| Building Name: | Young Israel Shomrai Emunah |
| Image Upright: | 1.4 |
| Map Type: | USA Maryland |
| Map Size: | 250 |
| Map Relief: | 1 |
| Location: | 1132 Arcola Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland, 20902 |
| Country: | United States |
| Coordinates: | 39.041°N -77.0292°W |
| Religious Affiliation: | Orthodox Judaism |
| Rite: | Nusach Ashkenaz, Nusach Sefard, and Sephardi |
| Status: | Synagogue |
| Functional Status: | Active |
| Architecture Type: | Synagogue |
| Established: | 1951 |
| Year Completed: | 1960 |
| Interior Area: | 19158square feet |
| Specifications: | no |
| Footnotes: | [1] |
Young Israel Shomrai Emunah (abbreviated as YISE) is an Orthodox synagogue located at 1132 Arcola Avenue, in Kemp Mill,[2] [3] Montgomery County, Maryland, in the United States. Established as a congregation in 1951, it was the first Orthodox synagogue established in Montgomery County.[4] It is one of the largest Orthodox synagogues in Maryland and is recognized as a key synagogue in the Silver Spring, Maryland area.[5]
The synagogue provides a full range of religious and social services, such a nursery school,[6] banquet hall for weddings,[7] prayer services for Sephardi Jews,[8] assistance with job hunting,[9] notable guest speakers from the Jewish world, such as a Silver Spring native Lazer Brody who joined the Breslov Hasidim.[10] Young Israel has seven different services each Shabbat morning, from a minyan in the Sephardi tradition to one for early risers. All services are under the same roof.
The synagogue is affiliated with the National Council of Young Israel.[11] [12] The synagogue has sponsored Jewish educational activities with other local Orthodox institutions such as The Greater Washington Community Kollel.[13] It offers a variety of programs such as for senior citizens in conjunction with the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington.[14] It is also affiliated with the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington.[15]
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[16] ...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."[17]
Congregation Shomrai Emunah was established in 1951 when several Jews formed a worship group in Chillum, Maryland.[18] Rabbi Abraham A. Kellner was the first spiritual adviser.[18] [19]
Services were originally held in members' homes.[18] Later on, the congregation held services in a Veterans of Foreign Wars lodge,[20] and then used rented space at Chillum Castle at Chillum and Riggs roads that was owned by a Masonic lodge.[18]
In 1955, Congregation Shomrai Emunah began raising $75,000 of funds to build its own synagogue.[19] Land on the Maryland side of Eastern Avenue near Oglethorpe Road was purchased,[21] and a groundbreaking ceremony was held on May 12, 1957.[19] Approximately one-hundred families were members of Congregation Shomrai Emunah at the time.[19]
The synagogue was dedicated on December 22, 1957.[22] Rabbi Gedaliah Anemer led the ceremony, having become Shomrai Emunah's spiritual leader earlier that year.[23]
In the early 1960s, there was a trend of residents moving further into suburbs of Washington, D.C.[24] With many of its members no longer living within walking distance to Shomrai Emunah's synagogue, attendance on Shabbat decreased significantly.[24]
Rabbi Anemer bought a house near Kemp Mill, Maryland, and he began holding Shabbat services there every other week.[24] When attendance at Rabbi Anemer's home quickly became too large for the space, Shomrai Emunah built a new synagogue on nearby University Boulevard.[25] [24] Orthodox Jewish congregation in Montgomery County.[25] [26] [27] Shomrai Emunah later started another service at a member's home in the Montgomery Knolls area of Silver Spring.[24]
By the late 1960s, the synagogue's membership outgrew the synagogue in Kemp Mill, so its membership raised funds to build a second, larger building in Kemp Mill. Rabbi Anemer established a religious school for girls in 1964.[28] A religious school for boys opened the following year.[28] On April 29, 1973, Shomrai Emunah held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new synagogue at Arcola Avenue and Lamberton Drive in Kemp Mill.[29] The synagogue opened the following year.[28]
Rabbi Anemer died on April 15, 2010. He held the position of rabbi for 52 years.[27] [30] He was succeeded by Rabbi Dovid Rosenbaum,[28] who was officially installed on November 20, 2010.[31]