DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - For the first time in well over a century the Des Moines area is about to be without an Orthodox Jewish synagogue.

The Beth El Jacob congregation is selling its 32,000-square-foot synagogue on the west side of Des Moines, the Des Moines Register reported (https://dmreg.co/2ht2zLl ) Saturday. Once the sale is final, the Orthodox congregation plans to move into vacant space at the city’s Reform synagogue, Temple B’Nai Jeshurun, which belongs to the most liberal major branch of Judaism.

The Orthodox synagogue’s leaders blamed the sale on dwindling congregation numbers. The building is too big and expensive for an 80-family congregation, they said. The utilities alone run about $2,200 per month.

“We have to get out from under the ball and chain of the building and move forward,” board President Sidney Jacobson said.

Orthodox Jews practice a traditional version of Judaism, such as following strict kosher dietary rules and segregating men from women inside the synagogue.

Beth El Jacob is part of a more mainstream branch of Judaism known as Modern Orthodox. Once Beth El Jacob closes, the nearest such synagogues will be in Minneapolis, Omaha, Nebraska, and Kansas City, Missouri.

Congregation leaders are optimistic they can regain their financial footing and one day open a smaller synagogue in the Des Moines area.

“A lot of things have happened in that building, really important life events,” Jacobson said of the Orthodox synagogue. Members will leave behind cherished memories of weddings, funerals and bar and bat mitzvahs, he said.

Many families trace their membership to the eastern European immigrants who founded the congregation in 1885 and opened its first freestanding synagogue in 1893.

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Information from: The Des Moines Register, https://www.desmoinesregister.com