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Shir Tikvah Congregation, Minneapolis

Shir Tikvah Congregation, Minneapolis

Creator:
Color photograph of Shir Tikvah Synagogue.

The front façade of Shir Tikvah Synagogue on the former site of the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis.

Shir Tikvah is a Reform congregation in south Minneapolis founded in 1988 after a dispute at St. Paul's Mount Zion Temple over the sexual orientation of Associate Rabbi Stacy Offner. Offner resigned from Mount Zion in February 1988 and became the first woman rabbi in Minnesota.

A small group of Offner's supporters met soon after she resigned and decided to form a new congregation open to all Jews. More than two hundred people attended the first informational meeting, and the forty-family congregation held its first Shabbat service in May 1988 at the St. Paul Jewish Community Center. Rabbi Offner was formally hired in August. By year's end, the congregation had eighty families, and it had taken the name Shir Tikvah (Song of Hope). After David Harris served as soloist for Shir Tikvah's first High Holiday services in the fall of 1988, the temple hired him as its music director in July 1989.

The congregation's membership reached 120 households by the end of 1989. Shir Tikvah voted in 1990 to join the Reform movement. Two other choices considered were to be an independent congregation or join the Reconstructionist movement of American Judaism. The congregation went with the larger Reform movement to give children the chance to take part in regional and national youth groups.

At the time of its founding, Shir Tikvah members agreed that decisions would be made democratically. The congregation also agreed to accept all Jewish lifestyles and family types, with no discrimination based on gender, marital status, race, age, or sexual orientation. Shir Tikvah was the first Twin Cities synagogue to perform same-sex wedding blessings on its altar. The congregation also developed a strong social action committee.

After five years, the congregation outgrew the St. Paul Jewish Community Center, and Shir Tikvah bought a former Universalist church building in 1994 near Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. In 2008, Rabbi Offner became vice president of the Union for Reform Judaism in New York City. Before she left, Shir Tikvah named her founding rabbi emerita. The congregation hired Twin Cities native Michael Adam Latz as its second permanent rabbi in 2010. In 2012, the congregation had more than 400 households.
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Weber, Laura. "Shir Tikvah Congregation, Minneapolis." MNopedia, Minnesota Historical Society. https://www3.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/group/shir-tikvah-congregation-minneapolis
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First Published: December 19, 2013
Last Modified: April 11, 2025

Bibliography

Bergman, Andrea Klein. "Shir Tikvah: Reshaping Reform Judaism Through Inclusivity from 1988 to the Present." History Senior Thesis, St. Catherine University, 2009.
Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Schloff, Linda Mack. "Who Knew?: Stories Unearthed from the Archives." Upper Midwest Jewish History: The Journal of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest 6 (Fall 2011): 105–107.
http://www.jhsum.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Who-Knew.pdf

Shir Tikvah congregation.
http://shirtikvah.net/

Strickler, Jeff. "Offner continues trailblazing ways." Star Tribune, June 13, 2008.
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/19913134.html?source=error

Related Resources

Secondary

Berman, Hyman, and Linda Mack Schloff. Jews in Minnesota. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2002.

Lewin, Rhoda. Reform Jews of Minneapolis. Images of America series. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2004.

Nathanson, Iric. "Making it in Minnesota." Reform Judaism 23, no. 1 (Fall 2003): 46–51.

Plaut, W. Gunther. The Jews in Minnesota: The First Seventy-five Years. American Jewish Communal Histories, no. 3. New York: American Jewish Historical Society, 1959.

———. Mount Zion 1856–1956: The First Seventy-Five Years. St. Paul: Mount Zion Hebrew Congregation, 1956.

Schloff, Linda Mack. "And Prairie Dogs Weren't Kosher": Jewish Women in the Upper Midwest Since 1855. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1996.

Web

The Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest.
www.jhsum.org

Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives.
www.lib.umn.edu/umja

Related Images

Color photograph of Shir Tikvah Synagogue.

The front façade of Shir Tikvah Synagogue on the former site of the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis.

Color photograph of Shir Tikvah Synagogue.

A side view of the exterior of Shir Tikvah Synagogue on the former site of the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis.

Color photograph of Rabbi Stacy Offner.

Rabbi Stacy Offner.

Color photograph of Rabbi Stacy Offner with a congregant of Shir Tikvah Synagogue.

Rabbi Stacy Offner with a congregant of Shir Tikvah Synagogue.

Color photograph of Shir Tikvah Synagogue.

Shir Tikvah Synagogue

The front façade of Shir Tikvah Synagogue on the former site of the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis.

© Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest    

All rights reserved

Holding Location

Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest

Articles

Color photograph of Shir Tikvah Synagogue.

Side view of Shir Tikvah Synagogue

A side view of the exterior of Shir Tikvah Synagogue on the former site of the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis.

© Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest    

All rights reserved

Holding Location

Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest

Articles

Color photograph of Rabbi Stacy Offner.

Rabbi Stacy Offner

Rabbi Stacy Offner.

© Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest    

All rights reserved

Holding Location

Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest

More Information

Color photograph of Rabbi Stacy Offner with a congregant of Shir Tikvah Synagogue.

Rabbi Stacy Offner with a congregant of Shir Tikvah Synagogue

Rabbi Stacy Offner with a congregant of Shir Tikvah Synagogue.

© Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest    

All rights reserved

Holding Location

Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest

Articles

Related Articles

Turning Point

Shir Tikvah is founded in 1988 by former members of St. Paul's Mount Zion Temple who left due to a congregational dispute over Rabbi Stacy Offner's homosexuality. Shir Tikvah hires Rabbi Offner as its founding rabbi.

Chronology

February 1988
Rabbi Stacy Offner resigns from her position as associate rabbi of Mount Zion Temple in St. Paul after a congregational dispute about her sexual orientation.
May 1988
Shir Tikvah is formed by members from Mount Zion who resigned in support of Rabbi Offner. Services are held at the St. Paul Jewish Community Center.
August 1988
Rabbi Offner is hired to lead the forty-family congregation.
1989
Shir Tikvah adopts a mission statement that voices support for all gay, lesbian, and transgender people and embraces the diversity of American Jewry. Same-sex wedding blessings are performed on the altar.
1994
The congregation purchases a former Universalist church building and moves to Minneapolis.
2008
Rabbi Offner accepts a position as vice president of the national Reform organization Union for Reform Judaism.

Bibliography

Bergman, Andrea Klein. "Shir Tikvah: Reshaping Reform Judaism Through Inclusivity from 1988 to the Present." History Senior Thesis, St. Catherine University, 2009.
Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Schloff, Linda Mack. "Who Knew?: Stories Unearthed from the Archives." Upper Midwest Jewish History: The Journal of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest 6 (Fall 2011): 105–107.
http://www.jhsum.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Who-Knew.pdf

Shir Tikvah congregation.
http://shirtikvah.net/

Strickler, Jeff. "Offner continues trailblazing ways." Star Tribune, June 13, 2008.
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/19913134.html?source=error

Related Resources

Secondary

Berman, Hyman, and Linda Mack Schloff. Jews in Minnesota. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2002.

Lewin, Rhoda. Reform Jews of Minneapolis. Images of America series. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2004.

Nathanson, Iric. "Making it in Minnesota." Reform Judaism 23, no. 1 (Fall 2003): 46–51.

Plaut, W. Gunther. The Jews in Minnesota: The First Seventy-five Years. American Jewish Communal Histories, no. 3. New York: American Jewish Historical Society, 1959.

———. Mount Zion 1856–1956: The First Seventy-Five Years. St. Paul: Mount Zion Hebrew Congregation, 1956.

Schloff, Linda Mack. "And Prairie Dogs Weren't Kosher": Jewish Women in the Upper Midwest Since 1855. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1996.

Web

The Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest.
www.jhsum.org

Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives.
www.lib.umn.edu/umja