About Us
During the summer of 1959, two Jewish young women, who were in Chautauqua studying music, made inquiries and discovered that there was a synagogue in Jamestown. They asked whether they might attend Friday night services. Their housemother helped them to contact the Rabbi of Jamestown, who agreed to come to Chautauqua for a Saturday morning service. The two young women posted signs around the Institute and on Saturday morning 35 people came to the first Jewish service in the Hall of Missions. The Hebrew Congregation was formally established in 1960, and celebrated its 50th Anniversary on the grounds of Chautauqua Institution in 2010. Throughout the years, the support and encouragement from the Chautauqua Administration and Department of Religion have been essential to our success.
The Hebrew Congregation holds Friday evening services at the lake (near the Bell Tower) and Saturday morning services at the Hurlbut Sanctuary. For in-person and online services and gatherings, see our Schedule page. We enable members of the Jewish Community to observe life cycle events, such as saying Kaddish, commemorating Anniversaries and Birthdays at Services, and having a Bar or Bat Mitzvah. We have a Sunday night Speaker series. It is named after Shirley Lazarus, who organized this highly successful program. Our Tuesday afternoon social hour, named for former President Eva Rosenberg, is held at the Everett Center. We also have Community Shabbat dinners twice per season, held at the Athenaeum Hotel.
Additionally, we contribute to the larger Chautauqua Community through financial support of the Everett Center, Hurlbut Church and Department of Religion. The Everett Center and Hurlbut Church provide us with facilities for our programs and the Department of Religion provides an organizational home within the Chautauqua Institution. We made an extraordinary contribution to the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation in 2020.
We contribute to the larger Chautauqua County community through funding the Holocaust and Social Justice Education Program of Chautauqua County directed by Leigh-Anne Hendrick and Emily Dorman, teachers at Chautauqua Lake Central School. See the May 17, 2023 article in The Post-Journal, and August 27, 2023 article in the Chautaquan Daily..