Beth Am

Beth Am is a Conservative synagogue in Baltimore, Maryland. The congregation is located in Baltimore's Reservoir Hill community, and is considered to be one of the city's historic synagogues. It is one of two non-Orthodox synagogues in Baltimore's inner cityhttp://www.forward.com/articles/12697/.
==History==
The building currently known as "Beth Am" was first founded as Chizuk Amuno Congregationhttp://books.google.com/books?id=3UlavZkteU4C&pg=PA181&vq=%22beth+am%22&dq=%22beth+am%22baltimore&as_brr=3&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html&source=gbs_search_r&cad=1, which has since moved to a new suburban location in Pikesville, Maryland. Chizuk Amuno first occupied the building in 1922http://books.google.com/books?id=weL9M46TcU8C&pg=PA161&dq=%22beth+am%22baltimore&as_brr=3&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html and moved to Pikesville in 1958http://books.google.com/books?id=weL9M46TcU8C&pg=PA162&lpg=PA161&dq=%22beth+am%22baltimore&as_brr=3&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html.
Following the move of Chizuk Amuno, services continued in the building, led by Cantor Abba Weisgall. Then, in 1974, the current Beth Am congregation was founded as Dr. Louis Kaplan's shulhttp://books.google.com/books?id=3UlavZkteU4C&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&vq=%22beth+am%22&dq=%22beth+am%22baltimore&as_brr=3&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html. Kaplan's wife suggested the name, which translates to "House of the People."
Kaplan served informally as the congregation's spiritual leader until 1981, when the congregation hired its first full-time rabbi.
The congregation had no full-time rabbi in the years 2000-2002, when they were served part-time by Rabbi Sheila Russianhttp://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:l3R09iMuKlwJ:bethambaltimore.org/about_beth_am/betham-bulletin-0803.pdf+%22sheila+russian%22%2B%22beth+am%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&ie=UTF-8.
The current Rabbi is Jon Konheimhttp://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/news/jt/cover_story/conservative_judaism_thrives_in_baltimore_but_troubled_nationwide/14118, who has been with the congregation since 2002.
==External links==
*Beth Am homepage
==References==
Category:Synagogues in Maryland
Category:Conservative synagogues in the United States