Temple Ohabei Shalom
- Style
- Moorish / Mudéjar
- City
- Boston, MA
Temple Ohabei Shalom, a Reform congregation organized in 1842 mainly by German Jewish immigrants, is the oldest Jewish congregation in Massachusetts and the third-oldest in New England, after congregations in Newport and New Haven. Its synagogue at 1187 Beacon Street is built in a Moorish Revival idiom, a style choice the congregation had already embraced in its earlier buildings.
the building
The Warren Street original. The congregation's first synagogue, built in 1851 on Warren Street in Boston, was a two-story wooden building whose paired, arch-topped windows were designed to resemble the tablets of the Ten Commandments. It seated 400 and included a Hebrew school, meeting room, and mikveh.
the style
The congregation has favored eclectic revival architecture throughout its history, and the styling associated with the current building spans Moorish Revival, Byzantine Revival, and Greek Revival influences — a mix in keeping with a congregation whose first sanctuary already used window shapes designed to evoke the tablets of the Ten Commandments.
More on Moorish / Mudéjarsignificance
Organized in 1842, it is the oldest Jewish congregation in Massachusetts and the third-oldest in New England, behind only congregations in Newport and New Haven. The congregation's first act was founding the Temple Ohabei Shalom Cemetery in East Boston, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008 and slated to house a museum on the Mystic River Jewish community.
nearby
- Saint Paul's Rectory
- Saint Aidan's Church and Rectory
- Saint Paul's Episcopal Church
- Peter Fuller Building
- Second Church in Boston
- Landmark Center