Welcome to Temple Sinai!

Established in 1962, Temple Sinai is a Reform synagogue of approximately 160 households composed of individuals and families of many varieties. We welcome all visitors and residents of Northern Nevada to any of our ongoing programs, worship services, and other activities.

Reform Judaism began in Reno, Nevada, in 1939, when a small group of Jewish women and men discovered that a local bookstore operater was actually an ordained Reform rabbi. Rabbi Joseph Gumbiner had given up the active rabbinate and was operating a bookstore on Virginia Street in the Masonic Building near First Street and the Truckee River Bridge. Rabbi Gumbiner agreed to conduct a book review group with those Jews who had found him. They were Becky and Milton Gumbert, Leah and Bill Garell, Abe and Rae Melner, Olga and Don Berman, Rowena and Leo Ginsburg, Ed and Laura Ginsburg, Isobel and Jack Sloat, Bert Goldwater and his sister Sylvia Anapolsky, and Paul and Lillian Rubin.

Judaism in Reno had a long history going back prior to 1900. Congregation Temple Emanu-El, then an Orthodox synagogue, had been built in 1921. While regularly used for Jewish social events, religious services were held there only on the High Holy Days and Passover. A visiting rabbi and/or cantor were hired for these occasions. In 1939, Temple Emanu-El hired a part-time Rabbi as its spiritual leader.

Those young couples, who had discovered Rabbi Gumbiner, were not satisfied with the available Orthodoxy. Rabbi Gumbiner gradually assumed professional leadership of Reno’s growing Reform movement, abandoning his business enterprise. In 1940, his book review group became the core of a new Reform congregation, Temple Beth Or.

Temple Beth Or’s Friday evening services were first held at a dancing school on Cheney Street. Worship then moved to the Knights of Pythias Hall on 5th and North Virginia. The mother of a New York divorcee, who was befriended by the congregation, presented Beth Or with a Torah that today resides in the ark of Temple Sinai.

Rabbi Gumbiner soon accepted a full-time rabbinic offer in Tucson, Arizona. Through the good offices of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (the name of the national Reform movement at that time), Rabbi Hans Zucker, a German refugee, arrived by train, with his family, to lead Beth Or. In 1945, Zucker moved to another rabbinic position in Alameda, California.

Temple Emanu-El had not, at this time, had the services of a full-time Rabbi. Temple Beth Or’s small membership made it difficult for that congregation to retain rabbinic services as well. Hence, leaders of both congregations met and decided upon a merger. Emanu-El abandoned its minhag as a traditional, orthodox synagogue. Beth Or gave up its charter as a Reform congregation. The two joined together in the Conservative movement in 1946. They met at Emanu-El’s synagogue at First and West Streets. They used the Conservative prayer book and eventually hired a Conservative rabbi.

The merger, however, did not last. In April, 1962, a group of the Reform members of the congregation resigned their memberships and, by June, were meeting to investigate forming a Reform congregation. This group included Bea and Gene Brown, Harry and Hannah Chernus, Ruth and Louis Dickens, Sam and Judy Cantor, Stanley and Frances Field, Leah and Bill Garell, Becky and Milton Gumbert, Rube and Nan Goldwater, Jake and Mary Garfinkle, and Ethel and George Jaffe. With help from Rabbi Joseph Glaser, the UAHC’s Northern Pacific Regional Director in San Francisco, the group was welcomed into the Reform movement. The goal was for the newly-formed congregation, named Temple Sinai (as suggested by Gene Brown), to be ready to conduct High Holy Day services in September of 1962. Arrangements were made to hold that High Holy Day worship, and future Friday night Sabbath services, in the Virginia City Room of the Masonic Temple at First Street and South Virginia. Louis Dickens started building a portable Ark in the basement of his home. Gene Brown made a hurried trip to San Francisco to borrow a Torah . (Beth Or’s Torahs had not yet been obtained from Emanu-El). Mary Garfinkle acquired Jan Peerce’s recording of Kol Nidre for Yom Kippur and practiced getting the proper staring point on the record. Louis Dickens was elected Sinai’s first president. An organ was purchased with donations by family and friends in memory of Esther Goldwater. A choir was formed under the direction of Milton Gumbert, and an organist was hired. Except for a paid soloist that choir was entirely volunteer, consisting of Leah and Bill Garell, Mary Garfinkle, Ethel Jaffe, Judy and Sam Cantor, Hannah Chernus, Lillian Rubin, and Lois Dickens. A Sisterhood was soon formed with Frances Fielding as its first president.

Ethel Jaffe began Bar/Bat Mitzvah training at her home with son Steve Jaffe as her first Bar Mitzvah the following spring. Jeff Zentner and Dan Garfinkle soon followed. Soon a staff of teachers joined Ethel and space was rented at the YMCA for Religious School. Student response was good. But the classrooms at the Y were so cold that school sessions were transferred to the Garfinkle and Zentner homes.

Because of a fire in the Masonic Building in 1965, Temple Sinai was compelled to find another place to meet. The Reno Musician’s Hall was the synagogue’s second temporary home from 1965-1970. Rabbi Julius Liebert, the twice-monthly visiting Rabbi during Sinai’s time at the Masonic Building, had presented his personal Torah scroll to the congregation. That scroll moved, with the congregation, to the Musician’s Hall and remains the regularly-used Sefer Torah of Temple Sinai today.

Temple Sinai’s first Building Fund Drive was already underway. Louis Dickens offered the congregation a 2.96-acre parcel of land in northwest Reno for $8000. At the time, this was land “far out” of town. Nonetheless, this offer was accepted. George Sirott, a Philadelphia developer and a congregant, offered to provide a crew, foreman, and plans for the synagogue building. The Board, however, tabled this offer; and when Mr. and Mrs. Sirott left Reno and returned to Philadelphia, this opportunity also departed.

Still, the congregation needed its own building. $25,000 was already in the bank for just this purpose. A contractor was hired. Plans were presented. A quote of $45,000 was accepted, and ground was broken for Sinai’s original building in February, 1970. Landscaping and planting was supervised, and often literally done, by Jake Garfinkle with Religious School students’ help. The Masonic Lodge conducted an impressive cornerstone laying ceremony in July, 1970. Sinai’s first worship service, in its new synagogue home, was held in August, 1970. High Holiday services followed in September. Rabbi Gumbiner succeeded Rabbi Liebert as the twice-monthly visiting rabbi for several years. The congregation’s $28,000 mortgage – a paltry sum today, but a considerable amount in the early 1970s – was paid off in 5 years.

The congregation had a lively well-attended Religious School under the supervision of Ethel Jaffe who also continued her in-home B’nai Mitzvah training. Martha Gould, and then Eric Hobson, followed as supervisors of the Religious School. An Adult Study Group was formed under the direction of Abe Melner.

Since a full-time rabbi was beyond the congregation’s financial reach, the decision was made to obtain student rabbis from the Hebrew Union College. Those Student Rabbis came twice-monthly, from Friday afternoon to Sunday evening, to serve as spiritual leader. Michael Berk was the first. He was followed by Jeff Perry-Marx, David Katz, Aaron Petuchowski, and Sandy Axelrad. Additionally, Rabbi Abraham Feinberg, retired from the rabbinate but living in Reno, was available for weddings and other occasions as needed.

In 1982, Sinai hired its first full-time rabbi, Paul Tuchman. This was a time of considerable membership growth. After 2 years, Rabbi Tuchman left Reno for a congregation in Alabama. In 1984, Temple Sinai hired Myra Soifer as its rabbi.

Temple Sinai and Temple Emanu-El share sacred cemetery ground in Reno’s Hebrew Cemetery on Angel Street in the University area of Reno. From 1962, during the time that Temple Sinai and Temple Emanu -El jointly administered Reno’s Hebrew Cemetery on Angel Street, Jake Garfinkle was Sinai’s Cemetery Chairman. Mary Garfinkle kept the cemetery records, while son Dan was caretaker of the grounds. Victor Wolfe and then Mel Gordon were Cemetery Chairmen for Temple Emanu-El. In recent years, the Hebrew Cemetery has become a separate incorporated entity, and Steve Matles is Sinai’s primary Cemetery Board member and administrator.

Under Rabbi Soifer’s leadership, Sinai grew – especially the Religious School – and classroom space became a pressing need. In 1991, a quarter million dollar building project added six classrooms including a library/Board room, which doubled as a small social hall space. Steve Matles, as Building Chair, along with his committee and under the presidential leadership of Alan Gertler, brought this project to completion. Once again, sufficient pledges were raised and collected to retire this new building’s mortgage in some very few years.

Sinai has continued to outgrow its space and, as the 20th century was drawing to a close, dreams and planning began for another building expansion. These plans came to joyous completion with the dedication of a new building and renovated sanctuary and office space on April 6, 2008. The new building includes two large classrooms, a wonderful social hall, and a beautiful new kitchen. With the new building, the congregation’s physical plant has doubled in size and now has an impressive and recognizable street presence. Additionally, the library in the classroom wing has been re-done and its impressive collection of Judaica will soon be computerized and available as a Jewish resource for the entire community. Finally, Sinai’s sanctuary has been renovated and slightly expanded, as has the lobby and offices. The congregation looks very much forward to having sufficient space for High Holiday worship, for an on-site Passover Seder , and for life cycle celebrations of every kind. The social hall promises to allow for programming of value both to the congregation and to the wider community.

Rabbi Myra Soifer retired on June 30, 2009, after twenty-five years of service, and now holds the title of Rabbi Emerita. On July 1st, 2009, Temple Sinai hired Rabbi Teri Appleby as its new Rabbi.

Temple Sinai continues forward as a vibrant, ever-growing, and proud Jewish home for Reform Judaism in Northern Nevada. Our dreams for the future are only just beginning.