The Moses Montefiore Congregation is a synagogue in Bloomington, Illinois

Bloomington, Illinois

Bloomington is a city in McLean County, Illinois, United States and the county seat. It is adjacent to Normal, Illinois, and is the more populous of the two principal municipalities of the Bloomington-Normal metropolitan area...

.

Although Jews had arrived in Bloomington by the 1850s, the synagogue was organized in 1884 and named for Sir Moses Montefiore

Moses Montefiore

Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, Kt was one of the most famous British Jews of the 19th century. Montefiore was a financier, banker, philanthropist and Sheriff of London...

. In 1889 the congregation dedicated a Moorish Revival

Moorish Revival

Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of the Romanticist fascination with all things oriental...

 synagogue building at the southeast corner of Monroe and Prairie Streets. It is one of the relatively few surviving 19th century synagogue buildings

Oldest synagogues in the United States

The designation of the oldest synagogue in the United States requires careful use of definitions, and must be divided into two parts, the oldest in the sense of oldest surviving building, and the oldest in the sense of oldest congregation...

in the United States.

In 1959 the congregation moved ot a new building in the Fairway Knolls neighborhood. As of 1996 the original building was being used as a church.

In 2001 the building won the Adaptive Reuse Award from Landmarks Illinois. The synagogue has been converted into a single family home.

External links

• Congregational website: http://www.mosesmontefiorecongregation.org/
• Image: http://www.landmarks.org/pop_ups/award_moses_pop.htm