Ohabei Shalom

Ohabei Shalom is a large, Reform synagogue in Brookline, Massachusetts under the spiritual leadership of Rabbi John Franken, Cantor Randall Schloss and Rabbi Emerita, Emily Gopen Lipof.

Organized in 1843, it is the oldest synagogue in Massachusetts and the third oldest in New England, following congregations in Newport and New Haven. [ The Jews of Boston, Sarna, Jonathan D., and Smith, Ellen, editors, Boston, 1995, p. 4] the congragation’s first act was to establish a cemetery, the Temple Ohabei Shalom Cemetery.

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. [ The Jews of Boston, Sarna, Jonathan D., and Smith, Ellen, editors, Boston, 1995, p. 47, 53-55]

The congregation’s second building, in use from 1863-86, was a handsome Greek Revival structure at 76 Warrington Street, Boston. It had been built as a Universalist church and is today the home of the Charles Playhouse. [ The Jews of Boston, Sarna, Jonathan D., and Smith, Ellen, editors, Boston, 1995, p. 171]

The fourth building was the former home of the Unitarian Church led by Edward Everett Hale, who spoke at the building’s rededication as a synagogue in 1887. [ The Jews of Boston, Sarna, Jonathan D., and Smith, Ellen, editors, Boston, 1995, p. 175] The building is presently the home of a Greek Orthodox church.

The congregation’s present building, an opulent structure at 1187 Beacon Street in suburban Brookline that combined Byzantine Revival and Moorish Revival styles, was dedicated in 1925. The domed building was intended to have a tall minaret, architect’s renditions of the building with the minaret survive, [ The Jews of Boston, Sarna, Jonathan D., and Smith, Ellen, editors, Boston, 1995, p. 195 shows the minaret] 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. [ The Jews of Boston, Sarna, Jonathan D., and Smith, Ellen, editors, Boston, 1995, p. 195]

Webpage

http://ohabei.org/

References