Adas Israel Congregation (Washington, D.C.)
Adas Israel, located in the Cleveland Park neighborhood, is the largest Conservative synagogue in Washington, D.C.
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[edit] History
The congregation was founded in 1869 by 69 members of the Washington Hebrew Congregation who objected to that congregation's move towards Reform Judaism.
Sermons were given in German until the congregation dedicated its first building in 1876 at Sixth and G streets.[1] That building has been restored by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington and is now the Lillian & Albert Small Jewish Museum. The building, the oldest surviving synagogue building in Washington, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the D.C. Inventory of Historic Sites, and the Historic American Buildings Survey. It is among the oldest synagogue buildings still standing in the United States.[2] It is also an official project of the Save America’s Treasures program.[3]
Jacob Voorsanger served as rabbi from 1876 to 1877, before going on to a distinguished career as the rabbi of Congregation Emanu-El (San Francisco, California).
After the assassination of President James Garfield, Adas Israel led the effort that founded a hospital in memory of the slain President. The hospital later merged into the Washington Hospital Center.[1]
Adas Israel participated in the meeting that led to the founding of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America in 1898, but did not join the organization. Instead, it hired Rabbi Morris Mandel, the first rabbi ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. The congregation did not, however, join the Conservative Movement until 1948.
In 1908 the congregation built the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue.
In the 1930s the congregation rescued Rabbi Hugo Schiff and his wife by bringing them from Karlsruhe, Germany. Schiff became assistant rabbi. Entry visas could sometimes be obtained for Jews who had offers of employment.
The present building, at Connecticut Avenue and Porter Street, was dedicated in 1951.
The current rabbi is Gil Steinlauf.[2]
[edit] Ruach Minyan
Ruach Minyan is an independent minyan or chavurah in Washington, DC, organized entirely by volunteer leadership and affiliated with Adas Israel Congregation. Its primary activity is Friday night services and dinner.
[edit] About
Ruach Minyan is a traditional, spirited, lay-led, egalitarian Kabbalat Shabbat and Ma’ariv service that combines a traditional, songful Friday evening service with Shabbat dinner.[4] Since its founding days it has sought to serve the community by attracting young, unaffiliated Jews to join with it and celebrate the Shabbat in a warm and friendly environment that welcomes and enriches Jews from all backgrounds providing all with a place for prayer, study, and growth. The Minyan derives its strength and warmth from each of its participants, continuously committing to create an inviting communal space to share our ideas, aspirations, prayers and meals. Ruach Minyan alternates between catered dinners and potluck meals at people's homes that are within walking distance of the synagogue. It strives to be accessible to all and to be a place where anyone can feel comfortable no matter their religious or economic situation.
Ruach Minyan attracts connected and unaffiliated Jews of all denominations, all ages, and from all backgrounds and levels of familiarity with Jewish texts and ritual. The minyan attracts people who are new to DC; summer interns; and people who are otherwise unaffiliated yet interested in a place of worship and/or a Shabbat meal. It welcomes people to come to whatever parts of our programs that interest them.
[edit] History
The group was originally founded as Van Ness Minyan in 1998, as that is the location of the building where the original founding members lived. Founding members included Ruben Lamdany, Leon & Lara Fleischer, & Nancy & Eric Nelkin. They were looking for a place to gather and pray together on Friday night and then celebrate Shabbat with a joint dinner and so decided to create their own minyan. The founding members of the Van Ness Minyan were also members of Adas Israel and attended the Traditional Egalitarian Minyan at Adas Israel on Shabbat mornings. After a period of dormancy, the Van Ness minyan was revived by Eric Gurevitz with a vision of providing a restful, songful, and spiritual community where people could learn from each others' thoughts and experiences and share a Shabbat meal. In 2006 Rabbi Alana Suskin, Associate Rabbi at Adas Israel, discussed the idea of creating a partnership between the Van Ness Minyan and Adas Israel and helped us come up with the name Ruach Minyan.
[edit] Innovations
The most notable innovation of the Van Ness Minyan--the predecessor to Ruach Minyan--is the creation of the Two-Table System for Potlucks. The two-table system, created by Eric Gurevitz and Jonathan Levine of the Van Ness Minyan, captures the two "extremes"--those who only eat food made in a Hechshered-only kitchen, and those who eat any food served. The two-table system was created so that everyone in the community could have something to eat and for everyone to cook without any person compromising, so that each member would feel he or she is a full member of the community. These rules assume a cultural milieu in which it is acceptable to make every potluck meal dairy or vegetarian and no one is making distinctions about which hechsher they trust.
Of equal importance to the two-table policy itself is the language and framing. It is very intentional that one table is called "vegetarian" and the other is called "vegetarian with a hechsher." Neither table is called "kosher" (implying that the other table isn't kosher).
The system was created to solve the problem that Ben Dreyfus states in his Mah Rabu Blog: “If the whole world were table 1, then people who had specific requirements regarding hechshers or utensils wouldn't be able to eat. And if the whole world were table 2, then people whose kitchens did not meet this standard wouldn't be able to cook, and would feel like less-than-full members of the community. And if the community were to work out some compromise between tables 1 and 2 (everything must have a hechsher except cheese, etc.), then (a) lots of time would be spent hammering this out, and (b) at the end of the day, some people still wouldn't be able to eat, and some people still wouldn't be able to cook.
The two-table system has been called by Ben Dreyfus in his Hilchot Pluralism [5] an approach to kashrut for independent Jewish communities. It has since been popularized by many different independent minyanim such as Kol Zimrah and Tikkun Leil Shabbat as well as others.
[edit] Recent awards
Ruach Minyan was chosen in 2008-2009 and in 2009-2010 as one of the six Innovative Young Adult Davening Communities by the Conservative Movement's Kesharim Committee and was awarded grants for each of these years.[6]
[edit] External links
Coordinates: 38°56′13″N 77°03′27″W / 38.9369°N 77.0575°W
[edit] References
- ^ a b Olitzky, Kerry (1996). The American Synagogue. Greenwood Press. pp. 89–91.
- ^ Rediscovering Jewish Infrastructure: Update on United States Nineteenth Century Synagogues, Mark W. Gordon, American Jewish History 84.1 (1996) 11-27 [1]
- ^ http://www.saveamericastreasures.org/projall.htm#District
- ^ The Washington Post, April 29, 2009,"Synthesis Outside the Synagogue: Young Washington Jews Form Lay-Led Worship Communities"
- ^ Discussion of the Hilchot Pluralism at JewSchool.com
- ^ United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism News Item about Kesharim Awards
