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The tapestries in the west lobby illustrate the two previous homes of Temple Israel, founded at Yom Kippur in 1886. The first was a rock-faced Romanesque Revival building by Grable & Weber located at the northeast corner of Pine and Leffingwell. It disappeared in the Mill Creek Valley redevelopment. The second, at the northwest corner of Washington and Kingshighway, an intersection known as Holy Corners, was the extant Corinthian temple designed in 1907 by Barnett, Haynes & Barnett. The present building, designed in 1957 by Gyo Obata of Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum (HOK), reflects the congregation’s conscious effort to maintain traditional standards of excellence while embracing modern life. This is consistent with Temple Israel’s religious stance, described at its founding as "a liberal and modern platform."
Gyo Obata designed Temple Israel immediately after his Priory Chapel, and the two buildings share a central plan, a soaring vertical element, and a spacious setting in nature. The sculptural tower at Temple Israel is sometimes referred to as a pillar of cloud and was created by Robert Cronbach. Just as the Priory School is a low building set apart from the chapel, Temple Israel’s spacious school facilities are across a natural ravine from the temple, connected by a glass bridge. Where the interior of the Priory Chapel has light coming in from all sides, however, Temple Israel’s main worship space is in the middle of the building, lighted by triangular skylights set into exceptionally long roof spans that meet in the form of a Jewish star (a Mogen David or Shield of David). At daytime events, the shifting patterns of cloud and sunlight create a memorable environment. Large enough to seat 3,000 worshippers, the central space can be divided by tall wood-paneled partitions for smaller events such as the one today. The bema or altar platform can be shifted to remain the focus of each configuration, a feat of engineering because the sculptural wall which is the main feature weighs a ton and a half.
With the ark containing scrolls of the torah at their center, the largely steel sculptures by St. Louis artist Rodney Winfield embody symbols of the faith. To the left can be seen at the bottom the burning bush, and above it the harp of David, the Menorah or candelabra, the moon, and near the top an hourglass form suggesting infinite time. To the right, the Tree of Life rises up past the Shofar or ram’s horn, the tablets of the ten commandments, and an acrostic of the Hebrew letters Aleph and Shin, meaning ‘Almighty One.’ The chained figure represents liberation from the house of bondage. In the center, above the ark, a pillar of fire rises toward the sun, while above it is the pillar of cloud, the same symbol that appears in sculptural form on the roof of the building. The massive pulpit to the right evokes the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, a surviving remnant of Solomon’s temple, in contrast to the light and sweeping lectern, emblematic of Noah’s Ark.
As Mary M. Stiritz notes in her recent St. Louis: Historic Churches and Synagogues, the very presence of Temple Israel on Ladue Road is a symbol of religious freedom, as permission to build required several years of litigation going up to the Missouri Supreme Court. The design won an award from the Church Architectural Guild of America in 1959 and was completed in 1963. The Chamber Chorus presented a celebration of the State of Israel's fiftieth anniversary’s at Temple Israel on May 17, 1998.
Notes by Esley Hamilton and Philip Barnes