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Temple Ohabei Shalom (Brookline, Massachusetts)

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Coordinates: 42°20′37″N 71°06′52″W / 42.3437°N 71.1145°W / 42.3437; -71.1145
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Temple Ohabei Shalom
Hebrew: מקדש אוהבי שלום
Temple Ohabei Shalom in 2022
Religion
AffiliationReform Judaism
Ecclesiastical or organisational statusSynagogue
Leadership
  • Rabbi Audrey Berkman
  • Cantor Maayan Silverman (Assistant)
  • Rabbi Emily Gopen Lipof (Emerita)
StatusActive
Location
Location1187 Beacon Street, Brookline, Boston, Massachusetts
CountryUnited States
Temple Ohabei Shalom (Brookline, Massachusetts) is located in Boston
Temple Ohabei Shalom (Brookline, Massachusetts)
Location in Boston, Massachusetts
Geographic coordinates42°20′37″N 71°06′52″W / 42.3437°N 71.1145°W / 42.3437; -71.1145
Architecture
Architect(s)Clarence Blackall
(Blackall, Clapp, and Whittemore)
TypeSynagogue
StyleByzantine Revival
Date established1842 (as a congregation)
Completed
  • 1851 (Warren Street)
  • 1863 (Warrenton Street)
  • 1887 (Union Park Street)
  • 1927 (Beacon Street)
Specifications
Capacity
  • 1,800 worshippers (Sanctuary)
  • 300 worshippers (Chapel)
Dome(s)One
MaterialsMasonry, copper, stone
Website
ohabei.org
[1]

Temple Ohabei Shalom (Hebrew: מקדש אוהבי שלום) is a Reform Jewish synagogue located at 1187 Beacon Street, in Brookline, suburban Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Organized in 1842 with membership mainly of German Jews, it is the oldest Jewish congregation in Massachusetts and the third oldest in New England, following congregations in Newport and New Haven.[2]: 4 

History

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The congregation's first act was to establish a cemetery, the Temple Ohabei Shalom Cemetery, located in East Boston, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.[3] The cemetery will soon[when?] be the home of the Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts' museum commemorating the Mystic River Jews.[citation needed]

The first synagogue building, erected in 1851 on Warren Street, Boston, was a handsome, two-story wooden structure with a doorway flanked by a pair of windows on each side and balanced by three pairs of windows on the second floor. The windows, each set a pair with arched tops, resembled the standard representation of the tablets of the ten commandments. The sanctuary could seat 400 and had space for a Hebrew School, a meeting room, and a mikveh.[2]: 47, 53–55 

The congregation's second building, used from 1863–86, was a handsome Greek Revival structure at 76 Warrenton Street, Boston. It had been built as a Universalist church and is today the home of the Charles Playhouse.[2]: 171  Raphael Lasker became rabbi of the congregation in 1876.[4]

The third building was a former Unitarian Church building, located at 15 Union Park Street. The church was led by Edward Everett Hale, who spoke at the building's rededication as a synagogue in 1887.[2]: 175  The building is now the St. John The Baptist Greek Orthodox Church.[5]

Temple Ohabei Shalom located in Brookline, Massachusetts circa 2011.

The congregation's present building, an opulent structure at 1187 Beacon Street in suburban Brookline, designed by Clarence Blackall in the Byzantine Revivalstyle, was completed in 1927, with a school first developed on the site in 1925.[6] The sanctuary seats 1,800 and the smaller chapel accommodates 300. The domed building was intended to have a tall minaret, according to the architect's renditions,[2]: 195  although it was never built. The sanctuary was modeled on Hagia Sophia because of the excitement then felt over recent excavations of Byzantine-era synagogues in the land of Israel. The building includes a large school, an auditorium, a ballroom (that could be used as a gymnasium), a museum, a library, and a reading room.[2]: 195 

Temple Israel was founded in 1854 when German Jews who disliked the influx of Polish Jews seceded from Ohabei Shalom.[2]: 169  The congregations remain friendly and are working together on several projects related to outreach and the enhancement of the local Jewish community.

The Temple community celebrated its 180th anniversary in 2022.

Temple Ohabei Shalom is also home to the Diane K. Trust Center For Early Education and Ansin Religious School.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Temple Ohabei Shalom". Retrieved August 11, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Sarna, Jonathan D.; Smith, Ellen, eds. (1995). The Jews of Boston. Boston: Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1555532179.
  3. ^ "First Jewish Cemetery in Massachusetts Voted to National Register of Historic Places]". Jewish Cemetery Association. Retrieved March 19, 2013.
  4. ^ Adler, Cyrus; Haneman, Frederick T. "LASKER, RAPHAEL". The Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
  5. ^ "Sharing the Gospel of Christ in the Greater Boston area since 1922". St. John The Baptist Greek Orthodox Church. n.d. Retrieved January 4, 2023.
  6. ^ Morgan, Keith N. (2012). Esperdy, Gabrielle; Kingsley, Karen (eds.). "Temple Ohabei Shalom [Brookline, Massachusetts]". SAH Archipedia. Charlottesville: Society of Architectural Historians. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
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