Five years ago, Baltimore’s Reform Jewish community held a wedding ceremony between two congregations. Members of Har Sinai Congregation, the first and oldest Reform synagogue in the United States, marched eight miles from their Owings Mills campus to the Temple Oheb Shalom building in Park Heights.
They took their Torah with them, adding it to the synagogue’s ark. With the signing of a ketubah — Jewish marriage contract — and the installation of a mezuzah from Har Sinai to the entrance of Oheb Shalom, the union between the two congregations was sealed.
It’s been a while since then, and the combined Har Sinai-Oheb Shalom Congregation has been through a lot. They’ve stayed together through the COVID-19 pandemic, Oct. 7 and will have soon weathered two presidential elections.
The synagogue’s staff and clergy feel that it is stronger than ever, and that the trials and tribulations of merging the two synagogues were worth it for the positive effect that it’s had on the local community.
Even before the two synagogues merged, there was a lot of overlap between them.
“We saw an alignment in our values and members. In fact, many of the members of either legacy organization had long histories in both,” explained Abby Hoffman, HSOSC’s president.
“Many families were going back and forth between the two congregations over the years … My sister-in-law grew up at Har Sinai, got married and became a long-standing member at Oheb Shalom, and yet she would still come to High Holidays at Har Sinai every year with us.”
This was one of the many factors that led to the merging of the two congregations, with a few of the others including the fact that their infrastructures were similar and that both were undergoing clergy transitions.
Both congregations had interim clergy during the time they officially merged, which made it easier to find and recruit clergy prepared to lead them as a unified organization.
“When you’re talking about a congregation that is over a century and a half old, you have a unique opportunity to redefine yourself in today’s world that you wouldn’t have otherwise,” said Katie Applefeld, HSOSC’s vice president. “When you merge, it allows you to be intentional about the world today and who you want to be.”
In order to iron out the details of the merge, the Joint Task Force was formed. Seven members from each congregation met regularly to finalize the synagogue’s location, name, governance and other factors. Hoffman was one of the members of the JTF, and she notes that its members formed lifelong friendships while working on the merge process.
“It was very intense, but that intensity and that togetherness created a bond, and we worked really well together,” Hoffman recalled. “That bond was so strong that we’re having a sort of reunion dinner for the JTF in November to celebrate the fifth anniversary.”
While both synagogues had similar infrastructure, there were still differences between the two that had to be reconciled in order for the merger to go smoothly.
After it happened, smaller sub-committees were formed to tackle different intra-congregational issues. These addressed issues as granular as what furniture would be used where and which honorary plaques would be installed from the old Har Sinai building.
But since the merger occurred in November 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic loomed large on the horizon. This would prove to be a challenge for the newly-combined congregation, but it turned out to be surprisingly beneficial.
Many programs and services were moved online, and by the time HSOSC started holding in-person events again, congregants were less concerned about doing things one way or the other and more grateful to just be together.
But not everything at HSOSC has been completely unified, and those differences are still a common topic for discussion.
“Because we had those differences, we had to consciously decide who we wanted to be and to make those choices along the way,” Hoffman explained. “I would say that we’re still doing that. We’re constantly evolving.”
Rabbi Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi, HSOSC’s rabbi, joined the congregation in 2021 and said that being clergy at a newly-merged congregation was a unique and exciting opportunity.
“I’ve always made sure that I got a sense of how both legacy congregations approached specific rituals or holidays, and very quickly, people would say, ‘But that’s not as important as what we are going to do together,’” Sabath explained. “Everything we do is about creating new traditions and new customs together, and that’s what makes it exciting.”
Many of the challenges HSOSC has faced in the years since it merged have not been related to the merger, but external challenges such as the Oct. 7 attacks and the state of the Jewish community after the fact.
“Helping our congregants navigate [the world] is a role that I think Jewish institutions, specifically congregations, didn’t realize was so important before Oct. 7. Now, it really, really is,” Applefeld said.
HSOSC will be holding a fifth anniversary celebration on Nov. 22 during their regular Shabbat service, which will feature special performances from their band, adult choir and youth choir, The God Singers.
While they’re looking back on their history for the anniversary, HSOSC is also continuing to look towards the future and where they might be in another five years. Currently, they are working to revitalize their teen program, Atid, as they have seen a surge of interest in confirmation classes from teens hoping to continue their Jewish education after their b’nai mitzvahs.
Sabbath added that she’d like to do more interfaith and inter-denominational outreach in the future.
“Because I’m a pluralist who comes from a pluralist academic background, I’m eager for us to continue to do more and more with Jews across the denominational spectrum … I’d also like us to do more social action projects with other faiths, in addition to the work we do now with Jewish, Christian and Muslim [congregations],” she said.
