Young Israel Shomrai Emunah

Young Israel Shomrai Emunah
Location within Maryland
Basic information
Location 1132 Arcola Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland, 20902
Geographic coordinates 39°02′27″N 77°01′45″W / 39.040972°N 77.029167°WCoordinates: 39°02′27″N 77°01′45″W / 39.040972°N 77.029167°W
Affiliation Orthodox Judaism
Status Active
Website wp.yise.org
Architectural description
Architectural type Synagogue

Young Israel Shomrai Emunah (YISE) is an Orthodox synagogue located in Kemp Mill,[1][2] Montgomery County, Maryland. It was the first Orthodox synagogue established in Montgomery County[3] it is one of the largest Orthodox synagogues in Maryland and is recognized as a key synagogue in the Silver Spring, Maryland area.[4]

Affiliations and associations

The synagogue is affiliated with the National Council of Young Israel.[5][6] The synagogue has sponsored Jewish educational activities with other local Orthodox institutions such as The Greater Washington Community Kollel.[7] It offers a variety of programs such as for senior citizens in conjunction with the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington.[8] It is also affiliated with the JCRC (Jewish Community Relations Council) of Greater Washington.[9]

For environmentalists it has co-hosted programs with the Canfei Nesharim organization that provides: "a Torah based approach to understand and act on the relationship between traditional Jewish sources and modern environmental issues[10]...which explores environmentalism through the lens of Halacha (Jewish law) and traditional Jewish sources. The new initiative is known as Maayan Olam: the Silver Spring Torah and Environmental Group... endorsed by the Silver Spring Orthodox congregations Young Israel-Shomrai Emunah, Kemp Mill Synagogue."[11]

History

Appointment of Rabbi Gedaliah Anemer

In 1957, Rabbi Gedaliah Anemer became spiritual leader at what was then Shomrai Emunah, eventually leading the congregation from Hyattsville, Maryland to the Riggs Park neighborhood in Washington. In the early 1960s there was a trend of residents moving into suburbs. Rabbi Anemer continued to lead service in D.C with the remaining congregants, while conducting minyan in his basement in Silver Spring. In 1963 Young Israel built a synagogue on University Boulevard, the first one in Montgomery County:

“There was no Orthodox community until we moved out here,” Rav Anemer remarked. “We started davening ["prayer services"] in my house. A small shul was built a year later.”[12][13]

Rabbi Anemer also served as rosh yeshiva ["dean"] of Yeshiva of Greater Washington and Av Beit Din ["head of Jewish court"] of the Rabbinical Council of Greater Washington.[13]

After 52 years of holding the position of rabbi, Rabbi Anemer died on April 15, 2010.[13][14]

The Washington Jewish Week commented on his passing:

"Rabbi Gedaliah Anemer, a respected authority on Jewish law who founded the Yeshiva of Greater Washington in Silver Spring and played a large role in the establishment and growth of Silver Spring's Kemp Mill Orthodox community, died Thursday of a stroke. He was 78.... Members of the synagogue seem devastated by the rabbi's death. At his funeral, Rabbi Aaron Lopiansky, rosh yeshiva of the Yeshiva of Greater Washington, said in his eulogy, 'The world has collapsed, and we are cast into darkness'.... Anemer also headed the Rabbinical Council of Greater Washington's beit din, religious court...But it may be his role in the establishment of the estimated 5,000-person-strong Orthodox community in Kemp Mill, home to the Silver Spring Jewish Center and the Yeshiva in addition to YISE and KMS, for which Anemer will be most remembered. Born in Akron, Ohio, in 1932, he studied as a boy at Tiferes Yerushalayim in New York, and later received s'micha, ordination, from Telshe Yeshiva in 1952. Before moving to the Washington area, the rabbi was rosh hayeshiva, head of the yeshiva, of the Boston Rabbinical Seminary, a joint venture of the Lakewood and Telshe yeshivot. In 1957, he became spiritual leader at what was then Shomrai Emunah, eventually leading the congregation from Hyattsville to the Riggs Park neighborhood in Washington."[15]

He was succeeded by Rabbi Dovid Rosenbaum.[16]

Further growth

In 1963, Young Israel Shomrai Emunah moved into a new building in Silver Spring, Maryland on University Boulevard. The complex included two buildings, one for religious services and another for a nursery school. By the late 1960s the synagogue membership outgrew the facility and members began to move into the Kemp Mill subdivision, which is about 1 mile north of the synagogue's location. So, the membership raised funds to build a second, larger building in Kemp Mill. The congregation also maintained the original two-building complex, including its nursery school as it outgrew the location. Over the past fifty years, the Young Israel grew from 30 families to some 500 today.

Young Israel has seven different services going on each Shabbat (Saturday) morning, everything from a minyan in the Sephardi tradition to one for early risers. All those services are still under the same roof.

The president of YISE is Dr. Marc Katz. The immediate past president is Dr. David Mazel.

Functions and services

The synagogue provides a full range of religious and social services, such a nursery school,[17] banquet hall for weddings,[18] prayer services for Sephardi Jews,[19] assistance with job hunting,[20] notable guest speakers from the Jewish world, such as a Silver Spring native Lazer Brody who joined the Breslov Hasidim.[21]

Notable congregants

See also

References

  1. ↑ washingtonexaminer.com, Tightly knit Kemp Mill: "Kemp Mill, which some have said has the largest Orthodox Jewish population on the East Coast between Baltimore and Miami, also is home to the Young Israel Shomrai Emunah, Silver Spring Jewish Center, Kemp Mill Synagogue and Chabad of Silver Spring."
  2. ↑ washingtonpost.com, An Orthodox Destination Religion Draws Some to Kemp Mills: "Kemp Mill has probably the largest Orthodox population in Montgomery County.... Kemp Mill has been a destination for Orthodox Jews since 1961, when the Young Israel Shomrai Emunah synagogue relocated to the leafy suburb from Washington. 'There was no Orthodox community until we moved out here,' recalled Gedaliah Anemer, senior rabbi at Shomrai Emunah. 'We started having services in my house. A small synagogue was built a year later.'"
  3. ↑ Leibel, Aaron (21 April 2010). "Gedaliah Anemer, YISE rabbi, Yeshiva founder". Washington Jewish Week.
  4. ↑ jewishsilverspring.org, Local Synagogues and Day Schools
  5. ↑ NCYI affiliate events
  6. ↑ NCYI affiliate events
  7. ↑ gwckollel.com/programs: "In conjunction with the Young Israel Shomrai Emunah Education Committee, there will be a special lecture given on February 6, 2011, at 9:30 a.m. at Young Israel Shomrai Emunah, by Rabbi Yitzchak Charner, Headmaster of The Torah School of Greater Washington."
  8. ↑ jccgw.org, Satellite Programs
  9. ↑ jcouncil.org, Constituent Organizations
  10. ↑ canfeinesharim.org, Organizational Purpose
  11. ↑ canfeinesharim.org, Nature of the Torah: New ecology initiative hits the ground walking
  12. ↑ washingtonpost.com, An Orthodox Destination Religion Draws Some to Kemp Mills
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 matzav.com, Rav Gedaliah Anemer
  14. ↑ theyeshivaworld.com, Levaya Of HaRav Gedaliah HaKohen Anemer
  15. ↑ washingtonjewishweek.com, Gedaliah Anemer, YISE rabbi, Yeshiva founder
  16. ↑ Schudel, Matt (29 April 2010). "Gedaliah Anemer, 78; chief rabbi of greater Washington". The Washington Post. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
  17. ↑ nursery.yise.org, YISE Nursery
  18. ↑ chossonandkallah.com, Jewish Wedding Halls in Maryland
  19. ↑ americansephardifederation.org: "Young Israel Shomrai Emunah, Sephardic Minyan... Rabbi Yehoshua Levy."
  20. ↑ jobassist.org, About JobAssist.org " Kemp Mill Jewish community in Washington, DC...The rabbinic and lay leadership of the area's three shuls, Young Israel Shomrai Emunah, Kemp Mill Synagogue, and Silver Spring Jewish Center, have enthusiastically endorsed...the Kemp Mill Employment Assistance Initiative."
  21. ↑ washingtonjewishweek.com: "Now, almost 30 years later, an ordained rabbi and member of the Breslev chasidic group, Brody will come home to Silver Spring to speak next week at the Orthodox Young Israel Shomrai Emunah...Born in Washington, D.C., in 1949, he grew up in Silver Spring, becoming bar mitzvah at the Conservative Congregation Har Tzeon-Agudath Achim.... Rabbi Lazer Brody will speak at Young Israel Shomrei Emunah on Jan. 17 at 8 p.m. on the topic 'The Silver Spring of Emunah & The Golden Wall of Bitachon.'"
  22. ↑ washingtonpost.com, Obituaries
  23. ↑ washingtonpost.com, Obituary, cont; "He was a member of Young Israel Shomrai Emunah synagogue in Silver Spring."

External links