Beth Sholom Congregation and Talmud Torah

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Beth Sholom Congregation and Talmud Torah
File:Beth Shalom.jpg
Beth Sholom Congregation and Talmud Torah is located in Maryland
Beth Sholom Congregation and Talmud Torah
Location within Maryland
Basic information
Location Potomac, Maryland
Geographic coordinates Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Affiliation Modern Orthodox Judaism
Status Active
Website bethsholom.org
Architectural description
Architectural type Synagogue
Groundbreaking 1994
Completed 1999

Beth Sholom Congregation and Talmud Torah (BSCTT) is a Modern Orthodox synagogue on Seven Locks Road in Potomac, Maryland. The largest Orthodox synagogue in the Washington area,[1] it is led by Rabbi Nissan Antine.

History

The congregation was founded in 1908 as Voliner Anshe Sfard. It initially worshiped in a congregant's house, but soon purchased a store and remodeled it as a synagogue building, with separate men and women sections. Within just a few years of its creation, the congregation had bought its own cemetery. The Voliner Anshe Sfard Congregation joined with the Har Zion Congregation[2] in 1936 under the name Beth Sholom Congregation and Talmud Torah, complete with its own Hebrew school. Two years later, the combined congregation spent $100,000 on a new building.[3] The new building, located at Eighth and Shepherd streets in Petworth, Washington, D.C., was dedicated on August 14, 1938,[4] and served the community for 18 years.

The congregation sold the Eighth and Shepherd building to the Allegheny Conference Association of Seventh-day Adventists and moved out of the building on December 24, 1954.[5] The congregation temporarily moved to a former bank building at Alaska and Georgia avenues in Shepherd Park, and religious classes were temporarily held at Sixteenth Street and Fort Stevens Drive NW in Brightwood, while it built a new building at Thirteenth Street and Eastern Avenue NW in Takoma.[5] Construction of the new building on Eastern Avenue cost $900,000.[6]

The congregation held its first religious services in the new building on September 14, 1954.[7] The new building had seating for 2,000 worshippers.[7] At one point, the Hebrew school had more than 400 students.

By 1975, many of the members of the congregation had moved to Montgomery, and only one-fifth of the seats in the sanctuary were filled for Shabbat services.[8] The congregation's leadership decided to build a chapel and a religious school on Seven Locks Road in Potomac.[8][9] It was considered a branch synagogue.[8] The new location in Potomac worked out; the congregation's membership increased by ten percent, and the religious school's enrollment increased ten-fold.[8]

In the late 1980s, Beth Sholom was principally responsible for the construction of an two mile long eruv in Potomac that made it permissible for observant Orthodox Jews to carry and push objects within the boundaries area on Shabbat, leading to the growth of the Orthodox population in the area.[1]

In order to accommodate its large community, the congregation constructed a new building on the Potomac site in 1994.[10] In 1999, the second phase of the building was completed.

In 2005, the synagogue became the first Orthodox congregation in Washington to elect a woman as president of the congregation.[11]

The synagogue has more than five-hundred families and a total of about 1,200 people coming to services on the High Holidays. Joel Tessler was the head rabbi of Beth Sholom for about thirty years until he left in 2013 to move to Israel.[12]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Janet Lubman Rathner, "A Neighborhood Built Around Religious Ritual; Border Helps Potomac Jews Observe Sabbath", The Washington Post, October 4, 2008  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required).
  2. ↑ "New Synagogue's Stone to Be Laid". The Washington Post. January 21, 1938. p. X9.
  3. ↑ "Beth Sholom's New Home to Be Dedicated: 4,000 Will Join Today in Colorful Ceremonies at Synagogue. The Washington Post. August 14, 1938. p. M10.
  4. ↑ "800 Attend 3-Hour Dedication For New Beth Sholom Temple: Solomon Feldman, Congregation President, Delivers Welcoming Address". The Washington Post. August 15, 1938. p. 13.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Beth Sholom Moves". The Washington Post. December 28, 1956. p. A8.
  6. ↑ "Cornerstone Laid for Beth Sholom". The Washington Post. May 20, 1957. p. A15.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "2 Synagogue Dedications Set". The Washington Post. September 13, 1957. p. D2.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Johnson, Janis. "D.C. Synagogues Survive by Using Branch Facilities: Synagogues Survive with Branch Units". The Washington Post. July 25, 1977. p. A1.
  9. ↑ Fingerhut, Eric. "Shul hits century mark", Washington Jewish Week, February 28, 2008  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required).
  10. ↑ Braun-Kenigsberg, Lisa. "Common Ground in an Uncommon Place: Middle-Class Orthodox Jews, Attracted by Synagogue, Are Flocking to Potomac." The Washington Post. October 23, 1993. p. B6.
  11. ↑ "Beth Sholom breaks ground; First local Orthodox shul to elect woman president". Washington Jewish Week. April 7, 2005.  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required)
  12. ↑ Suzanne Pollak, "Beth Sholom to Honor Its Senior Rabbi in Waiting", Washington Jewish Week, April 26, 2012  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required).

External links

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