In partnership with URJ, we are able to provide a series of classes for interfaith couples to talk with one another about the challenges they face and the solutions they have discovered.
Our Partnerships
We are proud to be an active member organization of GBIO, who works to coalesce, train, and organize the communities of Greater Boston across religious, racial, ethnic, class, and neighborhood lines for the public good.
We are proud to be one of MASCO’s 22 member organizations dedicated to enhancing Boston’s Longwood Medical and Academic area for the benefit of those who live, work, study or receive care there.
Since 2004, Temple Israel has been home to Beacon Academy, a ground breaking education program, which is the first of its kind in the nation. Founded by Cindy Laba and one of our Temple Israel members, Marsha Feinberg, Beacon Academy is a 14-month “jump year” that prepares Boston area eighth graders for admission to and success in competitive independent high schools.
For more than 25 years, we have partnered with CJP to create meaningful opportunities for Jewish life in Greater Boston. We look forward to continuing to work together to build a vibrant Jewish community.
We are proud that Rabbi Jonah Pesner, who inspired the work of Ohel Tzedek at Temple Israel, and brought the techniques of faith-based community organizing into our synagogue, was recently installed as Director of the RAC.
Temple Israel works closely with the JCRC to encourage lawmakers to strengthen the social safety net for all members of the Commonwealth.
The Ruderman Synagogue Inclusion Project (RSIP) is a partnership between CJP and the Ruderman Family Foundation to support synagogues in creating communities where people of all abilities are valued equally and participate fully.
Our Neighborhood
Temple Israel is an historic, urban synagogue that’s easily accessible via public transportation, car, or by foot. We’re nestled between Riverway Parkway and Longwood Avenue, only steps from the many prestigious institutions in the Longwood Medical Area. Please come and visit us and experience our community first-hand!
Our continuous presence in the City of Boston for over 160 years distinguishes us as one of Boston’s iconic religious institutions. Throughout our history, which began before the American Civil War, we have sought to respond, in each era, to the question, how do we demonstrate our connection to, lead and serve the myriad communities to which we are attached? We first entered the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now, the Union for Reform Judaism) in 1894. For the past 88 years, we have had a presence on this corner of the Riverway and Longwood Avenue, in Roxbury; from this vantage point, we have built enduring relationships within the circles of Civic, Interfaith, Jewish and Reform Jewish organizational life. From this perch, we have united with others to actively express ourselves as rodfei tzedek, pursuers of justice, ohavei tzion, lovers of the people Israel, gomlei hesed, agents of lovingkindness, limudei Torah, students of Torah, and yirei Adonai, those who revere the Eternal. The connecting link between our congregation and the communities with which we affiliate are a reminder, in the words of an early Israeli folksong (Rad Halaila) “ki darkeinu ein lah sof, for our path has no end, ki od nimshechet hashalshelet, for the chain still continues.” We are engaged with and inspired by the partners that we have chosen.
Rabbi Ronne Friedman,
Rabbi Emeritus