Congregation Etz Hayim
Organized as Ohev Shalom Congregation in 1940 for High Holy Day services, CEH met in the Jones Building on Wilson Boulevard in Clarendon.
Congregation Etz Hayim (CEH) has deep roots in Arlington. Organized as Ohev Shalom Congregation in 1940 for High Holy Day services, CEH met in the Jones Building on Wilson Boulevard in Clarendon. In June 1947, ground was broken on a single-floor structure on Arlington Boulevard. In 1952, the synagogue became the Arlington-Fairfax Jewish Center, and its physical structure was expanded between 1954 and 1955 to accommodate its growing membership.
From 1880-1920, Eastern European Jews began immigrating to the United States to escape anti-Semitism and oppression. By 1900, a few of them moved to Alexandria County (now Arlington). The majority were small shopkeepers who eked out a modest living. Focused more on economics than religion, they did not build a synagogue or place of worship in Arlington.
In the mid-1930s, President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal agencies brought an influx of government workers to the region, including Arlington. Jewish men and women were among the newcomers. They came from cities with more established Jewish institutions and sought to create and build them in Arlington, especially a shul to worship and connect with other Jewish families. Without the synagogue, they felt, Arlington’s Jews had no space in which to comfortably and confidently practice their faith.
In the fall of 1940, a group of Jewish newcomers established Ohev Shalom Congregation, a Conservative shul. They met for Jewish educational programming in the homes of members or in rented spaces in Colonial Village and the Jones Building in Clarendon. The Ashton Heights Women’s Club Building held their first high holiday services.
The members of the fledgling congregation hoped to build a permanent synagogue. They turned to two long-standing county residents, Al Wasserman and Albert Cohen, to explore financing and building. Wasserman pledged substantial sums towards a building fund, and Cohen “engineered the purchase of the lot and the construction of the building.”
In 1942, the congregation changed its name to the Arlington Jewish Community Center and, in 1947, broke ground for a long-awaited synagogue building on Arlington Boulevard. In 1954, it expanded the original footprint of the shul as its membership grew.
Arthur Hertzberg was the first rabbi of the shul and was followed by Rabbi Sam Berkowitz and Rabbi Sud. Rabbi Noah Golinkin led the congregation from 1950 to 1965. Rabbi Marvin Bash succeeded him and served as spiritual leader for 36 years. Rabbi Lia Bass took the helm in 2001 and Rav Natan Freller replaced Rabbi Bass in 2020.
The synagogue adopted its current name, Congregation Etz Hayim, in the spring of 2002. It was the only synagogue in Arlington County until 2000, and today remains the only Conservative synagogue in Arlington.
Throughout its many years in Arlington, Jewish education and community building were the focus of the congregation. Civil rights and the fight against the Nazi party in Arlington in the late 1950s were also central. Arts and music flourished at Etz Hayim. One of its well-known congregants was the Sephardic Musician Flory Jagoda, who helped perform, record, and teach Sephardic ballads of the Balkans.
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