Congregation Solel

Congregation Solel of Highland Park, Illinois was founded in 1957 and was one of the first Reform synagogues in the North Shore of Chicago. It currently serves about 500 member households.

The congregation began as a branch of the oldest synagogue in Illinois, Congregation Kehilat Anshei Maavriv – Congregation of the Men of the West (now KAM Isaiah Israel), located on Chicago's South Side. When a group of families moved from the South Side to the North Shore suburbs of Highland Park, Glencoe and Winnetka, they sought to create a similar congregation in their new community. KAM's rabbi at the time, Jacob Weinstein, planned to move to the North Shore to lead the congregation. After one year of traveling back and forth between the two synagogues, Rabbi Weinstein made the decision to stay in Hyde Park, and KAM-North Shore, (as Solel was then called) hired its first full-time Rabbi, Arnold Jacob Wolf.

Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf began his storied career at Congregation Solel. He is said to have suggested the name Solel, which had never previously been used as a name for a synagogue. (It has since been adopted by several synagogues.) The Hebrew word Solel means "pathfinder," or "trailblazer."

Under Rabbi Wolf's leadership, the congregation grew rapidly, and instituted an array of new programs including free trips to Israel for students who completed four years of Hebrew education, havurot (Jewish fellowship groups), and an emphasis on lay involvement and participation. The temple inaugurated annual Holocaust remembrance weekends, one of the first synagogues to do so. The temple pursued an agenda of social justice. Martin Luther King accepted an invitation from Rabbi Wolf and spoke at Congregation Solel on June 30, 1966. Rabbi Wolf also invited the Chicago Seven to speak at the synagogue in 1968.

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