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Temple Beth Israel
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| Location: | 1931 NW Flanders St. Portland, Oregon |
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| Built: | 1926–1928 |
| Architect: | Morris H. Whitehouse Herman Brookman Harry A. Herzog |
| Architectural style: | Neo-Byzantine |
| Governing body: | Private |
| NRHP Reference#: | 79002141 |
| Added to NRHP: | July 26, 1979 |
Beth Israel is a Reform congregation and Jewish synagogue in Portland, Oregon, United States. The congregation was founded in 1858, while Oregon was still a territory, and built its first synagogue in 1859.[1]
The congregation's first building was a modest, single story, pitched-roof, wood-framed, clapboard building with Gothic, pointed-arch windows and door.[2]
This early structure was replaced by an 1888 synagogue building, which was destroyed by fire in December 1923.[3] The building, called Moorish revival in some sources,[4] is elsewhere described as a combination of eclectic and Gothic revival styles, with two towers topped by bulbous domes.[5]
It was replaced in 1928 by a notable Neo-Byzantine synagogue building that continues to serve the congregation. It was listed as Temple Beth Israel on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.[6] It is considered one of the finest examples of Byzantine-style architecture on the west coast, and was inspired by the Alte Synagoge (Steelerstrasse Synagogue) in Essen, Germany.[7][8] The interior of Steelerstrasse, the first modern synagogue in Germany, was praised as Germany's most beautiful; it was destroyed during Kristallnacht.[8]
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