The present-day Congregation Har Shalom began with an undeveloped piece of farmland in Potomac and a covenant prohibiting the sale of that property to a Jewish person. The founders celebrated their first Kabbalat Shabbat as property owners there on July 4, 1969, lit only by a Coleman camping lantern, according to Aimee Segal, the president of Har Shalom.
“There was a little farmhouse with a little porch,” Rabbi Adam Raskin said. “On the first Shabbat that they celebrated together on the porch of this farmhouse, they watched the fireworks after services, and that was really kind of the beginning of Har Shalom.”
Now with more than 720 members and a permanent building, the shul still has that very lantern from 1969. The relic is one of many artifacts on display along the halls of Har Shalom, paying homage to the community’s deep-seated roots for its 60th anniversary.
Those early days were marked by a grassroots volunteer effort, oftentimes with the founders seated around a kitchen table or living room.
“Marie Kramer and her late husband, Sam, were some of the real organizers from the very, very beginning,” Raskin said. “She was one of the first to meet people around the table and say, ‘How are we going to build this place?’ and ‘What’s the vision?’”
The founders would go door to door in Regency Estates — one of the only Potomac neighborhoods that permitted Jews to buy houses — to let residents know about the new community they were forming. Many of the founders were young couples who had been raised Jewishly and wanted a stable community to pass these traditions on to their children, Segal said.
During the mid-1960s, the Seven Locks Jewish Community — later changing its name to Har Shalom — didn’t have a physical space, so members gathered in each other’s homes and local schools’ all-purpose rooms. They would bring coffee urns in the trunk of their cars and each week someone was assigned to pick up a treat to share from a local bakery.
In 1969, a donation from a local real estate developer allowed the community to purchase the plot of land on which Har Shalom is currently located.
Hanna Lee Pomerantz, a founding member, would prepare kiddush on Shabbat and developed an active Sisterhood that went on to attract national attention. Charter member Joan Levenson served in a multitude of leadership positions for Har Shalom, launching the Gemilut Hasadim program to help people in need.
“They were all rolling up their sleeves, getting it done,” Segal said of the founders.
Kramer, Pomerantz and Levenson were honored for their fundamental early work at a March 23 gala celebrating Har Shalom’s 60th anniversary.
“I think what made this special from other galas that we’ve had … is that we really focused on the founding stories, the real beginnings of this place, because we wanted to harness the stories and the ability to spotlight some of these founders who are still with us,” Raskin said.
At the gala, Kramer performed a song she had written for the shul’s 20th anniversary. Others shared their earliest memories of the community: “It’s very, very special,” Raskin said.
Segal, who joined Har Shalom in 2003 as a newlywed, enjoyed this segment of the gala.
“I appreciate how I’ve had the opportunity to meet longer-time members, and I love learning about their Har Shalom stories,” Segal said.
Raskin said community members were intentional with the artifacts they chose to display.
“We have a sort of living museum [with] all kinds of things that represented those early days: pictures and blueprints and directories, this Coleman lantern and other treasures from the earliest era of the shul to today,” Raskin said, adding that the artifacts are arranged chronologically by decade.
The display cases also show original Har Shalom newsletters, b’nai mitzvah programs, ceremonial hard hats worn at the groundbreaking, architectural renderings and a full-scale model of the synagogue building, Segal said.
“It’s just amazing to see how they envisioned the growth and what needed to be created to sustain the kids in the schools and [construct] a beautiful worship space,” Raskin said.
One of the most unique artifacts on display is a button from the 1987 Soviet Jewry March in Washington, D.C., which drew more than 250,000 participants demanding freedom for Jews in the Soviet Union. The button is a “very powerful reminder of the social activism and concern for world Jewry that led the ethos of this congregation even in its early formation,” Raskin said.
And, of course, the exhibit features the Coleman lantern that lit the way at the very start. Volunteers not only proudly display the lantern in the mini museum, but the symbol is emblazoned on stickers and napkins.
“We created napkins with this little lamp to symbolize the very humble beginnings and ambitious aspirations of our founders,” Segal said.
