Temple Beth Sholom (Miami Beach, Florida)

Last updated

Temple Beth Sholom
Religion
Affiliation Reform Judaism
Rite Nusach Ashkenaz
Ecclesiastical or organisational status Synagogue
Leadership
  • Rabbi Gayle Pomerantz
  • Rabbi Robert A. Davis
  • Rabbi Joanne Loibe
StatusActive
Location
Location4144 Chase Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida
CountryUnited States
Location map Miami Central.png
Red pog.svg
Location in Miami Beach, Florida
Geographic coordinates 25°48′53″N80°07′55″W / 25.814833°N 80.131949°W / 25.814833; -80.131949
Architecture
Architect(s) Percival Goodman (1956)
TypeSynagogue
Style Modernist
Date established1942 (as a congregation)
Completed
  • 1942 (41st Street)
  • 1956 (Chase Avenue)
Capacity700 worshipers
Website
tbsmb.org

Temple Beth Sholom (transliterated from Hebrew as "House of Peace") is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 4144 Chase Avenue, on Miami Beach, Florida, in the United States.

Contents

It is the largest and oldest congregation[ clarification needed ][ when? ][ where? ] with 1210 member households. [1] Temple Beth Sholom is a member of the Union for Reform Judaism. [1]

Early history

The Beth Sholom Jewish Center was started by Abraham Zinnamon and Benjamin Appel. After seeing a Yiddish newspaper in Appel's hands, Zinnamon approached him with the idea of forming a Jewish Center. They put together a group of people for the first founders' meeting of Beth Sholom Center, which took place on April 6, 1942. On June 3 of that same year, a building at 761 41st Street was leased.

A charter of the State of Florida was granted shortly thereafter. Rabbi Samuel Machtai, the "Radio Rabbi", conducted the first High Holy Days Services in 1942. The service was held in a storefront, where 20 Miami Beach Jewish families gathered to provide a house of worship for themselves and for Jewish servicemen. [2]

Two years later, the Beth Sholom Jewish Center decided to hire a full-time rabbi. On August 9, 1944, at the 36th meeting of the board of directors, held in the home of its chairman, Charles Tobin, it was decided to employ Rabbi Leon Kronish to serve as the center's spiritual leader. Kronish was installed in the North Beach Elementary School auditorium by Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise, President of New York's Jewish Institute of Religion.

To begin to build a congregation, Kronish went from house to house knocking on doors and wherever he saw a mezuzah, he invited the family to join the new synagogue. On April 24, 1945, the by-laws were changed and a resolution was passed to amend the Charter of Beth Sholom Center, to rename the nonprofit organization Temple Beth Sholom.

Chase Avenue expansions

The second and current home of Temple Beth Sholom was a two-story, dilapidated house called the Chase Avenue Hotel at 4141 Chase Avenue. The growing congregation acquired the building in c.1953 and remodelled the building into a place of worship, with capacity for 700 people. [3] The membership grew from 40 households to more than 750 by 1955 and by the late 1960s included more than 1200 families. [4]

In 1956, the temple sanctuary and banquet hall were designed in the Modernist style by Jewish American architect Percival Goodman and built in a futuristic design comprising a series of parabolic arched domes, modelled on the work of Erich Mendelsohn. In 1961, the religious school and auditorium were added. [3]

In 1967 Temple Beth Sholom began its development as a cultural center for the Greater Miami Area, in keeping with Kronish's vision of the Temple as a place for community as well as worship. In 1969, Rabbi Harry Jolt, zechertzadiklivracha, who had recently retired from his pulpit in Ventnor, New Jersey, was asked by Rabbi Kronish to become Auxiliary Rabbi and assist in the cultural and adult education programs of the Temple. His death,[ clarification needed ] at age 97, was a deep loss[ citation needed ] for the congregation.

In 1984, the school was refurbished and the administrative wing was completed. [3] In 2003, the school building was refurbished once again. A new two story facility included a youth center, offices, chapel, welcome center, classrooms, meeting spaces, and an art gallery. The Temple is also surrounded by outdoor spaces including play areas, meditation garden and palm plaza. The Temple Beth Sholom buildings and campus have grown from the 1940s "laundry−horse stable" building to the present complex at the corner of Chase Avenue and Arthur Godfrey Road in Miami Beach.

Kronish legacy

Kronish's loving devotion[ peacock prose ] to the State of Israel was exemplified through his involvement in Jewish Federation, Histadrut, American Jewish Congress and the Israel Bonds National Leadership. He was one of the leaders in World Jewry and with his family's move from Poland, a first generation American Jew. The Confirmation Class has journeyed on a pilgrimage to Israel every year,[ clarification needed ] a program that Kronish initiated. Reaching beyond Jewish borders, the congregation has also been deeply involved in the civil rights movement and in fighting world hunger. Kronish's death in 1996 officially ended the first era of Temple Beth Sholom's history.[ clarification needed ]

Recent history

In 1985, the temple engaged Gary Glickstein, a young scholar who had served as rabbi of Temple Sinai in Worcester, Massachusetts since 1977 to serve as Senior Rabbi. [5] Glickstein served on the advisory board of the Greater Miami Coalition for a Drug Free Community, was past Chairman of the President's Advisory Committee on Jewish Studies at Barry University, and has served as vice chairman of the Miami Mission 1000 and Mega Mission Two. He is a past President of the Rabbinic Association of Greater Miami. Nationally, he was Chairman of the UJA National Rabbinic Cabinet, past Chair of the National Rabbinic Cabinet of Israel Bonds and past Treasurer of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. He was Co-Chair of the Synagogue/Federation Relations Committee of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation.

Clergy

The following individuals have served as senior rabbi of the congregation:

OrdinalOfficeholderTerm startTerm endTime in officeNotes
1Leon Kronish1944198439–40 yearsEmeritus: 1984-1996
2Gary A. Glickstein1985201832–33 yearsEmeritus: since 2018
3Gayle Pomerantz2018incumbent5–6 yearsServed as Associate Rabbi from 1994 to 2018

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congregation Beth Israel (West Hartford, Connecticut)</span> Historic Reform synagogue in West Hartford, Connecticut, US

Congregation Beth Israel is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue located at 701 Farmington Avenue, in West Hartford, Connecticut, in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish Museum of Florida</span> Jewish Heritage Museum in Florida, United States

The Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU is located in two restored historic buildings that were formerly synagogues, at 301 & 311 Washington Ave., in Miami Beach, Florida. The main museum building, at 301 Washington Ave., was built in 1936, is on the National Register of Historic Places, has Art Deco features, a copper dome, a marble bimah and 80 stained glass windows. The adjacent building located at 311 Washington, which served as Miami Beach's first synagogue, was purchased by the museum in 2005 and restored in 2007 as a museum expansion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moses Mescheloff</span>

Moses (Moshe) Mescheloff (Hebrew: משה בן מאיר משלוף was an American rabbi, primarily in Miami Beach, and in Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid (Milwaukee)</span> United States historic place

Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid is an egalitarian Conservative synagogue located at 6880 North Green Bay Road in Glendale, a suburb north of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temple Beth Israel (Eugene, Oregon)</span> Synagogue in Eugene, Oregon

Temple Beth Israel is a Reconstructionist synagogue located at 1175 East 29th Avenue in Eugene, Oregon, in the United States. Founded in the early 1930s as a Conservative congregation, Beth Israel was for many decades the only synagogue in Eugene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congregation Beth Israel (Scottsdale, Arizona)</span> Reform Jewish synagogue in Scottsdale, Arizona, US

Congregation Beth Israel is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 10460 North 56th Street in Scottsdale, Arizona, in the United States. Incorporated in 1920, the congregation affiliated with the Union for Reform Judaism in 1935.

Temple Beth Israel was a Jewish synagogue located at 840 Highland Road in Sharon, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Originally called House of Israel Congregation, it was founded in 1888 as an Orthodox congregation by Eastern European Jews. The congregation merged with Congregation Rodef Sholom of Youngstown, Ohio in July, 2013; and the former synagogue building was sold to a Christian church in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congregation Beth Israel (Asheville, North Carolina)</span>

Congregation Beth Israel is an independent, traditional egalitarian Jewish congregation, located at 229 Murdock Avenue in Asheville, North Carolina. Founded in 1899 as Bikur Cholim, it was an Orthodox breakaway from Asheville's existing synagogue. It hired its first full-time rabbi in 1909, opened a religious school in 1911, and acquired its first building, which burnt down in 1916, in 1913.

Beth Israel Congregation is a Conservative synagogue located at 385 Pottstown Pike in Upper Uwchlan Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The congregation was founded in Coatesville in 1904 as Kesher Israel by Eastern European immigrants, and formally chartered as "Beth Israel" in 1916. It constructed its first building in 1923, and expanded it after World War II.

Temple Israel is a Conservative Jewish congregation and synagogue located at 4901 Providence Road, in the Shalom Park district of South Charlotte, North Carolina, in the United States. One of six synagogues in Charlotte, Temple Israel serves more than 650 member families. Its third and current synagogue building was complete in 1992 in the Modernist style, feature floor to ceiling stained glass windows in the sanctuary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congregation Beth Jacob Ohev Sholom</span> Orthodox synagogue in New York

Congregation Beth Jacob Ohev Sholom is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue located at 284 Rodney Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in New York City, New York, in the United States. The congregation follows the Ashkenazi rite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congregation Beth Israel (Meridian, Mississippi)</span> Reform Jewish congregation in Mississippi, US

Congregation Beth Israel is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in Meridian, Mississippi, in the United States. Founded in 1868 and a member of the Union for Reform Judaism, the congregation's first permanent house of worship was a Middle Eastern-style building constructed in 1879. The congregation moved to another building built in the Greek Revival style in 1906, and in 1964 moved to a more modern building, out of which they still operate.

Ohev Sholom Talmud Torah Congregation of Olney, commonly known as OSTT, is an Orthodox synagogue located at 18320 Georgia Avenue, in Olney, Maryland, in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temple Beth El (Madison, Wisconsin)</span> Reform synagogue, founded 1939

Temple Beth El, also known as Temple Beth-El, is a Reform synagogue in Madison, Wisconsin, in the United States. The congregation was founded in 1939.

Temple Israel Center is an egalitarian Conservative congregation and synagogue located in White Plains, New York, in the United States.

Henry Hoschander was a rabbi and lecturer.

Jody Cohen is an American retired rabbi who became the first woman to serve as rabbi for a Jewish congregation in Connecticut. In 1984, she became the first female associate rabbi to serve a Connecticut congregation at Congregation Beth Israel in West Hartford. There she founded Noah's Ark, the first synagogue-run preschool daycare in North America. Cohen went on to serve as solo rabbi at Temple Beth Hillel in South Windsor—another first—from 1989 to 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temple Beth Sholom (Marquette, Michigan)</span> Reform synagogue in Marquette, Michigan, United States

Temple Beth Sholom is a Reform Jewish synagogue located at 233 Blaker Street, in Marquette, Marquette County, Michigan, in the United States. Founded in 1953 in Ishpeming, Temple Beth Sholom is the successor to multiple smaller congregations present in the Marquette area since the early 20th century. Temple Beth Sholom is one of two Jewish congregations in the Upper Peninsula, the other being Temple Jacob in Hancock.

References

  1. 1 2 "Home page". Temple Beth Sholom. Archived from the original on November 18, 2010.[ self-published source? ]
  2. "Leon Kronish, 79, Miami Beach Rabbi" . New York Times . March 31, 1996.
  3. 1 2 3 "Miami Beach, FL ~ Temple Beth Sholom (1956)". Synagogues of the South. College of Charleston. 2024. Retrieved January 12, 2024.
  4. Green, Henry A. (1995). Bridges and Bonds The Life of Leon Kronish. Scholars Press. p. 91.
  5. Wahle, Bruce; Ostrow, Marcy (April 2011). "A "Sethabration" of Temple Sinai's Rabbi of 25 years: Rabbi Seth Bernstein". Jewish Central Voice.