Elliot Shapiro (August 25, 1927-January 4, 2012) was born in Boston, Mass., and completed his schooling at Boston Latin School in 1944. He earned an undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University and a Master’s degree from the Harvard School of Government. From 1945 to 1947, he served in the Army in Europe both during and after World War II. He began his career in journalism in Pennsylvania, working as a reporter and editor at the Valley Daily News in Tarentum and the Morning News in Danville. After relocating to Western New York, he worked at the Tonawanda News. Soon after winning a newspaper article award competition in 1962, he joined the staff of the Buffalo Evening News in 1963. After a long tenure on the city desk, and then service as the director of the newspaper photograph library, he retired in 1991. He was a member of Sigma Delta Chi, Greater Buffalo International Chapter and served as local treasurer of the American Newspaper Guild. He was also a member of the Legislative Correspondents Association. He served as a president of Temple Sinai where he also was president of the Couples Club and the bowling league.

Temple Sinai was formed at a meeting organized by Louis Bunis on August 24, 1952, where it was agreed for the need of a “new liberal conservative temple,” to provide its members with “relevant, dynamic, positive and creative Judaism.” Twenty-eight men and women signed the articles of incorporation which included the family names of Borins, Bunis, Estry, Feld, Frey, Goldman, Goldstein, Gross, Kaufman, Posner, Rekoon, Shapiro, Snitzer and Wunder. The first service was held at former home of the Lyndale Evangelical and Reformed Church on October 24, 1952, with Rabbi Harold Weisburg, Cantor Kaufman, and organist Ruth Axelrod as service leaders. Eventually the building was purchased and formally dedicated on April 26, 1953 with (Rabbi) Dr. Ira Eisenstein, then editor of The Reconstructionist, as guest speaker. On April 1, 1954, Rabbi Nathan Gaynor, was installed as the congregation’s first rabbi by Dr. Mordecai Kaplan, a founder of the Reconstructionist Movement.

The next milestone in the synagogue's history was the building of its first dedicated sanctuary building that remained in synagogue’s ownership until it was sold when the Temple combined with another congregation. In 1955, the congregation held a groundbreaking ceremony on Alberta Drive in Amherst, NY. The cornerstone laying for the new synagogue took place on Sunday, November 3, 1957 and the first service at the site was held on August 22, 1957. In 1965, Temple Sinai celebrated its Bar Mitzvah year, and also its first adult b’nai mitzvah ceremony. After the departure of Rabbi Gaynor to become director of Hillel at University of Illinois, Rabbi Paul Levinson served as an interim rabbi with the congregation from 1966 to 1968.

In 1968, Rabbi Joseph D. Herzog, began a 25-year rabbinate with Temple Sinai until his retirement in the 1990s. Following his retirement, several rabbis led the congregation. These included from 1993, Rabbi Barry Schwartz, who during his tenure began the Jubilee Endowment fund and edited a new Shabbat prayer book. Rabbi Benjamin (Jamie) Arnold, took up the reigns in 1999, as the first Reconstructionist trained rabbi. Originally from Western New York, he served as the rabbi of Temple Sinai until relocating to Denver, Colorado in 2005. He was followed by Rabbi Jerry Seidler, whose strong interest in pastoral care led him to become a Jewish Staff Chaplain at an interfaith, multi-cultural health care chaplaincy at Sinai and Northwest Hospitals in Baltimore, MD. In 2008, Rabbi Alex Lazarus-Klein, also Reconstructionist trained, was appointed rabbi, and was a joint rabbi at the successor congregation when Temple Sinai merged with Temple Beth Am. In Congregation Shir Shalom, Reform synagogue, Temple Beth Am and Reconstructionist synagogue, Temple Sinai joined to form the first joint Reconstructionist-Reform temple in the United States.