10.7 Tampa, Florida
Congregation Schaarai Zedek, 3303 W. Swann Avenue
Jacob Gottfried, architect, 1958 (subsequently expanded)
Leo Koppell, St. Petersburg, Florida, publisher; no date
Schaarai Zedek (Gates of Righteousness) was the first synagogue in Tampa. Thirty-one men and women met in the home of M. Henry Cohen on October 14, 1894, to form the congregation. Members rented space on Florida Avenue, and Rabbi D. Jacobson was appointed the first rabbi. By 1902, Schaarai Zedek’s constitution was changed to read as follows: “The form of worship shall be in accordance with Reform Judaism,” and in March 1903, the congregation affiliated with the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
For much of the next two decades Schaarai Zedek was without a rabbi, but in 1924, the congregation welcomed Rabbi L. Elliott Grafman. Later that year, on December 19, 1924, a new synagogue was dedicated. Rabbi David L. Zielonka led the congregation from 1930 to 1970.
Groundbreaking for the present temple, shown here, was held on January 26, 1957. The building was designed by local architect and congregant Jacob L. Gottfried (of Gottfried and Garcia), who also designed several later expansions. It was erected on a corner lot (now it covers most of the entire block), and faces the angle of the street intersection. The design was a pair of two joined unequal brick rectangular boxes. The larger of these houses the sanctuary and is marked with a tower-like corner piece further emphasized by the applied relief sculpture of a Decalogue (Tablets of the Law). One brick wall of the sanctuary block is topped with a cast concrete decorative frieze of linked Stars of David with the temple’s name in the center.
In 2021, Schaarai Zedek’s membership included more than 3,000 adults and children spanning four generations.