Oheb Shalom Congregation


Oheb Shalom is a Conservative synagogue in South Orange, New Jersey.
The congregation was founded in 1860 by a group of Bohemian Jews. Its 1884 Moorish Revival building, known as Prince Street Synagogue, in Newark, New Jersey is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The present building, in South Orange, was constructed in 1958. The speakers at the dedication of the congregation's 1911 Neo-Classical building were Solomon Schechter, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and the then Governor of New Jersey, Woodrow Wilson.

Cemetery

The Oheb Shalom Cemetery is located at 1321 North Broad Street in Hillside, New Jersey.
At the close of the nineteenth century, a group of congregants from Oheb Shalom, then located on Prince Street in Newark, New Jersey, led by Emanuel Abeles, Isidore Grand and Meyer Kussy decided to acquire land to develop a conservative Jewish cemetery. They settled on a three-acre parcel in Hillside, New Jersey. They organized a board, Manny Abeles was elected chairman and dividing the land into available plots, developed a fee arrangement including perpetual care and planned for a Chapel House that would accommodate funerals and also house a groundskeeper and his family on the second floor.
At inception, the cemetery was structured to be independent financially from the Oheb Shalom Congregation although it certainly was and is a very close relative. The cornerstone for the building was laid in 1900. Plots were sold, and Oheb Shalom Cemetery has been in continuous operation for the past 115 years.