Sinai Temple: History
Sinai Temple was founded in 1906, and is regarded as the first Conservative congregation in all of Southern California. This is very notable because a considerable number of Conservative Jews, especially Conservative Persian Jews, now call Southern California their home.
Sinai was located at the corner of 12th and Valencia near downtown Los Angeles. However, after only nineteen years, the congregation impressively blossomed past the original location’s seating capacity. In 1925, the temple purchased land on 4th Street and New Hampshire, relocating the synagogue. That year, the High Holidays were observed in the then unfinished temple construction site, having no choice because the previous location was simply too small. The limited space did not meet the immense demand of people attempting to attend.
In the mid-nineteen hundreds, Los Angeles started to experience the “Jewish Westward Expansion.” The west side of Los Angeles started to become highly popular with Jewish people. Sinai had no choice but to follow its congregation and, once again, in 1956, decided to relocate to its current site on Wilshire and Beverly Glen in Westwood.
1960 marked the first year when High Holidays - Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur - were observed at the current location. In 1969, the first school facilities were built, and in 1998, there was another building expansion that totally revamped all of the facilities.
Today, Sinai Temple continues to thrive as a leader of modern Conservative Jewish life and thought. Rabbi David Wolpe is in charge of the temple today. He has been there on and off for the past 30 years, beginning when he came to Sinai as a student of American Jewish University. In 1983 he was asked to do a single service, and for the next 14 years he would only do High Holiday services, until the position of Head Rabbi opened up in 1997.
He has sometimes been viewed as a controversial character, mainly because of his mission to extend Sinai as a leader of modern Conservative Jewish life and thought. He publicly announced that Sinai temple would accept all Jews, especially homosexual Jews, and this garnered a strong reaction. In 2012, Newsweek magazine named Wolpe the most influential Rabbi in America, and the Jerusalem Post named him one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world.
Sinai was located at the corner of 12th and Valencia near downtown Los Angeles. However, after only nineteen years, the congregation impressively blossomed past the original location’s seating capacity. In 1925, the temple purchased land on 4th Street and New Hampshire, relocating the synagogue. That year, the High Holidays were observed in the then unfinished temple construction site, having no choice because the previous location was simply too small. The limited space did not meet the immense demand of people attempting to attend.
In the mid-nineteen hundreds, Los Angeles started to experience the “Jewish Westward Expansion.” The west side of Los Angeles started to become highly popular with Jewish people. Sinai had no choice but to follow its congregation and, once again, in 1956, decided to relocate to its current site on Wilshire and Beverly Glen in Westwood.
1960 marked the first year when High Holidays - Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur - were observed at the current location. In 1969, the first school facilities were built, and in 1998, there was another building expansion that totally revamped all of the facilities.
Today, Sinai Temple continues to thrive as a leader of modern Conservative Jewish life and thought. Rabbi David Wolpe is in charge of the temple today. He has been there on and off for the past 30 years, beginning when he came to Sinai as a student of American Jewish University. In 1983 he was asked to do a single service, and for the next 14 years he would only do High Holiday services, until the position of Head Rabbi opened up in 1997.
He has sometimes been viewed as a controversial character, mainly because of his mission to extend Sinai as a leader of modern Conservative Jewish life and thought. He publicly announced that Sinai temple would accept all Jews, especially homosexual Jews, and this garnered a strong reaction. In 2012, Newsweek magazine named Wolpe the most influential Rabbi in America, and the Jerusalem Post named him one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world.
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