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On February 3, Shaare Tefila Congregation, a 58-year old egalitarian, participatory, and socially conscious Conservative Jewish religious body, and recognized leader within the Conservative movement over the years, received an overwhelming vote of confidence from its members, in support of its future fiscally conservative building plans. The vote occurred at a special Congregation meeting held at Tikvat Israel Congregation in Rockville, MD.           

Eighty-four percent of the members present (or 148 of 176) voted (after extensive discussion of options, and answering of numerous questions) in favor of a motion brought to them by the Congregation’s Board of Directors. That motion requested permission to let the leadership approach a design firm and builder (as a replacement for its previous plans), and build a house of worship at a “not to exceed” cost better fitting Shaare Tefila’s current assets, yet still one meeting its needs and having a potential for expansion.           

In no more than two months after receiving the schematic design, Shaare Tefila expects to hold another Congregation meeting. That meeting would be to vote on signing a contract for going forward with construction based on the design. The synagogue has been told that such a process from beginning of design to occupancy is estimated to take no more than 18 months.           

As with its former building plans (which were found to be unaffordable), Shaare Tefila’s future home will be at the property it fully owns, 16620 Georgia Avenue in Olney, Maryland 20832. The 4.09-acre site is located on Georgia Avenue directly across from the Olney Manor Recreational Park and the Olney Indoor Swim Center, north of Norbeck Road (Route 28) and just north of Emory Lane. That places it close to several growing, residential communities: Greater Olney, Rockville, Aspen Hill, the Leisure World senior citizen community, and Burtonsville.           

Based on its current goals, Shaare Tefila’s house of worship still is intended to be a structure with a potential for expansion, as membership grows and additional funds become available. It initially would have the following major components and features:

• Be approximately 20,000 square feet in size
• A Sanctuary holding at least 300 persons
• A Social hall seating 200-250 people for dinner purposes
• A 50-60 seat chapel useful for religious services
• Six Nursery School classrooms and six Religious School classrooms
• 120 parking spaces, compared with 85 in its previous Lockwood Drive location, and
• Other features, including a Bride’s room, Sukkot area, Youth activity center, meeting room, library, offices, and memorial alcove.         

Shaare Tefila’s future house of worship represents an exciting, historical event: the third such building in its 58-year-old history, and one that comes after years of frustrating obstacles and detours. It will produce, as Rabbi Jonah Layman, Shaare Tefila’s rabbi since 1994, recently pointed out: “a beautiful structure that will not only satisfy our religious, educational and social needs, but will also provide a secure foundation for the future. . . support and encouragement to grow in all aspects of Jewish identity. . .We want to make sure that a new generation of Jews can call Shaare Tefila home.” 

These goals are likely to be reached when the construction process is completed. The site’s being much larger than its past location in the White Oak neighborhood of Silver Spring represents an excellent opportunity to substantially expand the caliber of religious, educational, cultural, and social programs it already offers its members. It now can also provide those for the Greater Olney/Rockville Community. As Bess Teller, President, recently put it: “We’ve been a fully functioning synagogue in multiple locations. We have held on with this ‘Wandering Jew’ concept, but we’ve kept our core constituency and we provide all the services and programming of other congregations our size and larger.” She also termed the synagogue’s present congregant base of about 260 families as “loyal and devoted.”

For some time, passers-by have been able to see a sign erected on the Georgia Avenue site in Olney, announcing that it would be Shaare Tefila’s “future home.” Now it can be said that Shaare Tefila’s wanderings will soon end. For further information about Shaare Tefila’s future plans, please contact Bess Teller, President, through the Synagogue Office at 301-593-3410.

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