About Our Temple
Temple Hillel B'nai Torah is a Reconstructionist congregation that is welcoming, egalitarian, multicultural, and inclusive. We are devoted to worship, study, social justice and community.
Hillel B�nai Torah is a haimish community that is rooted in Jewish tradition and responsive to the world we live in. We actively engage our members in the creative process of bringing new perspectives to tradition and making tradition meaningful to contemporary lives
History of the Temple
Temple Hillel B'nai Torah's beginnings date back to 1949, with the Parkway Jewish Women's Club. A year later, the Parkway Jewish Men's Association came into being. By 1955, the group formed Temple Beth Torah, a conservative synagogue with its own Hebrew School. With 300 Jewish families in West Roxbury, the congregation moved into the original building on Corey Street, engaged Rabbi Oscar Bookspan and Cantor Simon Erdman as spiritual leaders, added a new sanctuary, and flourished into the 1960s. In 1970, Temple Beth Hillel left its historic building in Mattapan and merged with Beth Torah to become Temple Hillel B'nai Torah. Many of the historic plaques, the Torah scrolls, and Torah reading table in the sanctuary are mementos of the Mattapan congregation.
While the temple reached its peak in the late 1970s, demographic trends in the City of Boston led to a decline in membership in the 1980s. Rabbi Bookspan retired in 1986 and was followed by Rabbi Eliot Somers who served the congregation for several years. During that time, a small group of young families created the West Roxbury Chavurah, which was invited to meet at HBT. In 1995, members of the Chavurah, who were up-and-coming temple leaders, joined together with the senior members of the temple to search for a rabbi to bring together the diverse membership of the congregation. The same year that Rabbi Barbara Penzner took on the mantle of leadership, the Chaverim School opened its doors as the first Hebrew School at HBT in ten years. Since that time, individuals and families from across Greater Boston have found a home at HBT. This history is based on the extensive work of Sandra Serkess, who grew up in the temple.