In Kensington, Maryland, just south of the town line, Temple Emanuel is known as Montgomery County's oldest Reform Jewish congregation. Begun with 28 member families in 1952, it now supports a sanctuary, early childhood center, religious school, youth groups, adult learning, music ensembles, and a wide network of service to neighbors. What distinguishes Temple Emanuel is the way worship, learning, music, family life, and social action have grown together on its five-acre campus.
The congregation describes itself as an inclusive and progressive Reform Jewish community, a spiritual home rooted in God, Torah, and Israel, where tradition meets innovation and each person can find a path into Jewish engagement. Its services are participatory, with Hebrew and English prayer, lay voices, music ranging from ancient melodies to contemporary arrangements, and an explicit invitation to children and questions into the room. Around that center are schools for toddlers through teens, Torah study for adults, life-cycle ceremonies, an active music program, and service projects addressing hunger, homelessness, disability inclusion, immigrant families, and global needs.
From 28 Member Families to a Seven-Decade Community
Temple Emanuel was formally organized in August 1952 with 28 member families. In March 1953 it affiliated with the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, now Union for Reform Judaism. Rabbi Leon Adler became its first full-time rabbi that July and served for 35 years. Rabbi Warren Stone followed in 1988 and remained until his retirement in 2020; Rabbi Adam Rosenwasser joined as senior rabbi on July 1, 2020.
The physical growth followed the congregation's needs. The first stage of the present building was completed in 1958 after a capital campaign, with later expansions and renovations in 1974, 2002, 2008, and 2011. The resulting campus brings together school-age classes on Sundays, adult courses during the week, Upper School dinner and programming after Hebrew school on Tuesdays, and the Early Childhood Center. Temple Emanuel also has three Memorial Scrolls on loan.
Rooted in God, Torah, Israel and Tikkun Olam
At its core, Temple Emanuel states that it adheres to God, Torah, and Israel, works to foster love of Judaism and preserve the Jewish people, and seeks stronger Jewish faith, observance, and lifelong learning. Its vision combines a caring, inclusive community with Tikkun Olam, the repair of the world. The mission is expressed in practical terms rather than left as a slogan:
- Cultivate innovative and participatory approaches to worship, spirituality, ritual, and practice that speak to a diverse congregation.
- Provide educational experiences for all ages and enrich worship and community through music and the arts.
- Pursue social justice and tikkun olam while strengthening connections to Jewish people worldwide.
- Advocate for Israel as a just and secure homeland and foster open dialogue about Israel and current events.
- Fully integrate interfaith families and non-Jewish members, build bridges with non-Jewish communities, and nurture philanthropy.
The Tree of Life in the Leon Adler Sanctuary
The Leon Adler Sanctuary, named for the congregation's first rabbi, has won national recognition. Large windows open onto natural surroundings, and the central Tree of Life theme draws on the Torah metaphor. Artist Michael Semsch carved the ark and related sculpture from Maryland tulip poplars: the Tree of Life is inspired by a banyan tree, the Shabbat Root makes Shabbat a foundation, and the Havdallah Root holds the wine, spice box, and woven candle used at week's end.
Other works deepen the room's themes. Joan Koslan-Schwartz stitched 25 verses inside and outside the ark; Cynthia Barber cast wildflowers, grasses, and plants into the Wall Menorah; Barney Zeitz's four fused-glass windows evoke Sinai, the waters of creation, landscapes in Israel and the Washington metropolitan area, and memory of the Holocaust. Indigenous stone from a local quarry forms the Wall of Remembrance, recalling the Western Wall.
The sanctuary's Ner Tamid, an eternal light shaped like a bird's nest, is solar powered. That choice reflects the congregation's environmental commitment and its recognition as a green temple with the Green Menorah Award. The sanctuary sits within a larger campus that also includes worship space, learning rooms, social halls, a gallery, an outdoor pavilion, gardens, and playground areas.
Shabbat Is the Weekly Center
Shabbat is the congregation's weekly center. Friday evening Erev Shabbat services include Kabbalat Shabbat and Maariv and begin at either 6:30 or 7:30 p.m. The 6:30 service generally follows a prozdor of light snacks, while the 7:30 service is generally followed by an oneg with sweet treats. Larger indoor services are held in the Leon Adler Sanctuary, smaller gatherings use HaMakom, and services occasionally take place outside in Gan Emanuel.
Saturday begins at 9:00 a.m. with lay-led Torah Study on the weekly parashah, open to every level of knowledge and offered in person or on Zoom. The 10:00 a.m. Shabbat service uses the Reform prayer book Mishkan T'filah and a mixture of Hebrew and English. Torah and Tanach study lead into a minyan. The clergy weave music, stories, text, and teaching into the service, while lay speakers and leaders have a prominent place.
Several Saturday and Friday gatherings give worship different shapes. Simchat Shabbat, generally one Shabbat each month from September through May, is designed especially for children in Pre-K through grade 7, with the Kol Ruach Junior Choir, creative Torah reading, stories, student participation, and a festive kiddush lunch. Shalom Shabbat, also monthly from September through May, is geared to learners and seekers with explanations of the service, quiet meditation, contemplative music, themes of healing, and a kiddush lunch. Tot Shabbat is a 30-minute Friday service at 5:30 p.m., generally monthly from September through June, for newborns through age six, with siblings welcome.
Worship is intentionally warm and participatory. The clergy welcome a baby's cry, a laugh, or a question from the congregation. The liberal and egalitarian liturgy leaves room for different views of faith and tradition, and services often move among music, readings, teaching, and silence.
Each b'nei mitzvah is honored with active community participation: students chant from the Torah, lead portions of the liturgy, and deliver a D'var Torah. Religious School students also take leadership roles in family services, extending participation to the youngest members of the congregation.
Many worship services and events are available through livestream worship. Shabbat can be joined in person, on Zoom, or through Facebook Live, and Saturday Torah Study is hybrid. The technology team works to keep the congregation together when members are physically apart.
Kol Zimrah, Kol Ruach and the Shabbat Band
Music carries much of Temple Emanuel's worship. Cantor Emily Short leads a repertoire that ranges from ancient to modern, including classical Reform tunes, nusach, folk music, and niggunim. The volunteer adult choir Kol Zimrah shares in services and concerts, while the Mizmor L'Shabbat Band, made up of temple members on electric bass, piano, guitars, and drums, sometimes leads from the bimah.
Kol Ruach gives children a place to sing with friends and connect with Judaism through music. The junior choir rehearses Sunday mornings before Religious School, while Kol Zimrah rehearses Tuesday evenings during the school year. No auditions are required for any of the ensembles, and previous choir or music experience is not required. The congregation's musical life also extends into local theater, cultural arts, and concerts that bring clergy and congregants together beyond worship.
Learning Beside the Sanctuary
Religious School
Temple Emanuel Religious School organizes its year around four Jewish values: Kehillah, or community; Limmud, or learning; Ruach, meaning spirit or identity; and Hachalah, or inclusion. Lessons connect with family events, field trips, holiday observances, prayer, arts and crafts, movement, and play, with each activity intended to bring at least three values together. Inclusion is treated as belonging, not simply access, and educators work to support varied learning styles, attention spans, emotional needs, and mental health experiences.
The Sunday school runs from 9:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and includes a family minyan for children in Pre-K through grade 4 from 9:00 to 9:30. The school prepares students for B'nei Mitzvah and confirmation, while the teen madrichol program gives older students roles as assistants and leaders. Families facing financial hardship may apply for religious school scholarships.
Early Childhood Center
Temple Emanuel Early Childhood Center is a full-day, year-round program for children from 18 months to five years. Inspired by the preschools of Reggio Emilia and Temple Emanuel's Reform Jewish context, it uses a constructivist approach in which children are capable citizens with rights, educators are partners and co-learners, and families are advocates and partners. Open-ended materials, long-term investigations, artistic environments, and documentation through photographs, video, and written observation make learning visible.
The center's guiding principles are Tikkun Olam, Hachnasat Orchim, Shomrei Adamah, Tzedakah, and Kavod: repair, welcoming guests, caring for the earth, justice and charity, and respect and honor. A limited number of part-day contracts are available, and the center's focus on collaboration, inquiry, creativity, relationships, music, storytelling, nature, and mindfulness reflects the Reggio Emilia approach.
Adult Learning
Adult learning is equally varied. Torah Study on Saturday mornings considers the weekly Torah portion, the rest of the Hebrew Bible, and interpretations from Reform and other commentators in an informal drop-in discussion. Clergy classes meet on weekdays about twice a month at noon. Bible and Brews, a monthly interfaith gathering, compares what Jewish and Christian traditions teach about sacred texts and topical issues.
Temple Emanuel also coordinates play readings, cultural arts outings with pre- and post-event discussions, choir, and regular enrichment led by clergy, the educator, and outside scholars. Congregants and guest voices make lifelong study part of ordinary congregational life rather than a separate program.
KESTY Gives Each Grade a Jewish Circle
Children enter youth community through KESTY Katan for grades K-2, KESTY345 for grades 3-5, KESTYJ for grades 6-7, and KESTY for grades 8-12. The younger groups build friendships, reinforce Jewish identity, and connect families; KESTY345 adds activities that show children living Judaism beyond the classroom. KESTY brings monthly movie and game nights, trivia, cooking, arts and crafts, and social justice activities.
KESTY is also a chapter of NFTY, the Reform Jewish Youth Movement, and offers Shabbatons, seminars, and lock-ins as well. Teenagers have a youth lounge, help lead the Purim Carnival, serve as madrichol, and can take part in Jewish summer camp opportunities through Temple Emanuel and the Brotherhood.
Belonging Is Part of the Mission
Belonging is part of Temple Emanuel's stated mission. Its households include Jews by birth, Jews by choice, interfaith families, members of color, LGBTQ+ members, and people with differing abilities. The diversity, equity, and inclusion policy applies to worship, membership, education, employment, rituals, and other operations, and calls for dignity, respect, equitable treatment, and equal opportunity.
The Kulanu Committee supports LGBTQIA+ inclusion and programming, including an annual Pride Shabbat in June. The congregation also takes part in Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance, and Inclusion Month, maintains a library collection focused on neurodiversity, and includes an Inclusion Cart with hearing loops, noise-canceling headphones, readers, social stories, fidgets, and children's books. Interfaith families are welcomed through regular gatherings, and finances are not intended to stand between a person and membership.
The spirit of welcome also reaches the sanctuary. Every part of the building and sanctuary is accessible to people who use wheelchairs or have physical disabilities. Inclusion is visible in the Kulanu committee, the DEI committee, the religious school's learning-inclusion work, and the congregation's commitment to welcome people at different points in their Jewish lives, including interfaith and non-Jewish members.
Tikkun Olam Starts with the Neighbors
The Community Social Action Council organizes local and global mitzvot, and much of the work begins close to home. From spring through fall, volunteers meet at 9:00 a.m. on Sundays in the Community Vegetable Garden behind the parking lot. The two-hour sessions grow produce that is donated to Shepherd's Table. Monthly sandwich and food collections go to Martha's Table, WRJ organizes meals for families staying at NIH Children's Inn and food support for immigrant families resettling through Kind Works, and volunteers cook or serve at So Others Might Eat on Christmas Day.
Temple Emanuel maintains a year-round relationship with Manna Food Center. Nonperishable food can be dropped in the bin outside HaMakom, and volunteers deliver it to Manna. The Meal of Comfort Committee brings meals to bereaved families returning from the cemetery, while the Brotherhood Sunshine Committee sends cards and prepares meals for people recovering at home, celebrating new babies and marriages, or facing loss. Brotherhood members also recruit ushers, care for the grounds, and prepare Shabbat receptions.
Collection drives support Stepping Stones Shelter, the DC Diaper Bank, Comfort Cases for children in foster care, the Montgomery County Animal Services and Adoption Center, and I Support the Girls, which distributes essential hygiene and clothing items. The Global Mitzvah Project extends this local work through fundraising, education, and global advocacy with partners in countries including Guatemala, Kenya, El Salvador, Uganda, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, and Cambodia. Its projects focus on health, education, safety, food security, and self-determination for women and children.
Volunteers can serve in the Early Childhood Center, Religious School, worship, technology, building and grounds, adult education, social action, and the arts. The same congregation also supports nonpartisan voter participation through the Religious Action Center and Union for Reform Judaism. This mixture of meals, gardens, advocacy, and hands-on service is a direct expression of tikkun olam.
A Jewish Home Through Every Life Stage
Temple Emanuel offers Jewish lifecycle celebrations from birth through mourning. Baby namings, consecrations, B'nei Mitzvah, confirmations, weddings, and other affirming occasions are shared with clergy and the wider congregation. The sanctuary, HaMakom, and social hall can be used for ceremonies and receptions, and the clergy can conduct a ceremony or help families design a personal observance. A traditional Aufruf, the blessing of a couple on the Shabbat before marriage, can also be scheduled.
For bereavement, the temple assists with questions, can help organize meals of comfort and evening minyans, and can send Yahrzeit reminders for Shabbat remembrance. These communal forms of care are offered alongside the remembrance practices of Reform Judaism.
The social hall seats about 200 guests at tables, while the more intimate HaMakom seats up to 70. Both can hold larger buffet receptions, and the kitchen and outdoor areas are available for rentals. Membership welcomes Jews by birth and choice, interfaith families, and non-Jewish members. Support can be offered through supporting Temple Emanuel, including the Chai Collective, a monthly giving circle that sustains worship, education, youth leadership, inclusion work, building care, and music. The Warren G. Stone Rabbinic Endowment is dedicated to ensuring a full-time rabbi for future generations.
Joining from Kensington or Across the Screen
Temple Emanuel stands at 10101 Connecticut Avenue in Kensington. The office telephone number is 301-942-2000, and the office is open Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. A large parking lot sits beside the building. Three reserved spaces for vehicles displaying a handicap placard are near the front entrance, and four are near the side entrance.
Both entrances have curb cuts. The side entrance has an automatic door, a ramp reaches the front doors, and an elevator serves both levels. A ramp with railings reaches the bimah from the left side of the sanctuary, and another railing reaches it from the right. HaMakom has movable chairs and no steps, while the outdoor Mark Mann Pavilion is reached by a ramp.
Ushers provide hearing loops and large-print copies of the Shabbat and holiday siddur and the High Holy Day machzor. ASL interpretation and captioning are available online with Zoom and in person when arranged at least one month in advance. A quiet space is often marked by signs and program information, and fidget devices are available at services. The Inclusion Cart at the back of the sanctuary contains assistive and sensory items for all ages.
By car, Temple Emanuel is about one mile north of the Beltway on Connecticut Avenue, near Route 495 exit 33. Montgomery County Ride 5 runs between the Twinbrook and Silver Spring Metro stations; riders can leave at Connecticut Avenue and Knowles and walk about five minutes south. WMATA's L8 stops about a block away. The campus is nut sensitive, so food at congregational events calls for that consideration.
The People Who Hold the Center
Rabbi Adam Rosenwasser leads the congregation with an emphasis on meaningful Jewish experiences for all ages and backgrounds, relationships with those he serves, teaching Torah from varied texts, mussar, justice work, and chaplaincy with the DC Metropolitan Police Department. Cantor Emily Short combines sacred music, Jewish learning, and nonprofit leadership. She was ordained by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 2023 and brings experience from the Yiddish theatre to her work as cantor and community leader.
Alissa Miller, the executive director, helps congregants through life-cycle events and simchas and works behind the scenes in synagogue administration. Laura Naide leads lifelong learning; Tal Oren serves as youth engagement director and shaliach, advising KESTY and the madrichol program; Dana Robinson leads the Early Childhood Center; and Kim Hughes directs learning inclusion. Together with the lay volunteers who staff committees, choirs, worship, and service projects, they make the congregation's wide program of worship, education, and action possible.
At Temple Emanuel, the shape of a Jewish life is deliberately broad. A family can enter through the Early Childhood Center, find its center in a Friday service, study Torah on Saturday morning, sing in a choir, raise children through religious school, welcome a newborn or honor a marriage, and carry concern beyond the congregation through social action. The history runs from 28 families in 1952 to a community that still holds the same promise in the present: a place to pray, learn, celebrate, grieve, grow, and belong.