The Long, Winding Road to the Oseh Shalom Synagogue
- Kevin Leonard
- Jul 10, 2025
- 6 min read
It’s not unusual for religious denominations to live a nomadic existence in the years leading up to finally securing a permanent home. In the late 1960s, for instance, St. Mary’s Catholic Church was bursting at the seams, leading parishioners who lived in the South Laurel area to explore creating their own church on that side of town. This led to the St. Nicholas parish being built on Contee Road. But before they opened their doors to the new church in the early 1970s, according to Parish Secretary Kathy Garnes, services were held in several locations, such as parishioners’ homes, the Fox Rest gymnasium, and, for a long time, in the Laurel Cinema in the Laurel Shopping Center.
But Laurel’s Jewish community faced an additional hurdle in their years-long quest for a home of their own—the threat of eviction from their own synagogue.
Montpelier was the Key
Laurel’s Jewish community started organizing itself with the development of Montpelier in 1966. At that time, the closest synagogues were in Bowie and Greenbelt.
Montpelier’s developer, Levitt and Sons, was a Jewish family business and the new houses attracted many Jewish buyers, according to Jill and Marty Goozman, who were part of the growing Jewish community, and Fran Fliss, whose late husband, Irving, was an influential member of the congregation. Stuart Schwartz, a resident of Montpelier and the main force behind organizing the community, contacted the man who ran the diaper service in South Laurel and asked him to be on the lookout for local Jewish families. The Goozmans were one of the families referred by the diaper man.
The congregation started small, with 16 families, some of which hosted services in their homes. Like the parishioners at St. Nicholas, the congregation started to grow, and services bounced around to venues that were large enough and cooperative. The array of locations that hosted the congregation at various times included the Fox Rest gymnasium, the basement of the Citizen’s Building and Loan on Route 1, a commercial building on Montgomery Street, St. Nicholas Catholic Church, Montpelier Mansion, and the First Baptist Church of Laurel.
One of the early members of the congregation was the Friedman family, whose son, Marty, went on to become a worldwide success as a rock and roll guitar player. (See the article about Marty Friedman’s autobiography in the Winter 2025 issue of Voices of Laurel.) His mother, Marilyn, wrote for and helped publish the temple’s newspaper, according to Jill Goozman.
Finally, A Home of their Own
By 1969, the congregation had grown to 55 families, and they needed a larger space than any of the previous venues. Schwartz told the Washington Post that “the congregation had been moving around like gypsies” for the past three years.
The congregation raised the money to buy a new four-bedroom, $33,000 house in Montpelier in June 1969, on the corner of Orwood Lane and Mount Pleasant Drive, with plans to renovate it into a small synagogue. According to the Post, “After the house was purchased [Schwartz] said he went around to the neighbors and told them the congregation’s plans.”
Schwartz told the Laurel News Leader that “the house was purchased to use as a temporary home until the congregation grew and could move to a regular synagogue in a few years.”
Members of the congregation went to work, spending $2,000 renovating the house themselves to make it usable. On July 20, 1969, the house was consecrated, with the synagogue’s opening date to fall on Rosh Hashanah on September 12.
In the meantime, Schwartz appeared before the Prince George’s County Board of Commissioners and requested an exemption “so that more than two cars could park around the premises,” as reported in the Post. According to the News Leader, Schwartz “assumed [the exemption] would be a mere formality.”
Pepco power lines ran directly behind the house, which provided 600 feet of on-street parking next to the house but not in front of any homes. Schwartz also informed the Commissioners that “over half of the Laurel Jewish Congregation lives in the Montpelier area [and] would walk because the Orthodox Jew does not ride on the Sabbath,” as reported in the News Leader. He pointed out that such a waiver of parking regulations had been granted to churches and synagogues in other residential areas of Prince George’s County.
But to Schwartz’s surprise, three neighbors appeared at the hearing to object to the request. Schwartz told the News Leader that when he informed the neighbors of their plans after buying the house, “they gave no indication of opposing our moving in and using the house as a synagogue.”
According to the News Leader, the neighbors “cited increased traffic, parking, and the safety of their children” in objecting to the waiver. “One had claimed he couldn’t water his lawn or mow his grass without disrupting services which are held at 8 p.m. on Friday evenings.”
The Prince George’s Sentinel reported that Schwartz was hoping for permission from Pepco to allow parking on the right-of-way behind the synagogue, but “neighbors threatened to sue if Pepco does grant that privilege.”
While they waited for the decision, the congregation continued with the renovation and planning for the Rosh Hashanah service. As the opening neared, Schwartz told the News Leader, “It’s really hard to find words, to express just how much it means to me that the members of the Jewish Congregation of Laurel can gather together to pray on this important holy day in their own sanctuary. It’s really like a dream come true! In the past, we have always had to depend on the kindness of others but now, thank heaven, we can celebrate Rosh Hashanah, as well as the Sabbath and other festivals in a place of our own.”
Bad News on a Good Day
Finally, the big day came. “As the Rosh Hashanah service started, the congregation had sixty of its members there. Many of them walked and none of them parked on Orwood Drive. There was even some extra space available on Mount Pleasant Drive,” reported the News Leader.
But Harry G. Rosenbluh, the “acting spiritual leader of the Jewish congregation of Laurel opened the first service” with bad news. He told the congregation, “This was to be one of the happiest nights of our lives in the new building that we struggled, toiled, and prayed for. But instead, we stand on the brink of losing this sanctuary of ours.”
Just the day before, the Board of Commissioners announced that they refused to grant the exemption. “The Commissioners voted 3-0 against allowing the exemption, with Commissioner Gladys Spellman abstaining, she said, because she lives in Montpelier.” One Commissioner was absent. At the hearing, the Commissioners ordered the synagogue to close due to “inadequate off-street parking” but granted the synagogue “90 days to work something else out.”
Schwartz held a news conference before the initial service. He told the Post that “all we asked for was a chance to be good neighbors.” Referring to the Commissioners, he said, “I feel they should be ashamed of themselves.”
Support for the synagogue came from other places. Joseph L. Mathias, President of the Laurel Chamber of Commerce, issued a statement: “The fact that a handful of nearby residents cannot tolerate street parking by congregation members and a slightly higher traffic volume for a few hours one day a week, except during certain holiday observances, is hard to believe. One would think a house of worship could expect a different kind of reception by the community. In Prince George’s County, there are dozens of churches whose members park along residential streets and which are surrounded by homes. We are hard-pressed to understand, therefore, why the waiver of 18 off-street parking spaces offends the County Commissioners’ sense of justice.”
Also, according to the News Leader, “several local associations, most notably the Oaklands Civic Association, had urged the Commissioners to reconsider their decision.”
But In the End...
About three months later, in early January 1970, the Commissioners reversed their decision and allowed the congregation to continue using the house as their synagogue. Certain conditions were imposed to limit the disturbances alleged by neighbors, and the congregation readily agreed. “Congregation members have been and will continue to park along Mount Pleasant Drive beneath a Pepco transmission line directly behind the synagogue,” reported the News Leader. “I’m very, very pleased at the outcome,” said Schwartz. “I sincerely hope that in due time we will be accepted as a member of the community. It is our sincere desire not to inconvenience or disturb any of our neighbors.”
The congregation remained in the Montpelier house until 1973, when their growth necessitated another move to a new synagogue they had built on Briarwood Drive, near Eisenhower Junior High School.
Eventually, a permanent synagogue was built for the Jewish Congregation of Laurel in 1991, which had adopted the name Oseh Shalom in 1973, on Van Dusen Road, near the Laurel Hospital. The building, which won awards for its design by renowned architect Travis Price, now welcomes around 200 families in its own congregation and hosts numerous other groups and churches. Oseh Shalom has been affiliated with the Reconstructionist movement (one of the four main denominations of Judaism) since 1979.
In 2016, at the 50th anniversary celebration for the Jewish Congregation of Laurel/Oseh Shalom, former Rabbi Doug Heifetz told the Leader, “the congregation has not only survived, it has flourished.”
Kevin Leonard is a founding member of the Laurel History Boys and a two-time winner of the Maryland Delaware District of Columbia Press Association Journalism Award.
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