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Mount Sinai Congregation

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1924, George L. Harvey. 903 Court St.
  • (Photograph by Dustin Tiemeyer)
  • (Photograph by Dustin Tiemeyer)

One of the few outstate Michigan synagogues to remain Orthodox, Mount Sinai was founded as a cemetery association in 1885 and reorganized as a congregation in 1895. Now serving a diminishing Jewish population, the building has been little changed in sixty years. It is a brick and wood Greek cross–plan quasi-Georgian building with twin Ionic columns and paneled corner piers flanking the entrance and narrow round-headed windows in the side walls. White stone sills and water table and a Star of David in the pediment provide decorative accents. The bimah is defined by a proscenium arch within which a discordant 1970s ark rises behind a similarly nonconforming wrought-iron balustrade. The reader's desk, consonant with Orthodox usage, is separated from the ark. The small balcony at the rear of the prayer hall was originally the women's gallery.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Kathryn Bishop Eckert

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