Synagogues  /  Congregation Shir Shalom

Overview

After a series of member and leadership discussions conducted over the course of more than a year, Temple Sinai and Temple Beth Am made the historic decision to form a wholly new type of congregation. Separately each identified with a different stream of Judaism. Temple Sinai was founded as the sole Reconstructionist orientated congregation in Greater Buffalo in the 1950s, and was the first suburban congregation. Temple Beth Am was a Reform congregation from its inception and also the first suburban Reform congregation wholly founded and located in the suburbs. Uniquely, rather than choosing one stream over the other, members determined to become the world’s first jointly constituted Reconstructionist-Reform congregation. With a goal of embracing aspects of both of these separate philosophies and traditions, members agreed to enshrine both Reform and Reconstructionist Jewish practice within their new merged congregation constitution and synagogue practice. Unlike the practice of most merged congregations in Buffalo and beyond, who often created a hyphenated or combination name, in keeping with this entirely new path, members embraced a new name that did not draw from either of their previous names. Both synagogues dropped the word Temple from their name—a name often conjuring a specific building physical space. Instead they chose the name “congregation,” that also signified their aspiration for unity. Like many of the other synagogue names from the old East Side and North Buffalo, the rest of their name was also intentional:  Shir Shalom “Song of Peace”.

From 2011, Rabbi Irwin Tanenbaum of Temple Beth Am and Rabbi Alex Lazarus-Klein and Cantor Sharon Colbert of Temple Sinai, and congregational laities and leaderships worked to bring about a merger of Temple Beth Am and Temple Sinai. Both Rabbis led as co-rabbis in the new congregation. On the retirement of Rabbi Tanenbaum, Rabbi Lazarus-Klein became the Congregation’s sole senior rabbi.

More recently, Congregation Shir Shalom hired Arlene Frank as their Cantor. The congregation has maintained and developed its social action and interfaith emphases in areas that each had special interest in before their merger including food security and refugee support. In addition, both former temples had enjoyed a connection with Cantor Susan Wehle, who was tragically killed on flight 3407 in 2009. Cantor Wehle had worked as a cantorial soloist at Temple Sinai prior to her appointment at Temple Beth Am. Since its merger, Congregation Shir Shalom has positioned itself as a distinctive multigenerational congregation, “embracing uniqueness and unity,“ for a diverse range of Jewish Buffalonians.