About Us
Who we are today
Our History
Mt. Zion Congregation today is a community of approximately 50 families, who share Jewish spiritual values and traditions as well as care about one another. Our membership is a diverse one, including people who have moved here from various parts of the United States and Israel.
There are many opportunities for connecting to our community, including Shabbat Services, which emphasizes participation by our members, services commemorating the Jewish Holidays, Torah study, religious education, and congregational dinners and celebrations. We host dinners with our Student Rabbis, discussion groups, Oneg Shabbats, and cultural events. Additionally, we honor all lifecycle events, such as Brit, Baby Naming, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, and the occasional wedding.
Long before statehood in 1889, Jews lived in Sioux Falls. Most of these early families were German in origin and Reform in practice. In 1903 they incorporated the Mt. Zion Cemetery Society and purchased land on West 12th Street. In September 1919, they established a Reform congregation affiliated with the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. The new congregation was named for Mt. Zion Temple in St. Paul, where most of the new congregation members had held prior residence. In August of 1920, a rabbi was engaged for the thirty-three families. There were twenty children in the religious school.
The current home of the congregation was built in 1894 and was purchased from First Lutheran Church in 1924. Extensive remodeling included stained glass windows that bear the names of the founding members and their relatives. The basement with a social hall and kitchen was added in 1951, and the religious school annex was built on the south side of the building in 1958. The sanctuary was remodeled in 1962.
Mt Zion has four Torahs. The founding congregation purchased the smaller scroll in the Ark. One of the larger scrolls was entrusted to the Mt. Zion congregation from the Sons of Israel, an orthodox congregation in Sioux Falls that disbanded in 1973. The other large scroll in the Ark is called “The Covered Wagon Torah” and was received from the Deadwood Jewish community in 1950 and was rededicated in exceptional service. It was inscribed in Germany and traveled across the ocean and the prairie with one of Deadwood’s oldest Jewish families. The fourth Torah is in a display case in the ante-room east of the sanctuary. Called “The Czech Torah,” it is a Holocaust survivor and is too damaged for everyday ritual use. It was sheltered here and rededicated in 1982. (See the Czech Torah tab for complete details…or please link to it here.)
The congregation’s last full-time rabbi was Eugene Hibshman, who served from 1953 to his death in 1978. He celebrated fifty years since ordination that year, the prior twenty-five as our rabbi. Rabbi Stephen Forstein then served part-time until 1984. Since then, the congregation has been served by students from the Hebrew Union Seminary (Cincinnati, OH). Their terms are one to three years.