Shaarei Shamayim has been the name of two Jewish congregations in Madison, Wisconsin. The first, dating to the 19th century but no longer in existence, built what is now the eighth-oldest synagogue building still standing in the United States. The second congregation, dating to 1989, is the sole Reconstructionist congregation in Madison.The First Shaarei ShamayimMadison's Shaarei Shamayim congregation was founded in 1856 by Jewish immigrants from Germany. In 1863, they built a synagogue that was designed by August Kutzbock, a recent German immigrant, in the Rundbogenstil style, a nineteenth-century German form of Romanesque revival. Kutzbock also used this distinctive style for the Carrie Pierce and Van Slyke Houses in the adjacent Mansion Hill district. The building now ranks as the eighth-oldest surviving synagogue building in the United States. The Panic of 1873 forced the lease of the building to a Unitarian congregation, and in subsequent years it was repurposed to house the Women's Christian Temperance Union, other churches, and a funeral home.
