The Shul was founded by Rabbi Sholom Lipskar,[2] who was sent in 1969 as an emissary of the Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneersohn, to Miami Beach.[3]
After finding no active Jewish community in the Surfside area, Lipskar initially met in hotel rooms before moving to a storefront.[3][4][5]
In the early 1980s, Surfside was not welcoming to Jews with real-estate agents refusing to deal with Jewish clients. In 1982 the local Bal Harbor Club dropped its policy banning Jewish and Black people after a discrimination lawsuit.[6][4]
The synagogue building was opened in 1994, in time for Rosh Hashanah, and cost $9 million, and is 3,200 m2 (34,000 sq ft) in area.[7] The building is colonnaded and the design resembles ancient Jerusalem sandstone.[4]
In 2016, The Shul announced a 3,700 m2 (40,000 sq ft) expansion at the cost of $20 million to be finished in two years. The expansion included an all-glass wall 12 m (40 ft) high social hall with glass ceilings accommodating crowds of up to 700 people.[4]
Membership and services
Logo of the congregation
The congregation membership has 700 families representing 3,000 people. Programming includes adult education, programs for Latin American Jewry, early childhood, and five daily minyans.[4][8]
The Shul is also the headquarters for the Aleph Institute, an organization assisting Jewish prisoners and military personnel, also founded by Lipskar.
After the Surfside condominium collapse, The Shul raised over $500,000 for families of the victims and distributed aid to displaced community members.[9][10][11]
