Ohavay Zion Synagogue celebrates 100 years

Lexington, KY – Despite having rented their usual hall, congregants of what would become Ohavay Zion Synagogue were forced out of the Odd Fellows Lodge on Short Street in downtown Lexington during Kol Nidre, the evening services to start Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.

Unlike weekly services to celebrate the Sabbath, the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur don’t have a set day of the week from year to year, and the Odd Fellow members in the fall of 1911 decided not to honor their contract with the congregants and held their regular meeting. From there it was decided that the small group of Jewish families would get their own permanent house of worship to avoid any future conflicts, and allow them to pray in the way their faith dictated.

Ohavay Zion officially incorporated in 1912 as an entity, a fact Ohavay Zion plans on celebrating at the end of April with a weekend of events including services, a gala at the Lyric Theatre, a cemetery service where its founders are interred and a brunch at Joe Bologna’s — the building that served for 75 years as its first home.

Ohavay Zion, according to a history compiled by Mike Ades, a founder’s descendent, had been incorporated for two years in 1914 when the Presbyterian Church on Maxwell Street became available. So nine years after Temple Adath Israel –– located now on Ashland Avenue –– dedicated their first facility on Maryland Avenue, Ohavay Zion opened the doors on theirs, offering the fledgling Jewish community in Lexington a different level of orthodoxy.