Har Sinai

Har Sinai Congregation, which claims to be the oldest Reform Jewish congregation in the nation, has announced a schedule of events to mark its 150th anniversary.Rabbi Floyd Herman met with reporters this week at the synagogue in Upper Park Heights to describe the events that will run from October 1991 through May 1992.Activities include special worship services, a scholar-in-residence program, a concert by the Jerusalem Chamber Orchestra and a seminar on religious firsts in Maryland.K.K. B'nai Elohim of Charleston, S.C., also claims to be the oldest Reform congregation in the country, although it was founded as an Orthodox group, Herman said.

The parents who started Yeshivat Rambam 20 years ago knew what they wanted for their children: a Modern Orthodox day school philosophically in the middle of the Jewish spectrum. Many of them were newcomers to Baltimore; several were doctors who had taken jobs here and who had decided to settle in Park Heights or Pikesville and raise families there. When they looked around for Jewish schools, they saw extremes — on the one hand, Orthodox institutions that made it difficult to combine aspects of secular and religious life, and on the other hand, non-Orthodox schools that provided a good education but presented too many conflicts (such as birthday parties on the Sabbath)

If you're craving chamber music, consider Troy Kenneth Stuart this weekend. The young, prize-winning cellist has chosen sonatas by Beethoven and Barber, as well as a work by noted Baltimore composer Vivian Adelberg Rudow from 1998 - The Bare Smooth Stone of Your Love. Stuart will be joined by pianist Michael Adcock in these works, and violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins will join him in a duo by Kodaly. This program will be the last Peggy and Yale Gordon Concert held in the sanctuary of Har Sinai Congregation, 6300 Park Heights Ave. The performance is at 3 p.m. on Sunday.

Emma D. Favazza, co-founder of a Baltimore construction company whose philanthropic and charitable interests included the arts and education, died Saturday of heart failure at St. Joseph Medical Center. The Timonium resident was 81. Emma Elizabeth Dalcin, the daughter of a bricklayer and a homemaker, was born the youngest of 11 children in Bethlehem, Pa., and then moved with her family to nearby Allentown, Pa. During the Depression, the family moved to the city's Pimlico neighborhood and later Catonsville.

The Peggy and Yale Gordon Trust brings the Miami String Quartet to Har Sinai Congregation, 6300 Park Heights Ave., on Sunday at 3 p.m. in a free concert.The group is comprised of Ivan Chan, violin; Cathy Meng Robinson, violin; Chauncey Patterson, viola; and Keith Robinson, cello.Call 410-764-2882.Pub Date: 4/17/98

Members of Baltimore's historic Har Sinai congregation approved by a large margin yesterday a plan to sell their property at 6300 Park Heights Ave. in the city and move to northwest Baltimore County, where many members now live.Fewer than half of some 1,000 members eligible to vote cast ballots at Har Sinai, the nation's oldest Reform Jewish congregation. The vote was 389-68 -- meaning 85 percent of those taking part supported the move.Leaders had said Har Sinai would not move unless two-thirds were in favor.

Baltimore's historic Har Sinai congregation is facing a $4 million choice: Take the money and follow its members to the suburbs or stay put in its domed temple on Park Heights Avenue.Leaders of the nation's oldest Reform congregation expect that the temple will accept an offer for its property and leave Baltimore. If it does, Har Sinai will continue a movement to the suburbs among Baltimore's Reform and Conservative Jews that began nearly a half-century ago."All available data points to the fact that the young people we need to attract are moving out of our area," said David Flyer, president of the congregation of about 630 families.

Henry Cooper, a former cantor and painter whose portraits hang in Baltimore, New York and the Middle East, died of heart failure Saturday at Sinai Hospital. The Pikesville resident was 96. "He was a hardworking and ambitious artist who wanted very much to make a contribution to the world of art, and he managed to make a living doing it," said Rabbi Mark G. Loeb of Beth El Congregation, where Mr. Cooper attended services. Born Gregor Kipermann in Ukraine, Mr. Cooper arrived in Philadelphia in 1912 with his parents, five brothers and a sister.

Four Owings Mills property owners filed suit yesterday against the Har Sinai congregation, alleging that in trying to clean up a contaminated piece of property near Worthington Valley, Har Sinai has polluted a stream that supplies drinking water to the residents.The plaintiffs, who live downstream from the 17-acre site, where Har Sinai wants to build a synagogue, school and day care center, are seeking $4 million in damages and are asking a judge to order Hari Sinai to remove all contaminants from the site.

Sealing a deal to resolve a year of negotiations, the historic Har Sinai congregation has signed a contract to sell its property at 6300 Park Heights Ave. to Maimonides Academy, the LTC congregation's president said.The contract, signed Thursday, will allow Har Sinai to proceed with its plan to move to the Owings Mills area, said its president, Dr. Robert K. Brookland.Leaders of Har Sinai, the nation's oldest continuously Reform Jewish congregation, have said the move is in response to the suburban exodus of many of its members.

Frank F. Favazza Jr., a general contractor who was a member of the Maryland Racing Commission, died of Parkinson's disease complications Wednesday at Lorien Mays Chapel Health Center in Timonium. He was 82. "He was a true American dream," said former Mayor Thomas J. D'Alesandro III, who was a close friend. "He started as a manual laborer and became one of the top general contractors in Maryland. " Born in Baltimore and raised in the Pimlico section of Northwest Baltimore, Mr. Favazza worked alongside his father at a produce store and with his mother at their Boarman Café on Reisterstown Road, where the Favazzas were known for their pizzas and other dishes.

On June 21, 2008, HERBERT JOSHUA; loving husband of Sue Robinson (nee Miller); beloved father of Paul Robinson, Amy Robinson, and Debra Deckelbaum; devoted father-in-law of Carla Reed, Larry Hofmeister, and Jack Deckelbaum; brother of Leonard Robinson and Judith Pettit; cherished grandfather of Brandy and David Dopkin, Rosa and Rachel Robinson, Andrew and Eric Hofmeister, Daniel and Zachary Deckelbaum and predeceased by Leah Deckelbaum; adoring great-grandfather of...

County seeks to buy Dundalk apartments The county government has agreed to pay $935,000 for three apartment buildings as part of a plan to redevelop a crime-ridden Dundalk neighborhood, officials said. The purchases must be approved by the County Council, which is to vote Tuesday. The buildings are part of the Yorkway complex and are individually owned. In each case, the owners rejected initial offers by the county and made counter-offers, which the county accepted, according to information provided by the Bureau of Land Acquisition.

A Baltimore County judge ruled yesterday that prosecutors will be able to present at trial statements that a former University of Maryland, Baltimore County student made to police when he confessed to beating a woman to death after their first date and described in gruesome detail how he disfigured her body to prevent her from being identified. Lawyers for John C. Gaumer, 23, had asked the judge to suppress the statements, arguing that they should be considered involuntary, in part because they were obtained during the time that police detained Gaumer between Feb. 7 and Feb. 8 before charging him with a crime.

On Friday, August 4, 2006, CHARLES MINDELL; beloved husband of Irene Mindell (nee Goldberg); and the late Mildred Mindell (nee Margolis); loving father of Judith Selis of Rockville, MD, Maxine and Jack Zemil of Baltimore, MD and Morton and Susan Mindell of Baltimore, MD; devoted brother of Jeanne Brown of Baltimore, MD and Melvin Mindell of Florida and the late Nathan Mindell and Sylvia Isaacson; beloved grandfather of six and great-grandfather of eight....

On Sunday, February 19, 2006 DR. AARON C. SOLLOD; loving husband of Ethel C. Sollod (nee Lett); beloved father of Esther Layton of Baltimore, MD and Dr. Hershey Sollod of Denver, CO; devoted father-in-law of Marshall Layton and Holly Stein Sollod; loving grandfather of Andrew and Jodi Layton, Dr. Brianna and Dr. David Mc Farland, Kara and Sven Tustin, Michelle Sollod; loving great-grandfather of Jonathan M. Layton. Services at SOL LEVINSON BROS. HOME, 8900 Reisterstown Road at Mt. Wilson Lane on Wednesday, February 22 at 12 noon.

In a hearing room filled to overflowing, residents of Worthington Valley accused Har Sinai officials yesterday of lying to them when presenting plans to build a synagogue and day care center in rural northwest Baltimore County.Stuart D. Kaplow, the lawyer for opponents, asked Hearing Officer Lawrence Schmidt to dismiss Har Sinai's request to build the 65,200-square-foot religious center because, he said, the synagogue gave false information to the community in meetings last spring."We have rules about development in this county," Kaplow said at the first of eight days of hearings.

Pushing ahead with plans to move out of Baltimore, the historic Har Sinai congregation is eyeing at least two potential sites in northwest Baltimore County.Members of Har Sinai, the nation's oldest Reform Jewish congregation, have been asked to evaluate a site at Greenspring Avenue and Walnut Avenue in Worthington Valley, and another near the congregation's cemetery on Garrison Forest Road near Owings Mills.Dr. Robert K. Brookland, president of the congregation, stressed that Har Sinai's search committee has not settled on those properties as finalists in the search.

On Wednesday, January 25, 2006, ARNOLD GOLD; beloved husband of the late Adele Gold (nee Strauss); devoted father of Ronald Gold of Malibu, CA.,; caring father-in-law of Barbara Gold; beloved brother of the late Leonard Gold; loving brother-in-law of Nathan and Lillian Strauss and Janice Gold; devoted grandfather of Anthony Gold, Kevin and Sandra Gold; loving great-grandfather of Molly and Daniel Gold. Services at SOL LEVINSON & BROS., INC., 8900 Reisterstown Rd, at Mt. Wilson Lane, on Sunday, January 29, at 10 A.M. Interment Har Sinai Congregation Cemetery, Garrison Forest Road.