Sherith Israel Temple
Encyclopedia
Ruth Lyons (broadcaster)
Ruth Lyons, was a pioneer radio and television broadcaster in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is said Ruth Lyons accidentally invented the daytime TV talk show...
Way off the 600 block of Walnut Street, in the backstage entertainment district in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
. This is the oldest existing synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
building west of the Allegheny Mountains
Allegheny Mountains
The Allegheny Mountain Range , also spelled Alleghany, Allegany and, informally, the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the eastern United States and Canada...
and the fourth oldest building in downtown Cincinnati. It is the seventh oldest synagogue building
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.
The synagogue was built in 1860 and was an active synagogue until 1882, after that the building served as a warehouse, plumbing supply house and machine shop.
Chris Cain, the city's historic preservation
Historic preservation
Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...
officer said This is a building of importance.
Despite the history of the former Sherith Israel Temple downtown, the city officially decided it should not be declared historic in 1998. Officials debated more than a year whether the building, once an Orthodox
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
Jewish synagogue, should be saved.
History
The congregation was founded in 1855 as an Orthodox congregation that objected to the Reform tendencies of the Rockdale TempleRockdale Temple
The Rockdale Temple, K.K. Bene Israel, is the oldest Jewish congregation west of the Allegheny Mountains, the oldest congregation in Ohio, the second oldest Ashkenazi congregation in the United States and one of the oldest synagogues in the United States...
, then known as K.K. Bene Israel.
The congregation merged with Congregation Ahabeth Achim in 1906.