| Building Name: | The Shul of Bal Harbour |
| Image Upright: | 1.4 |
| Map Type: | Florida |
| Map Size: | 250 |
| Map Relief: | 1 |
| Location: | 9540 Collins Ave, Surfside, Miami-Dade County, South Florida |
| Country: | United States |
| Geo: | 25.8858°N -80.1227°W |
| Religious Affiliation: | Hasidic Judaism |
| Status: | Synagogue |
| Functional Status: | Active |
| Leadership: | Rabbi Sholom D. Lipskar |
| Established: | 1969 |
| Year Completed: | 1994 |
The Shul of Bal Harbour is a Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in Surfside, in the Miami-Dade County of South Florida, in the United States. In 2009, the congregation was named by Newsweek as one of America's 25 most vibrant congregations.[1]
The Shul was founded by Rabbi Sholom Lipskar,[2] who was sent in 1969 as an emissary of the Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneersohn, to Miami Beach.[3]
After finding no active Jewish community in the Surfside area, Lipskar initially met in hotel rooms before moving to a storefront.[4] [5]
In the early 1980s, Surfside was not welcoming to Jews with real-estate agents refusing to deal with Jewish clients. In 1982 the local Bal Harbor Club dropped its policy banning Jewish and Black people after a discrimination lawsuit.[6]
The Shul moved to its current site in 1987.
The synagogue building was opened in 1994, in time for Rosh Hashanah, and cost $9 million, and is in area.[7] The building is colonnaded and the design resembles ancient Jerusalem sandstone.
In 2016, The Shul announced a expansion at the cost of $20 million to be finished in two years. The expansion included an all-glass wall high social hall with glass ceilings accommodating crowds of up to 700 people.
The congregation membership has 700 families representing 3,000 people. Programming includes adult education, programs for Latin American Jewry, early childhood, and five daily minyans.[8]
The Shul is also the headquarters for the Aleph Institute, an organization assisting Jewish prisoners and military personnel, also founded by Lipskar.
After the Surfside condominium collapse, The Shul raised over $500,000 for families of the victims and distributed aid to displaced community members.[9] [10] [11]