Connecting with Ohabei Shalom
Our Building

A History of Our Buildings

Tours of our beautiful, historic sanctuary can be arranged through the main office (617-277-6610).

Ohabei Shalom (lovers of Peace), founded in 1842, is the first Jewish congregation in Massachusetts and the second in New England after Newport, Rhode Island’s Touro Synagogue. Our complex is listed in both the Massachusetts and federal historic registries.

The Ohabei Shalom Cemetery Chapel

Since one of the primary obligations of a Jewish community is to provide a Jewish cemetery, in 1844 the congregation persisted in its efforts to secure permission to use a parcel of land in East Boston for this purpose. This became the original Jewish burial place in Massachusetts and was the first official recognition of Ohabei Shalom as a religious institution.

Warren Street Synagogue

In the following year, on March 22, 1845, having forty members, the congregation obtained a charter of incorporation from the Commonwealth. Among early meeting places were a room in Rabbi Saling’s house on Carver Street in Boston and a rented house on Albany Street. By 1851, the congregation had grown to eighty families, and erected a building on Warren Street (now Warrenton Street) in Boston’s South End, the first synagogue structure in Massachusetts to be consecrated (1852). “Worthy fellow citizens of every Religious Denominations” and the “Israelites of the United States” responded to an appeal for donations.

Union Park Street Synagogue

The next home for Ohabei Shalom, from 1863-1886, situated diagonally opposite from the first synagogue, was the building that now houses the Charles Playhouse on Warrenton Street. In 1887 the congregation moved to still larger quarters on Union Park Street in the heart of the South End.

The land for the present Brookline edifice was purchased in 1921. The Marshall Street building, which houses our religious school and the Montague Chapel, was constructed in 1925. The major Byzantine-Romanesque edifice, the domed Sanctuary, was completed in 1928. The great synagogue at Florence, Italy is said to have been the inspiration for Boston architects, Blackall, Clapp and Whittemore.

The Ohabei Shalom Sanctuary

During the last two decades major restorations have been made to the entire complex of buildings. The latest changes include a new copper dome, topped by a custom-designed seven foot menorah. In addition, the interior of our Sanctuary has been completely renovated to reveal its original beauty.

info@ohabei.org   |   1187 Beacon Street   |   Brookline, MA 02446   |   Tel: 617.277.6610

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