5200 Old Mill Road · Fort Wayne, Indiana
The Rifkin Campus at 5200
Fort Wayne’s Jewish Community Campus
A living center for Jewish life in Fort Wayne — home to worship, education, community programming, and the institutions that sustain 175 years of Jewish presence in northeast Indiana.
About the Campus
A Jewish Community Center
for All of Fort Wayne
The Rifkin Campus at 5200 grew out of Congregation Achduth Vesholom’s re-envisioning of its beautiful building and grounds as a Jewish community center. The congregation has been nestled in the Woodhurst neighborhood since 1961 — and in 2012, adopted a strategic plan to transform the facility into a true communal hub.
In October 2015, the campus was formally dedicated as the Rifkin Campus at 5200, with groundbreaking for the Madge Rothschild Resource Center the same day. The Resource Center celebrated its grand opening on April 30, 2017. Today the campus is home to six organizations serving the Jewish community and the broader Fort Wayne area.
The goal of the campus is to be a resource and gathering space for the whole community — for worship, education, artistic, cultural, and recreational programs — and to promote greater understanding among all faiths.
The Rifkin Campus at 5200 Old Mill Road, Fort Wayne, IN 46807.
The Rifkin Family
Why the Campus Bears the Rifkin Name
“Our family has been in Fort Wayne almost 75 years and this is our home. As grandchildren of European immigrants who came to America in search of true freedom, the preservation of Judaism here is important to us.”
— Danny Rifkin, at the dedication of the Rifkin Campus sign
Danny Rifkin continued: “We’re proud to support the establishment of a Jewish cultural center that is part of the larger community, and believe that the vision of a place that brings diverse people together for worship, education, and the open exchange of ideas will promote the broader interests of the community.”
The Campus Sign
Designed by Sculptor Cary Shafer
“Limestone panels and columns mimic the Temple’s limestone facade. Negative spaces are integral to the design, separating each tenant plaque, allowing the eye to move from cube to cube, space to space, with ever-changing background scenes.”
8,000 pounds of Indiana Limestone, cold rolled steel, and bronze panels — each element fabricated using local resources.
Who Calls the Campus Home
Campus Partners
Six organizations share the Rifkin Campus at 5200, making it the single most concentrated center of Jewish institutional life in northeast Indiana.
Congregation Achduth Vesholom
The anchor tenant and founding institution of the campus. Indiana’s oldest Jewish congregation, offering Reform and Conservative worship, the Joy Bay religious school, lifecycle programming, and more.
Visit Temple Website →Jewish Federation of Fort Wayne
The central coordinating, fundraising, and community planning organization for Jewish life in greater Fort Wayne. The Federation has called the Rifkin Campus home since June 2014.
About the Federation →Madge Rothschild Resource Center
Dedicated in 2017, the Resource Center includes the Rabbi Richard B. Safran Library, the Jacob L. Goldman Memorial Museum, and meeting and conference space available to the community.
Learn More →PFW Institute for Holocaust & Genocide Studies
Purdue Fort Wayne’s Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies maintains a satellite office at the Rifkin Campus, supporting education and remembrance programs throughout northeast Indiana.
Visit PFW IHGS →Fort Wayne Jewish Cemetery Association
Stewards of Fort Wayne’s Jewish burial grounds, maintaining the historical and spiritual legacy of the Jewish community’s relationship with this city since its earliest days.
Campus Partners Page →NE Indiana Jewish Genealogy Society
The Northeast Indiana Jewish Genealogy Society supports research into Jewish family history in the region, with resources and expertise available to community members.
Visit NEIJGS →A long-time resident of the campus, Brightpoint Head Start provides early childhood education for low-income families in Fort Wayne — a tangible expression of the campus’s commitment to serving the broader community. mybrightpoint.org →
Dedicated 2017
Madge Rothschild
Resource Center
The Madge Rothschild Resource Center was dedicated on April 30, 2017, following groundbreaking on October 1, 2015. It is named for Madge Rothschild, the great-granddaughter of Sigmund Redelsheimer, a founding member of Achduth Vesholom.
At the time of her death in March 2005, Madge Rothschild was the last Temple member to be a direct descendant of a founding family — a link that lasted 157 years. The Resource Center that bears her name is a fitting tribute to that continuity.
Attorney Robert A. Wagner noted: “She would be very proud of the fact that the congregation has continued to advance not only in regard to its structure here, but also its programs and the gathering of the many Jewish interests and needs in our community.”
What’s Inside
A Judaica library serving the Fort Wayne Jewish community, named for Rabbi Safran, Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Achduth Vesholom. Open to community members — contact the office for access.
Documenting and celebrating 200 years of Jewish history in northeast Indiana. Includes a large timeline display tracing the community’s story from the 1800s to the present day.
Available for community use. Contact the Federation or temple office for rental and availability information.
2012 – Present
Campus Improvements
The Rifkin Campus project grew out of a strategic plan adopted by the congregation in 2012. Since that time, significant improvements have transformed the campus into a full-service Jewish community center.
Groundbreaking, October 1, 2015. Left to right: Architect Richard Wismer; Steve Goodman, Mosaic Building Solutions; Marty, Judy, Neal, and Danny Rifkin (Rifkin Family Foundation); President Joe Cohen and Rabbi Javier Cattapan; Attorney Robert Wagner (Madge Rothschild Foundation).
Community Service
Thoughtful Thursdays
One of the most tangible expressions of the campus’s commitment to the broader Fort Wayne community: Thoughtful Thursdays, a joint program of Congregation Achduth Vesholom and the Jewish Federation of Fort Wayne.
Operating from the Rifkin Campus, Thoughtful Thursdays provides food and educational items to more than 66 low-income families in Fort Wayne — a direct expression of the Jewish value of tikkun olam, repair of the world.
Tikkun Olam in Action
Serving 66+ low-income families in Fort Wayne with food and educational resources — every week, from the Rifkin Campus.
A joint program of CAV and FWJF
Plan Your Visit
Visit the Rifkin Campus
Fort Wayne, IN 46807