Temple Emanuel (Kensington, Maryland)

Temple Emanuel is a synagogue located in Kensington, Maryland. Temple Emanuel facilitates worship in accordance with Reform Judaism.[3]

For other synagogues called Temple Emanuel, see Emanu-El.
Temple Emanuel
Logo of Temple Emanuel
Religion
AffiliationReform Judaism
LeadershipRabbi Adam Rosenwasser,
Cantor Lindsay Kanter [1]
StatusActive
Location
LocationKensington, Maryland
Temple Emanuel (Kensington, Maryland) is located in Maryland
Temple Emanuel (Kensington, Maryland)
Location within Maryland
Geographic coordinates39.0211504°N 77.0757698°W / 39.0211504; -77.0757698
Architecture
TypeSynagogue
Completed1958 (1958)[2]
Interior area13,180 square feet (1,224 m2)[2]
Website
www.templeemanuelmd.org

Clergy and leadership

Rabbi Adam Rosenwasser provides spiritual leadership at Temple Emanuel.[1] Lindsay Kanter serves as Cantor.[1]

Dianne Neiman is the executive director.[4] Monte Mallin is the president of the board of trustees.[5]

Religious programs and activities

Temple Emanuel Shabbat services[6] and Jewish holiday services.[7]

Temple Emanuel holds brit milah and baby naming ceremonies for newborns, b'nai mitzvah ceremonies for students, marriage ceremonies and blessings, and funeral services.[8]

Temple Emanuel operates an after-school program with a religious curriculum.[9][10] Temple Emanuel's Early Childhood Center (TEECC) for children ages two to five opened in fall 2008.[11] There are also youth groups for children and teenagers.[12]

As part of its adult learning program, Temple Emanuel has workshops and classes about spiritualism and Judaism.[13] Discussion topics have included Black-Jewish relations,[14] Israeli literature,[15] coping with the rise of antisemitism in 21st-century Europe;[16] Martin Luther King Jr. and social justice;[17] the lack of access to affordable medical care and Jewish teachings related to the issue;[18] Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah;[19] and a Jewish perspective on equal rights for gays and lesbians.[20]

Temple Emanuel hosted an ecumenical Seder dinner for Jewish and non-Jewish people at Temple Emanuel.[21] Cosponsored by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, clergy of different religious denominations read poems about Passover in Hebrew, Yiddish, Aramaic, and English.[21]

Performing arts

Temple Emanuel has hosted musical performances such as Russian, Georgian, and Romani songs by musicians of the former Soviet Union;[22] chamber music composed by victims of the Holocaust;[23] and klezmer music inspired by the life and work of the founder of Hasidic Judaism, Baal Shem Tov.[24]

In February 2000, Temple Emanuel's Shabbat service included a dance interpretation of the week's Torah portion, performed by Avodah Dance Ensemble.[25] In December 2003, Temple Emanuel's Shabbat service included jazz music.[26]

Charitable activities

In 1995, forty members of Temple Emanuel cooked and served turkeys to people who were homeless as part of an ecumenical Christmas dinner with So Others Might Eat.[27]

In October 2007, members of Temple Emanuel collected and donated 5,742 pounds of groceries to local food banks.[28]

Historic Torah

In 1917, a Jewish congregation in Slonim, Russia, buried two Torahs in wooden chests in a field to protect them from the Bolsheviks, who had been closing synagogues and burning Torahs throughout the Soviet Union.[29] The Torahs remained there when, on June 25, 1941, Nazi soldiers marched Slonim's Jewish residents to the same field and murdered them there.[29]

The descendants of Slonim's rabbi returned to Slonim and retrieved the two buried Torahs in the 1990s.[29]

Temple Emanuel bought one of the Torahs in 1998.[29]

Activism

Vietnam War

In 1971, Temple Emanuel released a resolution calling for President Richard Nixon to "set and announce a complete withdrawal of all American forces operating in and over Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia by March 1972".[30] The resolution urged Congress to act to end the war if the president did not do so.[30] In a vote among Temple Emanuel's members, 76 percent supported the proposed resolution.[30]

Natan Sharansky

In March 1977, the Soviet Union arrested Natan Sharansky for being a spy for the Central Intelligence Agency.[31] The Soviet Union accused Sharansky of giving the Central Intelligence Agency lists of over 1,300 refuseniks, many of whom were denied exit visas because of their knowledge of state secrets.[32][33]

Representatives of Temple Emanuel met with the head of the Department of State's Human Rights Office to urged the Department of State to pressure the Soviet Union to release Sharansky.[31]

Sharansky was imprisoned until February 1986, when he and three other accused spies were released to West Germany in exchange for five other individuals also accused of spying.[34] Sharansky immigrated to Israel.[35]

Sustainability

Temple Emanuel has a zero-carbon footprint by supporting the alternative energy investments of the Carbonfund.org Foundation.[36]

Temple Emanuel's sanctuary features a large wood sculpture in the shape of a banyan tree.[37] The sculpture was made from Maryland tulip poplar trees.[37][38] The sculpture symbolizes one of Temple Emanuel's guiding beliefs, to blend Judaism and sustainability.[38]

In 1994, Temple Emanuel completed an energy audit of its building.[39] Temple Emanuel recycles and composts, and it includes an environmental reading into Shabbat services.[39][38] The lighting, heating, cooling, and energy efficiency is monitored in every room of the building.[40] Children maintain an organic garden on the grounds.[38] Rabbi Stone strongly supports the congregation's efforts to be sustainable, citing a passage in the Midrash.[39][41]

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism awarded 2013 Irving J. Fain Social Action Award to Temple Emanuel for its activities in support of social justice and tikkun olam.[42]

Genocide in Darfur

In 2005, Temple Emanuel was one of many Jewish congregations organizations that demanded the United States act to end the genocide occurring in Darfur, Sudan.[43]

Marriage equality

In 2012, Temple Emanuel encouraged its members to support the Civil Marriage Protection Act, to allow people of the same sex to marry in Maryland.[44]

Minimum wage

In 2014, Temple Emanuel's membership voted in favor of a resolution supporting an increase in the minimum wage so workers can "support themselves with greater dignity and independence — a true Jewish value. ... It is a religious responsibility to care for the needy of our society and safeguard a just minimum wage."[45]

History

Origins

Temple Emanuel was formally incorporated on December 2, 1952.[46] At the time, it was the only reform Jewish congregation in Montgomery County, Maryland.[47] Rabbi Leon M. Adler served as its first spiritual leader.[47] In January 1955, the congregation agreed to purchase five acres (20,000 m2) of land along Connecticut Avenue in Kensington to build a sanctuary, religious school, and social hall.[47] Oscar Felker chaired the fundraising campaign for purchasing the land and constructing the synagogue.[48] Construction plans were finalized in October 1956.[49] Construction was completed in 1958,[2] and the synagogue was formally dedicated on May 2, 1958.[50]

New rabbi

On February 27, 1988, Rabbi Adler died of an aneurysm.[51] Rabbi Warren G. Stone was installed as Temple Emanuel's spiritual leader on November 15, 1988.[52] Originally from Massachusetts, Rabbi Stone had served as rabbi of Stephen S Wise Temple in Los Angeles and Temple Beth El in Corpus Christi, Texas, for six years.[52] In recent years, Rabbi Stone retired. On July 1, 2020, Rabbi Adam Rosenwasser was installed as Senior Rabbi.

References
  1. "Clergy". Temple Emanuel. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  2. "10101 Connecticut Avenue Kensington MD 20985-3803". Real Property Search. Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  3. "History". Temple Emanuel. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  4. "Staff". Temple Emanuel. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  5. "Board of Trustees". Temple Emanuel. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  6. "Shabbat". Temple Emanuel. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  7. "Holidays". Temple Emanuel. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  8. "Life Cycles". Temple Emanuel. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  9. "Early Childhood". Temple Emanuel. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  10. "Religious School". Temple Emanuel. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  11. Greenberg, Richard. "Teach your children well". Washington Jewish Week. February 14, 2008. p. 18–19.
  12. "Youth". Temple Emanuel. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  13. "Adult Learning". Temple Emanuel. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  14. Nirula, Gagan. "In Brief: Julian Bond at Temple Emanuel". The Washington Post. April 30, 1994. p. B7.
  15. "Religion News and Events: Judaic Literature". The Washington Post. May 3, 2001. p. T8.
  16. "Religion Notes: Dealing with Anti-semites". The Washington Post. March 20, 2003. p. T9.
  17. "Honoring Martin Luther King Jr." The Washington Post. January 15, 2004. p. T8.
  18. Fingerhut, Eric. "Rabbis urged to use bima to discuss uninsured". Washington Jewish Week May 13, 2004. p. 5.
  19. "Religion Notes". The Washington Post. May 25, 2006. p. T24.
  20. "Religion Notes". The Washington Post. September 14, 2006. p. T4.
  21. de Looper, Frauke. "German Political Foundations: A Unique Tool in German-American Relations". German Life. 4.2. September 30, 1997. p. 18.
  22. "This Week: Community Events". The Washington Post. May 18, 1995. p. MD6A.
  23. Fox, Larry. "Weekend's Best: Rest of the Best". The Washington Post. February 21, 1997. p. N3.
  24. McLellan, Joseph. "Performing Arts: Zina Gendel and Dionne Laufman". The Washington Post. November 9, 1999.
  25. Bennett, Alysia. "Religion News and Events: Dance Ensemble". The Washington Post. February 3, 2000. p. M7.
  26. "Religion Notes: Jazz Shabbat". The Washington Post. December 4, 2003. p. T11.
  27. McGrory, Mary. "Food for Thought". The Washington Post. December 21, 1995. p. A2.
  28. Greenberg, Richard. "Food for thought, and more". Washington Jewish Week. October 4, 2007. p. 6-7.
  29. Broadway, Bill. "Long-Hidden Torah Finds a New Home; Buried Scroll Survived Bolsheviks, Nazis". The Washington Post. May 23, 1998. p. F9.
  30. Medsger, Betty. "Kensington Temple Resolution Urges End of Vietnam War". The Washington Post. December 4, 1971. p. B5.
  31. "Pressure on Soviets Backed". The Washington Post. December 2, 1977. p. D12.
  32. Toth, Robert. "Russ indirectly reveal 'state secrets': clues in denials of Jewish visas". Los Angeles Times. November 22, 1976.
  33. "US reporter got secrets, Russians say". The Milwaukee Sentinel. July 12, 1978.
  34. "Soviets Free Shcharansky Dissident, 8 Others Involved in Swap". The Seattle Times. February 11, 1986.
  35. Bushinsky, Jay. "Shcharansky hailed as a hero in Israel". Chicago Sun-Times. February 12, 1986.
  36. Stone, Warren G. "Environmental protection a sacred obligation". Washington Jewish Week. January 4, 2007. p. 16.
  37. Broadway, Bill. "Passover: Newly Inclusive, Environmentally Aware". The Washington Post. April 19, 1997. p. B6.
  38. Holzel, David. "Temple Emanuel". Washington Jewish Week. August 9, 2012. p. 9.
  39. Nieburh, Gustav. "Ecology Movement Begins to Take Root Among the Religious". The Washington Post. April 23, 1994. p. A5.
  40. Amann, Paula. "To be young, Jewish and green; COEJL gathering draws small, youthful crowd; D.C. area synagogues, rabbis in the spotlight". Washington Jewish Week. March 3, 2005. p. 8.
  41. Amann, Paula. "Both green and Jewish; In search of social equity, Reform rabbi melds faith, energy". Washington Jewish Week. April 21, 2005. p. 4.
  42. Snyder, David. "Warranted Recognition". Baltimore Jewish Times. 331.8. April 19, 2013. p. 17.
  43. "Jewish groups urge Bush to take action on Sudan genocide". Washington Jewish Week. July 21, 2005. p. 6.
  44. Snyder, Ron. "Jews Impact Same-Sex Marriage Debate". Baltimore Jewish Times. 327.7. August 17, 2012. p. 18–19.
  45. Norris, Heather. "The Push for $10.10". Baltimore Jewish Times. 336.6. February 7, 2014. p. 24–27.
  46. "Temple Emanuel: Department ID D00208579". Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation Business Services. Retrieved November 21, 2016.
  47. "Temple Emanuel to Buy Five Acres". The Washington Post. January 21, 1955. p. 29.
  48. "$105,000 Given In Emanuel Drive". The Washington Post. March 4, 1955. p. 29.
  49. "Temple Emanuel To Unveil Plans". The Washington Post. October 5, 1956. p. 30.
  50. "Synagogue to Dedicate New Building Sunday". The Washington Post. April 18, 1958. p. B11.
  51. "Temple Emanuel Rabbi Leon M. Adler Dies". The Washington Post. February 28, 1988. p. C6.
  52. Hyer, Marjorie. "People in the News". The Washington Post. September 10, 1988. p. D19.
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