On June 2, 1856, President Franklin Pierce signed into law An Act for the Benefit of the Hebrew Congregation in the City of Washington, ensuring its right to own property in the District of Columbia.

[6][7] Washington Hebrew grew steadily in membership and in influence; in 1863 it purchased for $8,000.00 the 8th and I Street NW site, a former Methodist church, which had been used by the government as a hospital during the Civil War.

Jewish soldiers fought on both sides in the Civil War, and the Washington Hebrew Congregation helped ease wartime suffering.

During the war, the women of the Washington Hebrew Congregation raised money for the U.S. Sanitary Commission, which administered wartime relief to soldiers and their families.

From 1897 to 1954, the congregation met at 816 Eighth Street NW, in a building designed by Washington architects Louis F. Stutz and Frank W.

After Rabbi Gerstenfeld refused to denounce Freed, Jewish members of ACCESS (Action Coordinating Committee to End Segregation in the Suburbs) leafleted the congregation during Yom Kippur in 1966 and 1967.

Expanded and renovated over the years, the Temple is nestled in between Rock Creek National Park and the residential neighborhood of McLean Gardens.

Dedicated in 1978, the Julia Bindeman Suburban Center was erected to meet the needs of a growing congregation, as members moved out of the District to the suburbs.

It purchased a small plot on Hamilton Road (now Alabama Avenue, SE) in the early 1850s, before moving to an area adjacent to Adas Israel’s land in 1879.

Washington Hebrew Congregation organized a 152-acre nonprofit cemetery, Garden of Remembrance (Gan Zikaron) Memorial Park, in Clarksburg, Maryland.

In August 2018 the synagogue reported to community parents that it had learned of, and taken actions in response to, allegations that an employee at its Macomb Street Edlavitch-Tyser Early Childhood Center may have engaged in inappropriate conduct involving one or more children.

[15][16] The D.C. Metropolitan Police and the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia concluded a 16-month criminal investigation of the alleged abuser in January 2020, closing the case without filing any charges.

[15] In October 2019 the synagogue was vandalized with graffiti including, according to the police report, "numerous anti-Semitic statements, profane language, and child-like drawings of male and female genitalia.