On a quiet East Baltimore street stand two of America’s most historic synagogues — and between them, the Jewish Museum of Maryland tells the story of one of the nation’s oldest Jewish communities. The Lloyd Street Synagogue (1845) is the third-oldest synagogue building in the United States, a Greek Revival jewel; its neighbor, B’nai Israel (1876), glows with Moorish Revival detail and still worships weekly.
The museum between them — part of the Herbert Bearman campus — mounts exhibitions on Maryland Jewish life drawn from one of the country’s great community archives: immigration stories, synagogue treasures, neighborhood memories from Jonestown, once the heart of Jewish Baltimore. Beneath Lloyd Street, the preserved mikveh and matzah oven whisper older layers still.
The Jewish Museum of Maryland is at 15 Lloyd Street, two blocks from the Inner Harbor. Tours of both synagogues are included with admission; hours at jewishmuseummd.org.
