Temple Sinai
Photo courtesy of the Saratoga Room, SSPL.
On April 4, 1966, the congregation Temple Sinai, the first Reform Synagogue in Saratoga Springs, NY, announced its purchase of 509 Broadway. The purchase took place near the Passover feast, which celebrates the Jews wandering the desert for forty years. While the congregation was only two years old, Temple Sinai members seemed to be similar wanderers within both an established Jewish community and the greater town of Saratoga Springs. Therefore, the purchase did not simply mark a new home for the congregation, but solidified its survival in Saratoga Springs. Today Temple Sinai flourishes as a spiritual and community haven, thanks to its main street centrality, its acceptance of — and collaboration with — different religious denominations and its commercial and social integration within the Saratoga community.
Early Jewish Settlement in Saratoga Springs
Saratoga Springs' earliest Jewish settler was Benjamin Goldsmith, a Russian immigrant who came to Saratoga in 1865 and eventually operated a prominent cigar shop on Broadway. By 1910 roughly twenty-five Jewish families lived in Saratoga, all of whom were Orthodox. Without a synagogue these families had growing concerns about future generations carrying on the Jewish heritage and gathered in Jewish owned hotels to practice. In 1912, the Jewish citizens of Saratoga Springs founded Congregation Shaarei Tefilla, an Orthodox (today Conservative) congregation they hoped would meet their desire to preserve their Jewish heritage.
Too young to remember their parents’ European Jewry, some of the second generation Saratoga Jews attended Orthodox services they did not quite understand. Thus, many of them ignored or took little interest in traditional Jewish practices. It was not until the early 1960s, when the liberal and Reform Judaism movement gained momentum in the United States that the younger generation of Jews took action.
Too young to remember their parents’ European Jewry, some of the second generation Saratoga Jews attended Orthodox services they did not quite understand. Thus, many of them ignored or took little interest in traditional Jewish practices. It was not until the early 1960s, when the liberal and Reform Judaism movement gained momentum in the United States that the younger generation of Jews took action.
Founding of Temple Sinai
Those Jews who drifted from the conservative path finally united on May 17, 1964, when twelve families attended a meeting at the home of Sheldon Samuels, a former student at the University of Chicago’s History of Social Thought doctoral program. Along with Samuels other members descended from Saratoga’s first Jewish residents, including Mr. and Mrs. Martin Oppenheim, Mr. and Mrs. Nat Oppenheim, Dr. and Mrs. J.S. Feynman and Mr. Nathan Berkowitz. Other members included Dan Balmuth, a history professor at Skidmore College who moved to Saratoga in 1958. This collection of academics called themselves Liberal Jewish Study Group. They believed the existing Jewish institutions did not meet the needs of the larger Jewish community and wished “to promote the process of acquiring wisdom and knowledge of God”.
By the summer of 1964, Temple Sinai officially formed. As a liberal unaffiliated congregation without a permanent base practice was limited to the spaces they had access to. However, the Temple made the best of the situation and their first High Holy Day services took place at the Canfield Casino lead by Rabbi Samuel Kehati, a former Israeli Air force captain. While many Jewish Saratogians attended the free service, the study group remained small. Still without a space to claim as their own, Temple Sinai continued to hold services at various locations, including 42 Lincoln Avenue and the Washington Inn. Regardless, the congregation created a cultural program that consisted of famous readings on Reform Judaism as well as discussions led by Samuels. In September 1964, the Temple obtained their charter as a Reform Jewish Congregation. Temple Sinai offered the community a liberal Jewish experience.
By the summer of 1964, Temple Sinai officially formed. As a liberal unaffiliated congregation without a permanent base practice was limited to the spaces they had access to. However, the Temple made the best of the situation and their first High Holy Day services took place at the Canfield Casino lead by Rabbi Samuel Kehati, a former Israeli Air force captain. While many Jewish Saratogians attended the free service, the study group remained small. Still without a space to claim as their own, Temple Sinai continued to hold services at various locations, including 42 Lincoln Avenue and the Washington Inn. Regardless, the congregation created a cultural program that consisted of famous readings on Reform Judaism as well as discussions led by Samuels. In September 1964, the Temple obtained their charter as a Reform Jewish Congregation. Temple Sinai offered the community a liberal Jewish experience.
Temple Sinai and Skidmore College
From its beginning, Temple Sinai reached out to foster harmonious connections with institutions and other sacred spaces in Saratoga. With the New England Congregational Church, the temple co-sponsored the play “Free Fall,” which was written by Skidmore College professor Laurence Josephs and produced by the college’s drama department. For the project, Sheldon Samuels and New England Congregational Church leader Kenneth Albrecht announced a “joint church-temple committee” to help oversee the project, further establishing interfaith bonds between the Temple Sinai and the town denomination. Collaborating with Skidmore also seemed to work well for the Temple. In October 1966, the Temple began a lecture-series project known as “Judaism: Our Common Heritage,” inviting professors from Skidmore, Union and other area colleges to speak on subjects ranging from “Anti-Semitism and the Negro Community,” to “Contemporary Trends in Reform Judaism.”
Needless to say, the Temple and Skidmore College have benefitted from their mutual proximity. Skidmore College has provided the temple with students and professors to teach youth and adult education classes. Conversely, Temple Sinai has given a space for those in the Skidmore community who wish to practice in an inclusive, liberal reform congregation; additionally, Temple Sinai’s Rabbi Linda Motzkin serves as one of the College’s religious chaplains, retaining a strong affiliation between the Temple and Skidmore College to this day.
Needless to say, the Temple and Skidmore College have benefitted from their mutual proximity. Skidmore College has provided the temple with students and professors to teach youth and adult education classes. Conversely, Temple Sinai has given a space for those in the Skidmore community who wish to practice in an inclusive, liberal reform congregation; additionally, Temple Sinai’s Rabbi Linda Motzkin serves as one of the College’s religious chaplains, retaining a strong affiliation between the Temple and Skidmore College to this day.
Temple Sinai and the Community
In 1986, Temple Sinai hired couple Rabbi Linda Motzkin and Rabbi Jonathan Rubenstein, who have sustained the Temple's role as an active community center. For example, Rabbi Rubinstein and Motzkin founded the Bread and Torah project, in which Motzkin has been writing a Torah scroll with the help of community members, while Rubinstein has been operating Slices of Heaven challah bakery. This bakery is open every Friday to any community member and has donated to various community organizations including local nursing homes and the Saratoga Economic Opportunity Council. Temple Sinai membership is also at its highest at present, at over 210 members from all over Saratoga County.
Temple Sinai is a flourishing example of a community-engaged sacred space, but also represents the transformation of the Jewish Saratoga community from alienated and often discriminated to integrated and influential. The congregation no longer wanders from home to inn, hosting Seder dinners in backrooms. Temple Sinai is central to the main thoroughfare culture of Saratoga Springs, fully valued, utilized and respected as a secular and sacred space for the citizens of Saratoga.
Temple Sinai is a flourishing example of a community-engaged sacred space, but also represents the transformation of the Jewish Saratoga community from alienated and often discriminated to integrated and influential. The congregation no longer wanders from home to inn, hosting Seder dinners in backrooms. Temple Sinai is central to the main thoroughfare culture of Saratoga Springs, fully valued, utilized and respected as a secular and sacred space for the citizens of Saratoga.