History

South Huntington Jewish Center was created in 1960 with fifty families. Services and religious school were held in the storefront on Route 110 that now houses the restaurant Roast. The first High Holiday Services were held at the Sweet Hollow Presbyterian Church on Old Country Road. In 1962, we obtained the land the synagogue sits on today with the aid of Ruby Wagner z”l and Leon Lazar z”l. A ground-breaking was held and many town dignitaries helped to dedicate the synagogue.

After several interim Rabbis, we were fortunate to hire Rabbi Morris Shapiro z”l. He was a highly respected Talmudic scholar who taught us much and helped put SHJC on the map. Rabbi Shapiro was with us for twenty three years.

After three more building expansions, one under Martin Liebman z”l, another under Joel Girsky and the last under Alan Reid, Monique Mensch and Ed Rudofsky, SHJC has blossomed into the beautiful Shul we have all come to know and love.

Many of our congregant members in fact grew up at our synagogue and have chosen SHJC as their adult place of worship.

In 2010, we celebrated our 50th anniversary with a year long celebration. Visit our Religious School wing to view the timeline and click here for our Book of Memories. We were looking forward to celebrating our 60th anniversary in 2020, but the pandemic cancelled our plans.

In 1993, we were fortunate again to hire Rabbi Ian S. Jacknis – an affable and caring Rabbi.  He and his wife, Suri, shared our simchas and sorrow during their 28-year tenure.  Rabbi Jacknis became Rabbi Emeritus in 2021 after his retirement.

In January 2022, we voted to rename our synagogue Melville Jewish Center.

We are very excited that Rabbi Cara Weinstein Rosenthal joined our synagogue in August 2024.