Temple Emanuel (Worcester, Massachusetts)

Temple Emanuel Sinai is a medium-sized Reform Jewish synagogue located in Worcester, Massachusetts, New England's second largest city .A product of the 2013 integration of Worcester's two original Reform congregations, the synagogue traces its roots to 1921 and is affiliated with the Union for Reform Judaism, a network of over 900 progressive congregations representing the largest denomination of affiliated American Jews.The congregation worships and studies in a pair of buildings at 661 Salisbury Street, adjacent to the Worcester Jewish Community Center, where Temple Sinai acquired property for its permanent home in 1962. Temple Emanuel's building at 280 May Street was sold to the Worcester State University Foundation in 2013, though the terms of the sale allowed the congregation to use the building for two additional years, until June 2015. Planning to determine a final siting for the synagogue concluded during the fall of 2014, resulting in a plan to expand and renovate the Temple Sinai facility at 661 Salisbury Street .Temple Emanuel Sinai's first rabbi, Matthew Berger, also served as the last rabbi of Temple Emanuel, who hired him in 2009. In February 2014, Rabbi Valerie Cohen, spiritual leader since 2003 at Jackson, Mississippi's Beth Israel Congregation accepted an offer to replace Berger at the end of his contract in June 2014. A near-unanimous vote in favor of ratifying Rabbi Cohen's contract was held during a special congregational meeting at the May Street campus on March 9, 2014.