by Lee Weinberger
After just a couple of meetings, the founders decided they wanted to be more than just a social group and formalized itself as The Jewish Community Center of Southern Maryland. Its first priorities were to conduct our own religious services and establish a Religious School staffed, as it is today, by volunteer parents and grandparents. Our first Shabbat service, led by cadre of men who volunteered their time, was conducted at the Hampshire Community Center, our first home. Fortunately, one of our men, Raphael Panitz, owned a Torah which he brought to the service for our use. The first session of our Religious School included a Wednesday evening Hebrew class as well as the traditional Sunday morning classes, began on September 9th under the leadership of Sandy Blake. By the fall of 1990 we had morphed into a Jewish Congregation.