Congregation Achduth Vesholom

Congregation Achduth Vesholom (transliterated from Hebrew as "Unity and Peace"[1][2][3]) is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 5200 Old Mill Road in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the United States.

[1][4] Achduth Vesholom is the oldest congregation in Indiana, formed on October 26, 1848 as a German Orthodox congregation,[1][5][2][6] called "The Society for Visiting the Sick and Burying the Dead".

[1][2] On the corner of Harrison and Wayne Streets, the congregation built a Gothic Revival-style temple with seating for 800 people in 1874 at the cost of $25,000 (equivalent to $673,000 today);[2][9] and in the same year the congregation joined the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

[11] The congregation's third synagogue was completed in 1917, located at the corner of Wayne and Fairfield Streets;[6] and it moved to 5200 Old Mill Road in 1961.

[2] In 1995, the synagogue hired a new rabbi, Sandford Kopnick,[12] and Rabbi Meir Bargeron commenced on July 1, 2020 as the congregation's 24th spiritual leader.