{{Short description|Synagogue in Philadelphia}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox religious building | building_name = Vilna Congregation | native_name = {{langx|he|בית הכנסת אנשי ווילנה}} | image = VILNACONG PHILA 20150925.jpg | image_upright = 1.4 | caption = The synagogue, in 2015 | map_type = Philadelphia | map_size = 250 | map_caption = Location in [[Philadelphia]] | location = 509 Pine Street, [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]] 19106 | country = United States | geo = {{coord|39.94390|-75.15074|type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-PA|format=dms|display=ti}} | religious_affiliation = [[Orthodox Judaism]] | rite = {{ubl|[[Chabad|Chabad-Lubavitch]]|[[Nusach Sefard]]}} | region = | province = | territory = | prefecture = | sector = | district = | cercle = | municipality = | consecration_year = 1915 | status = [[Synagogue]] | functional_status = Active | heritage_designation = | leadership = Rabbi Menachem Schmidt | website = {{URL|vilnaphilly.org}} | architect = | architecture_type = [[Chabad]] | architecture_style = [[Terraced house|Philadelphia Rowhouse]] | general_contractor = | facade_direction = South | established = 1904 {{small|(as a congregation)}} | groundbreaking = | year_completed = 1915 | construction_cost = | specifications = | capacity = 75 worshippers | length = | width = | width_nave = | height_max = | dome_quantity = | dome_height_outer = | dome_height_inner = | dome_dia_outer = | dome_dia_inner = | minaret_quantity = | minaret_height = | spire_quantity = | spire_height = | materials = | nrhp = | added = | refnum = | designated = }} '''The Vilna Congregation''' ({{langx|he|בית הכנסת אנשי ווילנה}}) is an [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] [[Judaism|Jewish]] congregation and [[synagogue]], located in the [[Society Hill]] section of [[Center City, Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], in the United States. The synagogue was traditionally home to an active [[Hasidic Judaism|Hasidic]] [[Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazi]] congregation that held Shabbat and holy day services, was affiliated with [[Chabad|Lubavitch]] of Center City.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chabad.org/centers/default_cdo/aid/117957/jewish/Lubavitch-of-Center-City.htm |title=Lubavitch of Center City |website=chabad.org |access-date=2015-09-20}}</ref> In more recent years,{{clarify|date=March 2024}} the synagogue became the home of an Orthodox women's [[mikvah]] run by the Lubavitch Hasidic community.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://philamikvah.org |title=Mai Shalva - Center City Community Mikvah |website=philamikvah.org |access-date=2015-09-20}}</ref>
Rabbi Menachem Schmidt is the [[rabbi]] of the congregation,<ref>{{cite news |last= Thompson |first=Andrew |date=August 28, 2009 |title=Too Cool For Shul|url=http://www.collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=5108 |newspaper=City Paper|location=Philadelphia |access-date=2015-09-20 }}</ref> and he oversees the property and its operations.
==History== === Early 1900s to 1974 === The Vilna Congregation began in 1904 as a Landsleit shul for Lithuanian Jewish immigrants in Philadelphia.<ref>{{cite book |last=Meyers |first=Allen |date= 1998|title=The Jewish Community of South Philadelphia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NNWi5MGrAMsC&dq=vilna+congregation+philadelphia+pine&pg=PA122 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |page=122 |isbn=073854955X}}</ref> The congregation held services in rented rooms until 1915, when the building on 509 Pine Street was purchased by the Shapiro family. The building was registered as a synagogue on February 1, 1922.<ref>{{cite web |title=509 PINE ST ACCOUNT # 771148000 |url=http://property.phila.gov |publisher=City of Philadelphia }}</ref> Prior to its purchase by the Shapiro family in 1915, the building was the residence of Julius Taussig.<ref>{{cite book |date= 1916|title=Philadelphia Section of the American Chemical Society |publisher=Catalyst, Volumes 1-2 |page=19 }}</ref> The Shapiro family was in the hardware business in the 1920s, at which time the women members organized the Sara Shapiro Sisterhood.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://philamikvah.org/add-your-story/ |title=Communities |website=Mai Shalva - Center City Community Mikvah |access-date=2015-09-20}}</ref>
The stone above the front doorway reads, in {{langx|he|בית הכנסת בני אברהם אבא ב'ר יהודה שאפירא ואנשי ווילנה נוסדה בשנת תרס׳||The Avraham Aba Bar Shapira and Men of Vilna Synagogue established in the year 5665}}.
Joseph Hillel Snapir (1884{{mdash}}1971) served as synagogue rabbi in the 1950s and 1960s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Boonin |first=Harry Davidow |date=1999 |title=The Jewish Quarter of Philadelphia: A History and Guide, 1881-1930 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wckRAQAAIAAJ&q=vilna+congregation+philadelphia+pine |publisher=Jewish Walking Tours of Philadelphia|isbn=096698840X}}</ref> The congregation welcomed the memorial plaques from [[B'nai Reuben Anshe Sfard]] when the congregation closed in 1956.
The synagogue held its own daily services until 1974 at which time it decided to hold only Shabbat services.<ref>{{cite news |last=Dubin |first=Murray|date=December 8, 1974 |title=Orthodox Jews Fade Away in Society Hill|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|location=Philadelphia |pages=1B, 10B}}</ref> By the late 1980s, the Vilna Congregation's membership continued to contract and they struggled to gather a minyan by the mid-1980s.<ref>{{cite news |last=Amparano Lopez |first=Julie |date=September 14, 1991 |title=The interest is booming you don't have to look under a rock to find resurgence in faith|newspaper=Daily News |location=Philadelphia |page=11 }}</ref>
=== Since the late 1980s === Rabbi Menachem Schmidt was appointed in 1989, and began reviving the congregation as a community shul where he led services, hosted meals, and taught. The synagogue conducted services every Friday night for both the Vilna congregation and [[Congregation B'nai Abraham]] until 2018. On Shabbos mornings and holy days, the Vilna shul held a “late morning” minyan with a festive kiddish following services in the building's second floor community space.
The building is the proposed site of a Center City mikvah, Mai Shalva. Community members, led by Rabbi Menachem Schmidt, organized a group in 2013 called the Center City Community Mikvah, selected a site, commissioned architectural plans and began to raise funds.<ref>{{cite news |last=Schwartzman |first=Bryan |date=October 16, 2013 |title=Effort to Build a Mikvah in Center City Picks Up Steam |url=http://www.jewishexponent.com/effort-to-build-a-mikvah-in-center-city-picks-up-steam |newspaper=Jewish Exponent |location=Philadelphia |access-date=2015-09-20 }}</ref>
== See also == {{stack|{{Portal|Philadelphia|Judaism}}}} * [[History of the Jews in Pennsylvania]]
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{official website|https://www.vilnaphilly.org}} *[http://philamikvah.org Mai Shalva Center City Community Mikvah]
{{Society Hill}} {{Synagogues in the United States}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vilna Congregation}} [[Category:1904 establishments in Pennsylvania]] [[Category:Chabad in the United States]] [[Category:Hasidic synagogues in the United States]] [[Category:Ashkenazi Jewish culture in Philadelphia]] [[Category:Hasidic Judaism in Pennsylvania]] [[Category:Jewish organizations established in 1904]] [[Category:Lithuanian-American culture in Pennsylvania]] [[Category:Lithuanian-Jewish culture in the United States]] [[Category:Orthodox synagogues in Pennsylvania]] [[Category:Society Hill, Philadelphia]] [[Category:Synagogues completed in 1915]] [[Category:Synagogues in Philadelphia]] [[Category:Tourist attractions in Philadelphia]] [[Category:20th-century synagogues in the United States]]