A Jewish farmer drove 600 miles to rescue a century-old synagogue. Now he’s building a new one in a cornfield.

A Jewish farmer drove 600 miles to rescue a century-old synagogue. Now he’s building a new one in a cornfield.

Nik Jakobs, a farmer from Sterling, Illinois, is building Temple Sholom with pieces from Temple B’nai Israel in White Oak, Pennsylvania.

This Jewish Illinois cowboy is saving a synagogue by hand

WHITE OAK, PENNSYLVANIA — Nik Jakobs, a Jewish cowboy with a finance degree and four daughters, isn’t your typical synagogue president. Then again, the synagogue he’s building — from the remains of one that just closed — isn’t typical either. That mission is what brought him from a cattle farm in Sterling, Illinois, just four hours north of St. Louis, to the town of White Oak, in western Pennsylvania, on this warm May morning, with a plan to car…