Exciting Modern Architecture

Ohel Jakob

9 Feb, 2018

A striking modern building prominently sited in a city square (platz). The Ohel Jakob Synagogue was built 2004-2006 as the new principal synagogue of the Munich Jewish community. It is located prominently in Sankt-Jakobs-Platz in central Munich. The synagogue was inaugurated on November 9, 2006, the 68th anniversary of Kristallnacht. Ohel Jakob was designed by…

Livorno

9 Feb, 2018

Livorno’s current synagogue, centrally located in a city square, replaces the synagogue built there in the late 16th century that was destroyed in World War II. Jews have a very long history in Italy, going back to the 2nd century BCE, when Israelites left Israel to go to Rome. However, it was not until the…

Jewish Community of Japan

9 Feb, 2018

An egalitarian congregation homed in a synagogue designed by a world-class architect. It is thought that the first Jews came to Japan in the 16th century. It is believed they were descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jews who were fleeing the Inquisition on the Iberian Peninsula. More Jews came to Japan when the country opened…

Temple De Hirsch Sinai

9 Feb, 2018

The largest Reform congregation in the Pacific Northwest was formed in a 1971 merger of Temple De Hirsch of Seattle and Temple Sinai of Bellevue, Washington. The largest Reform Jewish congregation in the Pacific Northwest is the result of the merger of Seattle’s Temple de Hirsch with Bellevue, Washington’s Temple Sinai. While the photographs on…

Congregation Shalom

9 Feb, 2018

A congregation with an inspiring history of growth and service as well as inspiring sanctuary architecture. Congregation Shalom is a Reform Jewish Congregation, representing a liberal interpretation of Judaism, building upon the bedrock of stability established by its founders in 1951. Although it is a relatively young congregation, its growth and importance to the community…

Malibu Jewish Center

9 Feb, 2018

Overlooking the Pacific coast; Shabbat with a salsa beat; religious school with organic gardening in its own nature preserve.

Beth El Synagogue

9 Feb, 2018

The curved wooden roof over the sanctuary swoops skyward, evoking the Tent of Meeting. Originally Beth El was formed on the North Side of Minneapolis as a Conservative alternative to the Orthodox synagogues existing at that time. By 1968, Beth El, like the other North Side synagogues moved to suburban St. Louis Park. Architect Bertram…

Congregation Bet Ha’am

9 Feb, 2018

An internationally acclaimed architectural design. In a state where there have been Jewish congregations for nearly 200 years, Congregation Bet Ha’am (House of the People) is a newcomer. Formed in 1985, the Congregation developed as a grassroots organization, open to creativity and innovation. Interfaith couples and progressive Jews not quite comfortable with the environment of…

Temple Ahavat Achim

9 Feb, 2018

For more than 100 years we have been, quite simply, the center of Jewish Life on Cape Ann and surrounding North Shore towns. The first Jews settled in the Cape Anne area in the mid-1800s. By 1904 there were 20 to 30 families in Gloucester. The membership of Temple Ahavat Achim is now 180 to…

Adath B’nai Israel

9 Feb, 2018

A spectacular, iconic synagogue befitting a Jewish community dating from 1857. The following material is quoted from a booklet prepared for the celebration of the sesquicentennial of the Jewish community in Evansville : “The history of the Jewish community in Evansville began in 1837 with the arrival of the Gumberts family followed a year later…

Temple Israel of Greater Miami Gumenick

9 Feb, 2018

Named as the 15th most notable building in Florida by the American Institute of Architects. The Temple Israel of Greater Miami congregation was founded in 1922 and in 1928 the current Moorish – Neo Gothic building and sanctuary were completed and in 1969 the amazing Sophie & Nathan Gumenick Chapel was dedicated. The following is…

Temple Beth El

9 Feb, 2018

Described as an architectural wonder with a cavernous, spiraling wooden sanctuary in the shape of a helix. The first Jewish settlers arrived in West Palm Beach in 1892. Temple Beth El was the first attempt to organize a synagogue in Palm Beach County. Beginning in 1919, with meetings at a house on 5th Street, Temple…

Hevreh of Southern Berkshire

9 Feb, 2018

In a forested setting with a design influenced by Eastern European wooden synagogues. Hevreh means community. This particular community began in 1974 with six or seven families meeting in people’s homes. Within a few years the congregation had grown to more than twenty families who bought and remodeled a house to serve as a synagogue.…

Temple Beth Elohim

9 Feb, 2018

Located in a suburb of Boston, described by a noted architectural critic as “A temple, a masterwork”. The origin of Temple Beth Elohim was the formation of the Jewish Women’s Community Group of Wellesley in 1949. A year later men became active members and the group shortened its name to Jewish Community Group. For seven…

Temple Beth Zion

9 Feb, 2018

One of the oldest and largest Reform congregations in the nation with a sanctuary that is a 20th Century architectural icon. In 1825, fifteen years after the founding of Buffalo, the Jewish politician and playwright Mordechai Manuel Noah bought the huge island which languishes in the Niagara River between Buffalo and the Falls. Naming the…

Temple Israel

9 Feb, 2018

A large, urban synagogue located in the Shalom Park district of South Charlotte. As one of six synagogues in Charlotte, it serves more than 650 member families. Quoted from Wikipedia: “With the great wave of immigration of Jews from Eastern Europe occurring in the late 19th century, new settlers came to Charlotte. This group also…

Congregation Bet Shalom

9 Feb, 2018

A striking edifice designed by an award winning architectural firm. Congregation Bet Shalom (House of Peace) was originally established in St. Louis Park, a suburb of Minneapolis, in 1981. The small congregation met in peoples’ homes but soon grew to renting space in a church. Continued growth of the Reform congregation led to a move…

Jewish Center of the Hamptons

9 Feb, 2018

Has been called an architectural masterpiece. Quoted from Wikipedia: Gates of the Grove (Shaarey Pardes), the sanctuary of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons, is a synagogue designed by noted architect Norman Jaffe and built in East Hampton, New York in 1989. It has been called a masterpiece. The cedar shingled synagogue won the Interfaith…

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