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

Organized in 1842 with a membership largely of German origin, it is the oldest Jewish congregation in Massachusetts. the congregation’s first act was to establish a cemetery, the Temple Ohabei Shalom Cemetery. A registered historic site located in East Boston.

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 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 sanctuary seats 1,800. The smaller chapel accommodates 300. The domed building was intended to have a tall minaret, architect’s renditions of the building with the minaret survive, 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, a museum, a library, and a reading room.

Photo 46, Feb 2012

Temple Ohabei Shalom

Photo 47, Feb 2012

Temple Ohabei Shalom

Photo 50, Feb 2012