Temple Menorah
Temple Menorah originally, North Boundary Temple.
Temple Menorah was founded in 1946, when many progressive Jews left the South Side and moved north. The building is loacated on the west side of California Avenue between Sherwin Avenue (south) Jarvis Avenue (north).
A similar northward migration, this time towards the suburbs caused the population to shift again in the 1980s. A westward migration of Orthodox Jews from the Rogers Park neighborhood filled the void.
Over time, and defying denominational labels that often distinguish American houses of worship, the three also use three different addresses for the same building. Temple Menorah which uses the address: 7350 N. California Avenue became the only Jewish house of worship in the Chicago area in which three distinct cogregations worshipped. The Reform Jews worship as Temple Menorah. The conservatives as Ner Tamid Ezra Habonim Egalitarian Minyan which uses the address: 2800 W. Sherwin Avenue. And, the Orthodox Jews worship as Or Menorah.
"I don't believe in Orthodox, Conservative and Reform. I believe in Jewish," said Rabbi Doug Zelden, the leader of Or Menorah, the Orthodox synagogue that shares the building. Rabbi David Spitz, is the part-time rabbi for the Reform congregation, Temple Menorah.
On the Sabbath, the Reform congregation surreptitiously lights its candles after dark, behind closed doors and away from Orthodox children who are taught Sabbath candles should be lit at home before sundown. The Reform members also turn off the lights after the more observant Orthodox, who can't use electricity, have gone home on Friday nights. In return, Or Menorah helps pay the bills and secure a future for the legacy of Temple Menorah, where the list of death anniversaries, or yahrzeits, recited every Friday night is longer than the list of living members.
To make ends meet, the temple rented space to an all-girls Philip and Rebecca Esformes Cheder Lubavitch Girls School. They use the address 2809 W. Jarvis Avenue.
Temple Menorah donated the T027 series of photos to the Society.
Photos
RPWRHS photo T027-0101 shows the dedication ceremony for the original temple building in the late 1940s. The temple is located on the northwest corner of California Avenue and Sherwin Avenue. None of the participants is identified.
RPWRHS photo T027-0102 shows the interior of the first chapel at Temple Menorah, in the late 1940s.
