BATON ROUGE - Construction crews were hard at work Tuesday demolishing the interior of the Unified Jewish Congregation on Kleinert Avenue. 

“We’re completely renovating the inside of the building that was here and then adding on a new wing that’s going to be a new sanctuary, social hall and kitchen," said Steven Cavalier, president of the Jewish Congregation of Baton Rouge.

Cavalier says the Jewish congregations of Baton Rouge decided to merge in 2021 and needed an updated space to worship in. 

“We merged because we wanted to have more resources in the Jewish community and we’re a lot stronger just having one congregation.”

Neither of the two locations available were large enough to accommodate that many people, so they decided to make the Kleinert building their main community center. 

“We’re going to have space for adult education, socialization, for lots of different activities to hopefully engage a lot of people in the community.”

Some elements of the former buildings will be incorporated into the new design, such as the stained glass artwork. 

The other location on Jefferson Highway will be sold once construction wraps up next year.