Temple Emanuel Sinai (Worcester, Massachusetts)

rdf:langString Temple Emanuel Sinai (Worcester, Massachusetts)

rdf:langString Temple Emanuel Sinai

rdf:langString עמנואל סיני

rdf:langString Temple Emanuel Sinai

rdf:langString עמנואל סיני

rdf:langString June 2017

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rdf:langString Temple Emanuel Sinai (Hebrew: עִמָנוּאֵל סִינַי, God is with us Sinai) is a medium-sized Reform (progressive) Jewish synagogue located in Worcester, Massachusetts, New England's second largest city (population 206,518). A product of the 2013 integration of Worcester's two original Reform congregations (Temple Emanuel and Temple Sinai), the synagogue traces its roots to 1921 and is affiliated with the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), a network of over 900 progressive congregations representing the largest denomination (38%) of affiliated American Jews. The congregation worships and studies at 661 Salisbury Street, adjacent to the Worcester Jewish Community Center, where Temple Sinai acquired property for its permanent home in 1962. Temple Emanuel's building at 280 May Street was sold to the Worcester State University Foundation in 2013, though the terms of the sale allowed the congregation to use the building for two additional years, until June 2015. Planning to determine a final siting for the synagogue concluded during the fall of 2014, resulting in a plan to expand and renovate the Temple Sinai facility at 661 Salisbury Street (rather than share a campus with Conservative Congregation Beth Israel at Beth Israel's location on Jamesbury Drive). Temple Emanuel Sinai's first rabbi, Matthew Berger, also served as the last rabbi of Temple Emanuel, who hired him in 2009. In February 2014, Rabbi Valerie Cohen, spiritual leader since 2003 at Jackson, Mississippi's Beth Israel Congregation accepted an offer to replace Berger at the end of his contract in June 2014. A near-unanimous vote in favor of ratifying Rabbi Cohen's contract was held during a special congregational meeting at the May Street campus on March 9, 2014.

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