Mount Sinai Temple was a

Reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

located in

Sioux City, Iowa Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury and Plymouth counties in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Iowa. The bulk of the city is in Woodbury County ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1999.

History

There were Jews living in Sioux City as early as the 1860s, but a synagogue was not built in the city until 1884. Adas Jeshurun was an

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...

congregation. The Jewish community in Sioux City grew from 200 in 1890 to nearly 2,500 by World War I. Sioux City was home to the second largest Jewish community in the state of Iowa at the time. Mount Sinai Temple was established in 1901. The synagogue, which opened the same year, was expanded in 1922. The building was designed in the Prairie School style. Between World Wars I and II the Jewish Community Center in Sioux City hosted 60 to 70 clubs, classes and organizations that ranged from socialist workers to Zionists. A one-mile section of West Seventh Street was home to 22 Jewish owned businesses in 1944. After World War II the Jewish community in Sioux City began to decline. By the mid 1980s the population was down to 700 people, and by 2001 it was down to 300. The Jewish congregations in Sioux City combined their religious schools in 1990. Four years later the congregations themselves merged at Beth Shalom, the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

synagogue. The Mount Sinai Temple was built as a one-and-one-half story, frame, clapboard- and shingle-sided, Queen Anne-style building; its 1922 addition designed by

William L. Steele William LaBarthe Steele (May 2, 1875 – March 4, 1949) was an American architect from Chicago, Illinois. He is considered a principal member of the Prairie School Architectural Movement during the early 20th century. Career After graduating f ...

was in Prairie School style. With

References

{{NRHP in Woodbury County, Iowa Jewish organizations established in 1901 Synagogues completed in 1901 Synagogues completed in 1922 Prairie School synagogues Prairie School architecture in Iowa Synagogues in Iowa Reform synagogues in Iowa Buildings and structures in Sioux City, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Sioux City, Iowa Synagogues on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa 1901 establishments in Iowa