Welcome to Chizuk Amuno Congregation, a community of Jewish people who come together for worship, learning and celebration. From our humble beginnings on Exeter Street in downtown Baltimore in 1871, to our current campus in Pikesville, Chizuk Amuno has continued to serve the needs of Baltimore’s Jewish community and the community at large by meeting the religious, educational, cultural and social needs of our congregants.
With a long history of service to the Baltimore Jewish community, Chizuk Amuno is an egalitarian, Conservative congregation, a founding member of the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism and a strong supporter of the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Committed to a partnership of shared values and behavior between the home and synagogue that enriches the lives of our members, we encourage you to take a closer look at what we can offer you, your family, and your future.
Chizuk Amuno Congregation is more than a synagogue. We are more than a collection of spaces and an assemblage of people. We are a living, breathing, growing institution – more than the sum of daily prayer services and religious festivals, affiliate groups and community service programs. We are more than our educational offerings – more than a preschool, a day school, a religious school and high school enrichment programs. We are more than a center for adult education. We are more than a museum. We are all these things. More than that, we are a place where members, wherever they are in their journey as Jews, are invited to participate, to celebrate, and to explore what it means to live a Jewish life in relationship to God.
What defines us is a living commitment to Jewish practice. A Conservative synagogue, we observe Jewish law in our daily lives. We worship together. We read Torah. We find meaning in the spiritual experiences of ritual, tradition, and prayer, in text and in song. We ponder the future of Judaism, of the Jewish people, and of the world.
Each of us finds strength in belonging to this community. As a congregation we aspire to become a model of what the greater society ought to be.
Chizuk Amuno Congregation (from the Hebrew meaning “strengthening the faith”), was founded in Baltimore on April 1, 1871. Twenty-three devoted individuals envisioned that their fledgling new congregation would perpetuate traditional Judaism by strengthening the faith and nurturing the religious development of its members through adherence to Judaism’s central ideals of Torah (learning), Avodah (worship), and Gemilut Hasadim (acts of loving kindness).
On August 18, 1876, Rev. Dr. Henry W. Schneeberger officiated at the dedication of the Congregation’s first permanent synagogue, located on Lloyd Street. Schneeberger, the first American-born, ordained rabbi to serve in the United States, was hired to open a daily religious school for children, deliver sermons on Shabbat and festivals, and conduct adult learning sessions. The Congregation soon outgrew the Lloyd Street building and then a larger facility on McCulloh Street. Rabbi Adolph Coblenz assumed spiritual leadership in 1920 as Chizuk Amuno moved into its new synagogue on Eutaw Place. With Rabbi Coblenz’s support and guidance from Talmudic scholars, in December 1947, congregants voted to adopt mixed seating. Chizuk Amuno is a founding member of the Conservative movement, the Jewish Theological Seminary, and United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.
In 1948, Rabbi Israel M. Goldman succeeded the ailing Rabbi Coblenz and established Chizuk Amuno’s first Adult Jewish Institute, Laymen’s Weekend Retreat, and Interfaith Service. Planning a suburban campus large enough to house a Social Center, School Building, and Sanctuary, in 1953 the Congregation purchased a plot of undeveloped land on Stevenson Road in Baltimore County. By 1968, Chizuk Amuno had transitioned all Congregational activities to its current 30-acre complex.
Rabbi Joel H. Zaiman began his tenure at Chizuk Amuno in 1980. Determined to intensify learning opportunities for both children and adults, Rabbi Zaiman expanded adult education programming and initiated the Board’s decision to open a day school in 1981. Following Rabbi Zaiman’s retirement, Rabbi Ronald J. Shulman was elected spiritual leader of Chizuk Amuno from 2004 -2017. Rabbi Joshua Z. Gruenberg began his tenure as Senior Rabbi in July 2018.
Each rabbi’s tenure has been marked by congregational accomplishments in education, communal service, support for the land of Israel, and significant contributions to the Jewish community in Baltimore and around the world. Chizuk Amuno Congregation has made, and continues to make, its mark on the history of American Jewry.
