There were Jews living in Sioux City as early as the 1860s, but a synagogue was not built in the city until 1884.[3] Adas Jeshurun was an Orthodox congregation. The Jewish community in Sioux City grew from 200 in 1890 to nearly 2,500 by World War I.[4] Sioux City was home to the second largest Jewish community in the state of Iowa at the time.[3]
Mount Sinai Temple congregation was established in 1898. However, the Reform Jewish community had organized a cemetery association in 1869 and had been worshipping regularly in concert with the Unitarian Church of Sioux City.[5] The Mount Sinai Temple was designed by George Washington Burkhead in the Queen Anne-style, was built as a 1+1⁄2-story, frame, clapboard- and shingle-sided, building, and opened in 1901. Its 1922 addition was designed by William L. Steele was in Prairie School style.[2][5][6]
Between World Wars I and II the Jewish Community Center in Sioux City hosted 60 to 70 clubs, classes, and organizations that ranged from socialist workers to Zionists. A one-mile section of West Seventh Street was home to 22 Jewish owned businesses in 1944.[4]
In 1956, the congregation outgrew the Nebraska Street synagogue, and a larger facility was constructed on 38th Street. The Nebraska Street synagogue became home to the United Orthodox Synagogue, formed from several Orthodox congregations whose numbers were diminishing.[5][1]
After World War II the Jewish community in Sioux City began to decline. By the mid 1980s the population was down to 700 people,[4] and by 2001 it was down to 300.[3] The Jewish congregations in Sioux City combined their religious schools in 1990. In 1994, the Conservative Shaare Zion and the Reform Mount Sinai congregations merged into a dual-affiliation synagogue called Beth Sholom.[4]
Notes
^No evidence of closure of the United Orthodox congregation, although numbers had dwindled to less than a handful, as of 2004[update].[1]
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