MS 18 Temple B’nai Sholom Papers

Temple B’nai Sholom Papers

1949-1982

 MS 18   

ACCESS AND PROVENANCE

The Temple B’nai Sholom Papers were donated to Jewish Museum of Maryland by Temple B’nai Sholom and accepted into the archives as accession 1983.002. Alison Reppert processed the collection in August 2009.

Access to the collection is unrestricted and is available to researchers at the Jewish Museum of Maryland.  Researchers must obtain the written permission of the Jewish Museum of Maryland before publishing quotations from materials in the collection.  Papers may be copied in accordance with the library’s usual procedures.

 HISTORICAL SKETCH

Temple B’nai Sholom was begun in 1948 when a group of Jewish families from Essex, Middle River and Dundalk areas met at the Essex Community Center and voted to become a Reform congregation where their children could be raised Jewish in a non-Jewish community.  They initially met for services at the Victory Villa Community Center in Middle River, and later conducted Sunday school classes at the Essex Seventh Day Adventist Church and in rented second-floor quarters on the 400 block of Eastern Avenue.

In June 1951, the congregation bought a brick house located at 1108 E. Homburg Avenue in Essex, which became their location until 1968, when they sold it.  In 1969, High Holiday Services were held in the Fellowship Hall of the Essex Methodist Church.  In the years that followed, these services were held on the rear patio of the home of Pauline Baker at 2203 Baker Avenue in Middle River until the congregation disbanded in 1982.

Dr. Mordecai I. Soloff was the first rabbi of the congregation, and when he left Baltimore, a current board member, Dr. Samuel Glasner took his place as rabbi and stayed until 1955.  From 1955-1965, the congregation was served by student rabbis from the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, who performed Friday night services.  No Saturday services were provided.  Mr. Victor Kandel led services from 1967-1982.

Some of the preceding information provided by: Jewish Baltimore: A Family Album by Gilbert Sandler. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The Temple B’nai Sholom Papers consists of constitutions, minutes, reports, announcements, correspondence, ledgers, receipts, sermons, calendars and taxes related to the congregation’s existence from 1948-1982.  This collection contains information on the congregation’s beginning, such as its constitution and correspondence concerning B’nai Sholom’s application and acceptance to the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods. It also contains information about B’nai Sholom’s selling of their building in 1968, as well as their final disbandment in 1982.