Sinai Temple. Records, 1914-2019 | Illinois History and Lincoln Collections

This collection includes organizational records for Sinai Temple which was founded in 1904 in Champaign, Illinois. These records document almost one hundred years of Jewish community and religious life in Central Illinois.

Sinai Temple was founded as the Champaign-Urbana Hebrew Congregation on February 7, 1904, before officially becoming Sinai Temple on January 4, 1914. At that time, it also became affiliated with the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now Union for Reform Judaism). Their first building on State and Clark streets in Champaign was dedicated in 1918. In 1971 this building was partially destroyed by an electrical fire and the congregation moved to its current (as of March 2025) Windsor Road building in 1975. The congregation has long supported a religious school, initially with the leadership of the Sinai Temple Sisterhood. The Sinai Temple Sisterhood served as a women’s congregational organizer for almost one hundred years of the temple’s history. The Sisterhood experienced several iterations, first as the Jewish Ladies Social Circle, next the Sinai Temple Ladies Auxiliary, then the Sinai Temple Sisterhood. In 1994 it reorganized as the Women of Sinai Temple and officially dissolved in 1998.

The collection is arranged in 13 series: Administrative; Board of Directors Records; Religious Education; Financial; Publication; Fundraising and Events; Liturgy; Members and Membership; Rabbis; Buildings and Grounds; Reference Material; The Sinai Temple Sisterhood; and Photographs. These series document the institutional history and larger community impact through decades of meeting minutes, financial records, lesson plans and curriculum, correspondence, bulletins, event materials, and ephemera.

These materials were donated by Sinai Temple in 2024.