Temple Beth El, the first Jewish congregation in South Palm Beach County, had ecumenical beginnings. The congregation was founded as the Boca Raton Hebrew Congregation in 1967 through the encouragement of a Roman Catholic nun. Mother de la Croix, president of Marymount College, now Lynn University, invited the dozen founding families to worship on her campus. According to congregational lore, Catholic nuns at one time outnumbered Jewish worshippers at the services.

The congregation's first bar mitzvah was held at the next site-a Moravian church at the corner of Palmetto Park Road and 12th Avenue. In the 1970s, the now-named Temple Beth El built this synagogue and expanded it in 1986. The membership is now 2,000 families, one of the largest Reform congregations in the nation.

Information courtesy of Florida Division of Historical Resources, a division of Florida Department of State.