falls' other synagogue, or other temporary volunteers when the need arose, and they were unable to pay off the mortgage on their original building until 1955. The building seen here is a relic of the temple's glory days, by which time it had become an affiliate of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, its membership had peaked at about 180 families, and its coffers were flush with a large payment from the New York Power Authority who had just purchased a portion of the temple cemetery. Sadly, in tune with the city as a whole, Beth Israel's fortunes soon began a long slow decline: by 1995 their ranks had shrunk by two-thirds and they were back to employing the services of unpaid acting rabbis. Even more sadly, the last years of the temple's existence were more notable for the repeated acts of antisemitic vandalism directed against it: swastikas and the words "white power" spraypainted on the door in 1992; an attempted arson in 1997; death threats and more swastikas in 2005 and '06. The congregation disbanded in 2011 and merged with Temple Beth Tzedek in the nearby town of Amherst. Its current owner, Destiny Christian Church, a nondenominational congregation that formerly met in a location on Hyde Park Boulevard, purchased the building the next year.