Beth Shalom Congregation is a Conservative synagogue in

Columbia, Maryland Columbia is a census-designated place in Howard County, Maryland, Howard County, Maryland. It is one of the principal communities of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. It is a planned community consisting of 10 self-contained villages ...

. It is the only Conservative congregation in

Howard County, Maryland Howard County is located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2010 census, the population was 287,085. As of the 2020 census its population rose to 328,200. Its county seat is Ellicott City. Howard County is included in the Baltimore-C ...

History

When the town of

, was formed in the 1960s, in accordance with an idea of

James Rouse James Wilson Rouse (April 26, 1914 – April 9, 1996) was an American businessman and founder of The Rouse Company. Rouse was a pioneering American real estate developer, urban planner, civic activist, and later, free enterprise-based philant ...

, an Interfaith Center was created where all

places of worship A place of worship is a specially designed structure or space where individuals or a group of people such as a congregation come to perform acts of devotion, veneration, or religious study. A building constructed or used for this purpose is somet ...

in the town would initially share a hall. The attempt to first organize a Jewish community in the Columbia area began in 1967. Temple Solel (now known as Temple Isaiah) became the area's

Reform temple A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of wors ...

, and Beth Shalom became the area's Conservative congregation. Both have since obtained their own buildings. Beth Shalom was founded in 1969. It has since grown to approximately 250 families.

Spiritual leaders

The original spiritual leader was the late Rabbi Noah Golinkin, who was hired in 1978. Rabbi Kenneth Cohen was the second spiritual leader, who assumed the position in 1986. The third spiritual leader of Beth Shalom was Rabbi Susan Grossman, who has held the position from 1997 to 2022. Grossman was ordained in 1985 and is considered unusual for being a female rabbi in the Conservative movement from that generation. Grossman is known for authoring works on the Conservative view of

ritual purity Ritual purification is the ritual prescribed by a religion by which a person is considered to be free of ''uncleanliness'', especially prior to the worship of a deity, and ritual purity is a state of ritual cleanliness. Ritual purification may ...

.Ellen M. Umansky and Dianne Ashton, ed. (2009)
''Four Centuries of Jewish Women's Spirituality'', p. 194.
Brandeis University Press, Lebanon, New Hampshire.

References

External links

*{{official website, https://beth-shalom.net/ Columbia, Maryland Conservative synagogues in Maryland Howard County, Maryland landmarks Religious buildings and structures in Howard County, Maryland Jewish organizations established in 1969