The city of Huntington was not yet 10 years old when Samuel Gideon organized the Almonia Social Club in 1880. Soon after that, Emanuel Biern arrived in town and with Gideon formed a minyan for religious services according to orthodox Jewish rites. This was the beginning of a lifelong friendship between these two patriarchs.

In 1887, Ohev Sholom Congregation was organized by the members of the Almonia Club, with Gideon as its first president. That same year, the first Jewish religious school in Huntington was established and the Ladies' Hebrew Benevolent Society (later the Temple Sisterhood) was formed. In 1891, Ohev Sholom Congregation purchased a lot at 5th Avenue and 10th Street and construction began on the first temple. The new home was dedicated the following year by Rabbi Issac M. Wise, pioneer of Reform
Judaism in the United States.

For its first 13 years, the congregation could not afford to hire a rabbi, but conducted services on the Sabbath and on all the Holy Days, with students from the Hebrew Union College assisting Gideon and Biern in the services. A surge in the growth of the city around the time of World War I brought an influx of newcomers to the Jewish community and it soon became apparent that Ohev Sholom had outgrown its first home.

In late 1919, Gideon and Biern negotiated purchase of the lot on which the present Temple stands. In 1924, the old Temple was sold and construction of the present Temple began the next year. It was completed in 1926 and dedicated by Rabbi David Phillipson, president of the Hebrew Union College. With the stock market crash in 1929, there were fears that the Temple would be lost, but mortgage holders were persuaded not to foreclose. In 1943, Ohev Sholom Temple was declared free of debt and was rededicated.

At about the same time as the new Temple was being built in the mid-1920s, a second small Huntington congregation was purchasing land to build its own premanent home.

B'nai Israel Synagogue was established in 1910 as an orthodox congregation under the leadership of Joseph Cohen. For its first decade, the congregation held religious services in assorted rented facilities before building its temple on a lot at 9th Street and 9th Avenue. In late 1939, Samuel Gore, one of the founders of the congregation, had the honor of burning the mortgage.

By the late 1960s, as the membership grew older, the number of children in the congregation greatly decreased, so in 1968, the religious schools of B'nai Israel Synagogue and Ohev Sholom Temple were merged, making it possible for all the Jewish children in Huntington to learn about their heritage together. This was the first step toward the ultimate merging of the two congregations 10 years later.

On October 13, 1978, the combined congregation gathered at the old B'nai Israel building at 9th Street and 9th Avenue to walk in procession with the Torah scrolls and to dedicate the new chapel which was adorned by the windows from the former synagogue.

Since creation of B'nai Sholom Congregation, the community has grown, especially with the establishment of the Marshall University Medical School and the new membership from Temple Agudeth Achim of Ashland, Ky.