Sinai Temple (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

: סִינַי) is a medium-sized

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#The Yorkshire Associati ...

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

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

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, and the seat of Hampden County. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ...

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

's fourth largest city (population 153,060). Founded in 1931, Sinai was the first Reform congregation in

Springfield Springfield may refer to: * Springfield (toponym), the place name in general Places and locations Australia * Springfield, New South Wales (Central Coast) * Springfield, New South Wales (Snowy Monaro Regional Council) * Springfield, Queenslan ...

. The congregation's first rabbi, David M. Eichhorn, was hired in 1932 and let go just two years later due to financial difficulty brought on by the Great Depression, though he went on to become a prominent American rabbi and authority on interfaith marriage and conversion for the

Reform movement A reform movement or reformism is a type of social movement that aims to bring a social or also a political system closer to the community's ideal. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary mo ...

History

The congregation began meeting at a mansion at 188 Sumner Ave. in Springfield in 1932, which was used as a synagogue until the late 1940s. In 1949 Sinai broke ground on a new location at 1100 Dickinson Street, near the

Longmeadow Longmeadow is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, in the United States. The population was 15,853 at the 2020 census. History Longmeadow was first settled in 1644, and officially incorporated October 17, 1783. The town was originally farm ...

border, which was completed in 1950.History
Sinai Temple website]. Accessed June 14, 2019. Notably, Sinai has had two long-tenured rabbis: Herman E. Snyder (1947–1970) and Mark D. Shapiro (1988–2016). Membership grew from 50 to 500 families under Rabbi Snyder's leadership. An interfaith leader, he created the ''Sinai Temple Institute for Christian and Muslim Clergy and Educators'', an annual learning session that brings together clergy from the three major religions for a seminar at the Temple. Rabbi Snyder's successor, Bernard Cohen, was the first rabbi to serve on the faculty of a Roman Catholic college (

Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (SMWC) is a private Roman Catholic liberal arts college in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana. Originally a college exclusively for women, it is now coeducational. It is the oldest Catholic college in Indiana a ...

). His 1970 installation was attended by 100 Catholic and Protestant clergymen.Anonymous. ''A Rabbi Is Installed Before Three Faiths.'' The New York Times, Nov 9 1970.
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Rabbinical leadership

Prominent alumni

Eric Lesser Eric Philip Lesser (born February 27, 1985) is an American lawyer and politician who served in the Massachusetts State Senate. Before representing his hometown of Longmeadow, Massachusetts, and neighboring communities in the Greater-Springfield ...

, Massachusetts State SenatorAdams, Abigail. ''Eric Lesser makes a run for State Senate.'' Massachusetts Jewish Ledger, May 15 2014.
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References

External links

Official Website
{{coord, 42.0763834, -72.562738, display=title Religious buildings and structures in Springfield, Massachusetts Reform synagogues in Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Springfield, Massachusetts Jewish organizations established in 1931 Synagogues completed in 1950