Many of the original congregants of Har Sinai Congregation came from what was then the
Orthodox Congregation Nidchei Yisroel (later known as the
Baltimore Hebrew Congregation), after Rabbi
Abraham Rice protested against the performance of
Masonic rites at the funeral service of one of its members. The synagogue was originally known as the Har Sinai Verein (Society). Abram Hutzler, founder of the business that became the progenitor of
Hutzler's department store and whose father,
Moses Hutzler was a co-founder of the temple, described Har Sinai's earliest practices as "almost orthodox, with covered heads, the separation of the sexes, and the use of 'a
Shabbos goy' to light the fires." "In 1849, the Congregation built its own temple on High Street in Baltimore and acquired a cemetery." The synagogue purchased a property in the northwestern neighborhood of
Park Heights from the Maryland Country Club, with a new synagogue dedicated in 1938. A $1 million fundraising program was begun in 1953 by Rabbi Abraham Shusterman. A design modeled on
Cleveland's
Park Synagogue was created, and following groundbreaking in September 1957, the new structure, the Congregation's fourth home, Owings Mills was chosen as the site of a satellite Hebrew school in 1988 and a structure was completed there in 2002. He also founded "Sinai", a
German language newspaper created to promote the Reform movement. In 1861, Einhorn delivered a sermon in which he argued against the institution of slavery in the South as being inconsistent with Jewish values, noting the Jewish experience as slaves in Egypt, despite the fact that many were sympathetic to slavery in what was then a
slave state. A riot broke out in response to his sermon on April 19, 1861, in which the mob sought to
tar and feather the rabbi. Solomon Deutsch served as the congregation's rabbi from 1862 to 1874.
Emil G. Hirsch, son-in-law of David Einhorn, succeeded Mayer as Rabbi, serving in the position in 1877 and 1878. Samuel Sale was hired in 1878 as the congregation's fifth rabbi and the first to be born in the United States. After receiving his
rabbinic ordination in 1883 as one of the first four graduates of
Hebrew Union College, David Philipson was named as Har Sinai's rabbi in 1884, and served in the position until 1888.
Tobias Schanfarber then served as rabbi from 1888 to 1898. From 1920 to 1922, the rabbi was Louis Bernstein. He died suddenly, after being ill for several months. Prior to his death, he had become one of the first Jewish clergy to give a radio talk. He gave a "wireless sermon" over local amateur radio station 3RM on November 20, 1921. Rabbi Edward L. Israel was installed as Har Sinai's rabbi in late August 1923. Rabbi Israel also embraced broadcasting and was heard on the air on numerous occasions in the mid-1920s. Rabbi Israel served for 18 years, and was subsequently elected as President of the Synagogue Council of America. Floyd L. Herman served as the congregation's rabbi from 1981 to 2003, and subsequently as Rabbi Emeritus. Benjamin Sharff, who was ordained at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, served as rabbi from 2010 until the congregation's merger in 2019. == History of Temple Oheb Shalom ==