Become a Member!

The Lawrence Jewish Community Center (LJCC) was founded in 1954 by a small group of Jewish families living in the Lawrence, Kansas area. Jewish business people were a presence in Lawrence from the beginning of the twentieth century. Prior to 1954, there had been no place of worship for Jews.

The LJCC serves as a synagogue and a center for Jewish life in Lawrence. We provide weekly Friday night Shabbat services as well as holiday services and celebrations. Community-led Friday Shabbat services beginning at 7:45pm are followed by an Oneg Shabbat, with refreshments and socializing. The monthly early service begins with a wine and cheese reception at 5:45pm, a 30-minute service at 6:15pm, and an optional restaurant dinner afterwards. (See our calendar to find out when the next early service will take place). Our services are in both Hebrew and English. We are an egalitarian congregation and alternate use of Reform, Conservative, and Resconstructionist prayer books, depending on service leaders.

The LJCC offers Religious School instruction for children, preschool through confirmation, and we offer excellent family education activities as well as interfaith outreach activities. We provide numerous social action and cultural events, special classes, guest speakers, a variety of programs, and our annual Blintz Brunch the first Sunday in November.

Membership, required for families sending children to religious school, includes the following benefits: use of facilities for Jewish life cycle events and group meetings; High Holiday parking privileges; admission to all lectures, films, and special events; cemetery burial rights; and ability to vote on important policies, such as rabbinical services, at the annual meeting.

The LJCC gift shop offers a full selection of menorahs, mezuzahs, candles, ritual items, Israeli jewelry, books and children’s items and is open Friday evenings before and often after services as well as by appointment.

The LJCC also owns and maintains the B'nai Israel Cemetery, which contains graves of Jews dating back to the settling of the Kansas Territories in the 1850s. LJCC members in good standing have burial rights in the cemetery.