Our History
Congregation Sons of Israel of Leonia is now celebrating its 88th year. The congregation, the oldest synagogue in Bergen County, grew out of a 1919 Jewish Women's Social Club. This club later became the Dora Schneider Sisterhood, which is still an active arm of the congregation. The husbands of then and members of the Women's Social Club soon organized a Hebrew School, which initially met in the attic of the synagogue's president, Dr. Samule S. Lefkowitz, and then rotated and met in various member's homes. The Hebrew School's first instructors were students at New York City's Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Religious services began, first in a store on Broad Avenue in Palisades Park, and later in the American Legion Club House.