Congregation Beth Elohim
Encyclopedia
Congregation Beth Elohim , also known as the Garfield Temple and the Eighth Avenue Temple, is a Reform
Jewish
congregation located at 274 Garfield Place and Eighth Avenue, in the Park Slope
neighborhood of Brooklyn
, New York
, United States
.
Founded in 1861 as a more liberal breakaway from Congregation Baith Israel, for the first 65 years it attempted four mergers with other congregations, including three with Baith Israel, all of which failed. The congregation completed its current Classical Revival
synagogue
building in 1910 and its "Jewish Deco" (Romanesque Revival
and Art Deco
) Temple House in 1929. These two buildings were contributing properties
to the Park Slope historic district
, listed as a New York City Landmark district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places
.
The congregation went through difficult times during the Great Depression
, and the bank almost foreclosed on its buildings in 1946. Membership dropped significantly in the 1930s because of the Depression, grew after World War II
, and dropped again in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of demographic shifts. Programs for young children helped draw Jewish families back into the neighborhood and revitalize the membership.
By 2006, Beth Elohim had over 1,000 members, and, , it was the largest and most active Reform congregation in Brooklyn, the "oldest Brooklyn congregation that continues to function under its corporate name", and its pulpit
was the oldest in continuous use in any Brooklyn synagogue. In 2009, it was listed by Newsweek
as one of America's 25 "Most Vibrant" Jewish congregations.
at Granada Hall on Myrtle Avenue
, members of Congregation Baith Israel who had become disaffected after they attempted and failed to reform practice
there. The synagogue name was chosen by a vote of the membership, and the services were led by George Brandenstein, who served as cantor
, and was paid $150 (today $) a year. Brandenstein was hired as cantor, not rabbi
, because "the congregation believed having a cantor was more important", though in practice he filled both roles. A shamash
(the equivalent of a sexton
or beadle) was also hired for $75 a year.
While searching for a permanent location, the congregation continued to meet and hold services at Granada Hall. Men and women sat together, unlike the traditional separate seating, and services were conducted in German and Hebrew
. Within a few months, the former Calvary Protestant Episcopal church on Pearl Street, between Nasau and Concord, was purchased for $5,100 (today $) and renovated for another $2,000 (today $). The new building was dedicated on March 30, 1862, and the congregation became known as "the Pearl street synagogue". By 1868, membership had increased to 103, and by 1869, almost 100 students attended the Sunday school.
Beth Elohim had originally conducted its services
in the traditional manner, but on February 19, 1870 "inaugurated the moderate reform services" instead. In an attempt to stem defections and make the synagogue more attractive to existing and potential members, that same month the congregation purchased, for $55,000 (today $), the building of the Central Presbyterian
Church on Schermerhorn Street near Nevins Street. Sufficient numbers of new members did not, however, materialize, and the congregation was forced to give up its new building, forfeit its $4,000 (today $) deposit, and return to the Pearl Street building. Instead, the Pearl street building was renovated, and an organ and choir added.
Beth Elohim voted to retire Brandenstein in 1882, an action which created some controversy both within the congregation, and among other Brooklyn synagogues. Younger members of the congregation found no specific fault with Brandenstein, but wanted "a change", and succeeded in dismissing him and electing an entirely new board of officers. The final vote was 29 in favor, 21 against, out of a total membership of 53 or 54 (only the male heads of households were counted as members during this era). Solomon Mosche was hired to replace Brandenstein.
In April 1883, Baith Israel, Beth Elohim, and Temple Israel
, Brooklyn's three leading synagogues, attempted an amalgamation. This was the third such attempt; the previous two had failed when the members could not agree on synagogue ritual. The combined congregation, which would purchase new premises, would have 150 members; members would be refunded half the purchase price of the pew
s in their existing buildings. Mosche and the rabbi of Temple Israel were to split the offices of rabbi and cantor: Baith Israel, at the time, had no rabbi. Though this attempt also failed, in the following year the three congregations carried out combined activities, including a picnic and a celebration of the 100th birthday of Moses Montefiore
. Membership at that time still hovered around 50.
Mosche fell ill in 1884, and after being unable to serve for six months, was replaced by 26-year-old William Sparger. Despite his illness, Mosche lived until age 75, dying on November 3, 1911.
Sparger was Hungarian
by birth, a graduate of the Prince Rudolph University of Vienna
, and, according to a contemporary New York Times
article, "belong[ed] to the extreme liberal school of Hebrew theology". He introduced changes to the services, including improving the choir, bringing in a new prayer book, adding Friday night services, and the "radical reform" of making the sermon the most important part of the service. He appealed to younger congregants, and, under his direction, the synagogue experienced a large increase in attendance.
Though more seats had been added to the synagogue by narrowing the aisles, as a result of Sparger's innovations Beth Elohim outgrew its Pearl Street building, and a new one was sought. After a three year search, in 1885 Beth Elohim purchased the building of the Congregational Church at 305 State Street (near Hoyt) for $28,000 (today $), and moved in that year.
In 1891, Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan
offered Sparger a salary larger than Beth Elohim could match, and he moved there. Beth Elohim subsequently split the offices of cantor and rabbi, hiring G. Taubenhaus as rabbi and the Mauritz Weisskopf as cantor.
Born in Warsaw
, Taubenhaus could read the Pentateuch fluently in Hebrew at age four, and began studying the Talmud
at age six. He attended the "Berlin theological seminary" (likely the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums
) for six years. Upon emigrating to the United States, he served at Kehillah
Kodesh Bene Yeshurum in Paducah, Kentucky
, Temple Israel
in Dayton, Ohio
, and Congregation B'nai Israel
in Sacramento, California
, before becoming the rabbi of the Shaari Zedek ("Gates of Hope") synagogue in New York. Differences with the latter congregation led to his resignation there shortly before being hired by Beth Elohim. Taubenhaus's brother Joseph would be appointed rabbi at Baith Israel, Beth Elohim's parent congregation, in 1893, and another brother, Jacob/Jean Taubenhaus
, was a famous French chess master
.
By the time of Taubenhaus's hiring, Beth Elohim was, according to the Brooklyn Eagle, "recognized as the leading Hebrew synagogue of Brooklyn". The views of the congregation regarding kashrut
(the Jewish dietary laws) were by then quite liberal; in 1892, when Hyman Rosenberg was expelled as rabbi of Brooklyn's Beth Jacob synagogue
for eating ham
, Taubenhaus stated that he did not believe his congregation would expel him for doing the same.
In 1895, Samuel Radnitz succeeded Weisskopf as cantor, a role he filled until his death in 1944.
By the turn of the twentieth century English had replaced German in the services and official minutes, and the second days of holidays
eliminated. The synagogue had 106 members and annual revenues of around $8,000 (today $), and its Sunday School
had approximately 300 pupils.
Taubenhaus left the congregation in 1901, and the following year Alexander Lyons was hired as the congregation's first American-born rabbi. Lyons went on to serve the congregation for 37 years, until his death in 1939 at the age of 71.
In 1907, the women's auxiliary was founded; until then, though seating was mixed, women had little say in the running of the synagogue. That year the congregation had 110 member families and annual revenues of $9,259.55 (today $). The congregational school, which held classes one day a week, had 15 teachers and 200 students.
In 1908, the congregation purchased a 100 feet (30.5 m) by 112 feet (34.1 m) lot on the northeast corner of Garfield Place and Eighth Avenue. Plans were made to erect a new synagogue building there with a sanctuary seating 1,500 people, at an anticipated cost of $100,000 (today $). The structure was designed and built by the Manhattan architectural firm of Simon Eisendrath and B. Horowitz (or Horwitz). Construction began in 1909 and completed in 1910. Designed in the Classical Revival
style, this "monumental example" of "austere neo-Classical grandeur" had five sides, representing the five books of Moses, a sanctuary that ultimately sat 1,200, and was capped by a saucer dome
. The entrance faced the corner of Garfield and Eighth, and carved in stone over it was the Biblical verse fragment "MINE HOUSE SHALL BE AN HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL PEOPLE" . The basement held classrooms, an auditorium, and administrative offices, and behind the Torah ark was a combination Rabbi's study/Board meeting room. The State Street building was sold to Congregation Mount Sinai.
1909 was also the year Judah Leon Magnes
proposed and founded his Kehilla, a "comprehensive communal organization for the Jews of New York", which operated until 1922. Lyons opposed its creation, arguing that Jews in New York were too diverse to co-exist in one organization with a single set of standards, that Jews should not organize as Jews for anything except purely religious purposes, and that in any event Reform Judaism was the future and Orthodox Judaism
would not survive. As Lyons put it,
By 1919, Beth Elohim had 133 member families. The congregational school, which held classes once a week, had 305 students and 16 teachers.
Negotiations to merge with Union Temple
(the successor to Temple Israel) were started in 1925. A confirmation vote eventually passed, and the impending merger was announced in the Brooklyn Eagle
. However, younger congregants feared a loss of identity, and forced a withdrawal.
Instead, the congregation raised funds for a second building, and in 1928–1929 built the six-story Temple House (used for all congregational activities) on the corner opposite the main sanctuary. Designed by Mortimer Freehof and David Levy, the cast stone
building's architectural style
was "Jewish Deco", a mix of Romanesque Revival
and Art Deco
decorative forms that was common in Jewish buildings of the period. Romanesque features included the fenestrations, while a prominent Art Deco feature was "the figure of Moses
and the Tablets of Law
, emphasizing the corner of the roof parapet
." The doorway and balcony at the east end of the building had "a distinctly Moorish
flavor, featuring symbolic ornament: the Star of David
, the Menorah, and the Lion of Judah
." The names of major figures from the Tanakh
(Hebrew Bible
) were inscribed on the Garfield Place facade
, and the Biblical verses "SHOW ME THY WAYS O LORD TEACH ME THY PATHS GUIDE ME" on the Eighth Avenue facade. The building was also decorated with bas-reliefs of Jonah being swallowed by a great fish and Babylonian charioteers. It housed a 125 seat chapel, a large ballroom, social halls, class rooms for the religious school, meeting rooms, administrative offices, a library, handball courts, a gymnasium, and a swimming pool.
Lyons took on a number of causes in the 1910s and 1920s. He worked with Bishop
David Greer
and Rabbi Stephen Wise
to expose conditions in New York's tenements
, dissociated himself from Tammany Hall
candidates, tried to secure a re-trial for Leo Frank
, and opposed some of the views of Samuel Gompers
. In 1912, Lyons was a founding member of the Eastern Council of Reform Rabbis, an organization of Reform rabbis from the Eastern United States
that was created despite opposition from the Central Conference of Reform Rabbis
. In 1919 he withdrew from the Brooklyn Victory Celebration Committee (celebrating the Allied
victory in World War I
) and asked that his contributed funds be donated instead to the Red Cross; a large number of committee members eventually resigned in protest over the overt politicization of the event, and its control by William Randolph Hearst
.
, a graduate of Hebrew Union College
, joined Lyons as rabbi of Beth Elohim in 1931. Born in Russia in 1880, Landman had come to the United States in 1890. In 1911, with the assistance of Jacob Schiff
, Julius Rosenwald
, and Simon Bamberger
, he founded a Jewish farm colony in Utah
, and during World War I
he was "said to be the first Jewish chaplain
in the United States Army
to serve on foreign soil". A leader in Jewish–Christian ecumenism
, he was editor of American Hebrew Magazine from 1918, served as the delegate of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now Union for Reform Judaism
) to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference
, and in the late 1930s and early 1940s was editor of the new ten volume Universal Jewish Encyclopedia.
Landman had also been a prominent opponent of Zionism
: when, in 1922, the United States Congress
was considering the Lodge–Fish resolution in support of the Balfour Declaration, Landman and Rabbi David Philipson
had presented the Reform movement's (then) anti-Zionist
position to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Landman also printed many opinions against the resolution and Zionism in his American Hebrew Magazine. The bill was eventually unanimously supported by both houses of Congress, and approved by President
Harding
.
During the Great Depression
synagogue membership decreased significantly; experiencing financial difficulties, the congregation stopped paying its mortgage. Nevertheless, Beth Elohim was not completely moribund; in 1931 it opened its Academy of Adult Jewish Education, which "offered courses in Bible, religion and contemporary Jewish life", and operated throughout the Depression. By 1937 the congregation had elected Lyons "rabbi for life".
In 1938 Lyons made common cause with Thomas Harten, the black pastor of Holy Trinity Baptist Church. Speaking to a mixed black–Jewish audience at the church, Lyons informed the listeners that he was planning to attend the second Joe Louis versus Max Schmeling
boxing
match in order to protest Adolf Hitler
's "view that a bout between a German and a Negro was improper". Lyons denounced the Nazi racial ideas
, which he noted discriminated against blacks as well as Jews, and encouraged the audience to boycott all German-made goods until "Hitler comes to his senses".
Lyons died the following year, and Landman served as sole rabbi. After his death, the Central Conference of American Rabbis described Lyons as the "dean of the Brooklyn rabbinate from the point of view of service".
, as the congregation had not paid the mortgage in many years. The congregation succeeded in convincing the bank to re-negotiate its mortgage, and reduce the outstanding loan, and Max Koeppel led a drive to pay it off completely.
Eugene Sack, the father of Second Circuit Court of Appeals
judge
Robert D. Sack
, joined Landman as rabbi in 1946. While serving as assistant rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Shalom of Philadelphia
, Sack had been instrumental in the founding of the Reform movement's National Federation of Temple Youth
in 1939, and had presented a paper at its first biennial convention. Starting in 1943 he spent 18 months in the Pacific Theater of Operations
of World War II
as an army chaplain
; at one point he had to substitute peach juice for Passover wine.
Sack had also previously been involved in anti-Zionist efforts amongst the Reform rabbinate. In 1942 the Central Conference of American Rabbis had abandoned its former anti-Zionist stance, and adopted a resolution favoring the creation of a Jewish army in Palestine, to fight alongside other Allied armies
, and under Allied command. Sack and other prominent Reform rabbis opposed this; meeting on March 18, 1942, they agreed "there was a need to revitalize Reform Judaism, to oppose Jewish nationalism, and to publicize their point of view". They planned "for a meeting of non-Zionist Reform Rabbis to discuss the problems that confront Judaism and Jews in the world emergency", to be held in Atlantic City. 36 rabbis eventually attended the two-day conference on June 1, 1942, including Beth Israel's Landman. The conference led to the formation of the anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism
, "the only American Jewish organization ever formed for the specific purpose of fighting Zionism and opposing the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine."
Landman died suddenly in 1946, leaving Sack to head Beth Elohim alone; Sack would eventually serve as rabbi for 35 years. Richard Harvey also joined as cantor in the 1940s; he would serve until his death in the 1970s.
After the war, Beth Elohim allowed women to become full members, granting them full voting privileges and allowing them to hold office. The congregation subsequently elected Jeanette Marks as a trustee. At this time the origins of the membership began to change, as Jews of Eastern European descent started joining the congregation.
In the late 1940s the central vault ceiling of the main sanctuary cracked, and had to be repaired. At that time the pulpit was also rebuilt, so that the rabbi and cantor had separate pulpits. Underneath the sanctuary ran an underground stream which would regularly overflow, leading to flooding problems. The flooding was fixed in the 1950s with the installation of check valve
s, and a concrete slab floor was installed. Though the intent was to provide usable space in the basement, it was rarely used.
By 1953, Beth Elohim had grown to over 700 families, and the religious school had over 550 students. In the 1960s, however, membership began to decline, as young families moved to the suburbs.
In 1970, the congregation again encountered difficulties, "faced with dwindling membership and bleak prospects". The members, however, created one of the earliest nursery school
s in the neighborhood, which, along with the Brownstone Revival movement in Park Slope, helped draw Jewish families back into the temple and revitalize the membership. One of those young families was that of Gerald I. Weider, a young rabbi who joined the synagogue's staff in 1978.
A native of the Bronx
, Weider graduated from Rutgers University
, and was ordained at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati in 1973 (he would be granted a Doctor of Divinity degree by Hebrew Union College in 1998). Before joining Beth Elohim, he served as Assistant Rabbi of Temple Ohabei Shalom of Brookline, Massachusetts, and as the Associate Rabbi of Washington Hebrew Congregation
in Washington, D.C. At Beth Elohim, he focused on programming and services for urban Jewish families. Under his leadership, Beth Elohim opened after–school and early childhood centers in 1978, and a day camp the following year, all housed in the Temple House.
The 1970s also saw a return to more traditional practices in the service, under Weider's guidance. Some members began wearing head coverings
in the sanctuary, some Hebrew prayers were added to the Sabbath service, and the Reform movement's new High Holy Days
prayer book The Gates of Repentance was adopted. The synagogue building and Temple House were contributing properties
to the Park Slope historic district
, which was listed as a New York City Landmark district in 1973, and added to the National Register of Historic Places
in 1980.
In 1985, Weider and Beth Elohim, in cooperation with the rabbis of the Park Slope Jewish Center
and Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Emes, proposed opening a liberal Jewish day school
in Brooklyn. Though housed at Beth Elohim, it would not be affiliated with any specific Jewish movement, and was intended for children from all branches of Judaism. Planning began in earnest in 1994; the school was modeled on New York's Abraham Joshua Heschel School
, as an outgrowth of Beth Elohim's preschool program
. The intent was to start with only first grade in 1995, but extend to eighth grade by 2000. At the time Beth Elohim had approximately 500 member families and 141 children in the preschool. The school opened in 1995, and continued for three years, growing to 38 students, before moving to new premises and becoming independent under the name "Hannah Senesh Community Day School".
In the 1980s and 1990s Beth Elohim's buildings were repaired and refurbished a number of times. The sanctuary ceiling cracked in the early 1980s, and services were held in Temple House for a time. The congregation mounted a "Save our Sanctuary" campaign in 1982, and repaired the ceiling. In the 1980s Beth Elohim also refurbished the Moses stained glass window, and painted the main sanctuary. The congregation restored and renovated its buildings in 1990, and in 1992 did emergency restoration work to the facade of Temple House and restored the pews. In 1997 the synagogue began its "Kadimah Capital Campaign", which was intended to raise funds to repair and renovate the buildings. By 1999, the congregation had restored Temple House's facade, rebuilt the collapsed Garfield St. entrance, made entry into the synagogue handicapped accessible, added a multipurpose space and classrooms in the basement of the sanctuary, and planned to add a fifth floor for more classrooms. That year Sack (by then Rabbi Emeritus) died; the year before his death his son, Robert, at his induction as a Second Circuit judge, had described his father as "the most open minded man he had ever known".
Janet Leuchter joined as cantor in 2001. A native of Vineland, New Jersey, and 1999 graduate of Hebrew Union College, she had previously served as cantor of Temple Avodah in Oceanside, New York.
's Congregation of Learners award for medium size synagogues, for "those synagogues that provide an exceptional environment of varied and comprehensive learning opportunities and have imbued their synagogue communities with a culture of learning".
In April 2009, Beth Elohim was listed by Newsweek
as one of America's 25 "Most Vibrant" Jewish congregations. In September of that year, just four days before Yom Kippur
, a part of the sanctuary ceiling collapsed. No-one was hurt, but the sanctuary had to be closed. The nearby Old First Reformed Church—with which Beth Elohim had had close ties since the 1930s—offered its premises for the holiday (Sunday night and Monday), and accommodated over 1000 worshipers. The day before the holiday, the synagogue was picketed by members of the Westboro Baptist Church
, who shouted antisemitic and anti-gay slogans.
, Beth Elohim was the largest and most active Reform congregation in Brooklyn, the "oldest Brooklyn congregation that continues to function under its corporate name", and its pulpit
was the oldest in continuous use in any Brooklyn synagogue. Prominent members included U.S. Senator
Chuck Schumer. The rabbis were Andy Bachman and Shira Koch Epstein, the congregational scholar was Rabbi Daniel Bronstein, the rabbi emeritus was Gerald Weider, and the cantor was Janet Leuchter.
Epstein, born in the Bronx and raised in New Milford, Connecticut
, attended Wesleyan University
and Hebrew Union College, and served as the coordinator of the Institute for Reform Zionism. In 2008 she was a member of "Rabbis for Obama", a cross-denominational group of more than 300 American rabbis supporting Barack Obama
's 2008 presidential campaign
.
Bronstein, a native of Chicago
, received a B.A.
from the University of Wisconsin
, an M.A.
from Brandeis University
, graduated from Hebrew Union College in 1996, and completed a PhD in Jewish history at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
in February 2009. He has seen every episode of Star Trek
.
Bachman, a graduate of University of Wisconsin–Madison
with a 1996 rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College, became the Beth Elohim's first new senior rabbi in 25 years on October 25, 2006. Before becoming senior rabbi he had previously been an educator there from 1993 to 1998. An advocate of more traditionalism in the Reform movement, in 2002 he started a small, more traditional, Hebrew
-focused spinoff prayer group
at Beth Elohim, and has spoken in favor of a more traditional liturgy. Bachman and his wife, Rachel Altstein, have been instrumental in bringing 20 and 30 year-olds into the synagogue, and in December 2007, Bachman was named one of The Forward
s "Forward 50". In 2008 he was a regular contributor to the Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive
website.
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
congregation located at 274 Garfield Place and Eighth Avenue, in the Park Slope
Park Slope, Brooklyn
Park Slope is a neighborhood in western Brooklyn, New York City's most populous borough. Park Slope is roughly bounded by Prospect Park West to the east, Fourth Avenue to the west, Flatbush Avenue to the north, and 15th Street to the south, though other definitions are sometimes offered. Generally...
neighborhood of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Founded in 1861 as a more liberal breakaway from Congregation Baith Israel, for the first 65 years it attempted four mergers with other congregations, including three with Baith Israel, all of which failed. The congregation completed its current Classical Revival
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
building in 1910 and its "Jewish Deco" (Romanesque Revival
Romanesque Revival architecture
Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed beginning in the mid 19th century inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque architecture...
and Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
) Temple House in 1929. These two buildings were contributing properties
Contributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...
to the Park Slope historic district
Historic district (United States)
In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...
, listed as a New York City Landmark district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
The congregation went through difficult times during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, and the bank almost foreclosed on its buildings in 1946. Membership dropped significantly in the 1930s because of the Depression, grew after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and dropped again in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of demographic shifts. Programs for young children helped draw Jewish families back into the neighborhood and revitalize the membership.
By 2006, Beth Elohim had over 1,000 members, and, , it was the largest and most active Reform congregation in Brooklyn, the "oldest Brooklyn congregation that continues to function under its corporate name", and its pulpit
Pulpit
Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...
was the oldest in continuous use in any Brooklyn synagogue. In 2009, it was listed by Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
as one of America's 25 "Most Vibrant" Jewish congregations.
Early years: Pearl Street
Congregation Beth Elohim was founded on September 29, 1861 by 41 German JewsHistory of the Jews in Germany
The presence of Jews in Germany has been established since the early 4th century. The community prospered under Charlemagne, but suffered during the Crusades...
at Granada Hall on Myrtle Avenue
Myrtle Avenue (New York City)
Myrtle Avenue in New York City is a street that runs from Flatbush Avenue Extension in Downtown Brooklyn to Jamaica Avenue in Richmond Hill, Queens.-In Queens:...
, members of Congregation Baith Israel who had become disaffected after they attempted and failed to reform practice
Reform movement in Judaism
The Reform movement in Judaism, originally named Reformed Society of Israelites, for Promoting true Principles of Judaism, according to its Purity and Spirit, is a historic and on-going religious and social movement that originated simultaneously in the early nineteenth century in the United States...
there. The synagogue name was chosen by a vote of the membership, and the services were led by George Brandenstein, who served as cantor
Hazzan
A hazzan or chazzan is a Jewish cantor, a musician trained in the vocal arts who helps lead the congregation in songful prayer.There are many rules relating to how a cantor should lead services, but the idea of a cantor as a paid professional does not exist in classical rabbinic sources...
, and was paid $150 (today $) a year. Brandenstein was hired as cantor, not rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
, because "the congregation believed having a cantor was more important", though in practice he filled both roles. A shamash
Gabbai
A Gabbai is a person who assists in the running of a synagogue and ensures that the needs are met, for example the Jewish prayer services run smoothly, or an assistant to a rabbi...
(the equivalent of a sexton
Sexton (office)
A sexton is a church, congregation or synagogue officer charged with the maintenance of its buildings and/or the surrounding graveyard. In smaller places of worship, this office is often combined with that of verger...
or beadle) was also hired for $75 a year.
While searching for a permanent location, the congregation continued to meet and hold services at Granada Hall. Men and women sat together, unlike the traditional separate seating, and services were conducted in German and Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
. Within a few months, the former Calvary Protestant Episcopal church on Pearl Street, between Nasau and Concord, was purchased for $5,100 (today $) and renovated for another $2,000 (today $). The new building was dedicated on March 30, 1862, and the congregation became known as "the Pearl street synagogue". By 1868, membership had increased to 103, and by 1869, almost 100 students attended the Sunday school.
Beth Elohim had originally conducted its services
Jewish services
Jewish prayer are the prayer recitations that form part of the observance of Judaism. These prayers, often with instructions and commentary, are found in the siddur, the traditional Jewish prayer book....
in the traditional manner, but on February 19, 1870 "inaugurated the moderate reform services" instead. In an attempt to stem defections and make the synagogue more attractive to existing and potential members, that same month the congregation purchased, for $55,000 (today $), the building of the Central Presbyterian
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
Church on Schermerhorn Street near Nevins Street. Sufficient numbers of new members did not, however, materialize, and the congregation was forced to give up its new building, forfeit its $4,000 (today $) deposit, and return to the Pearl Street building. Instead, the Pearl street building was renovated, and an organ and choir added.
Beth Elohim voted to retire Brandenstein in 1882, an action which created some controversy both within the congregation, and among other Brooklyn synagogues. Younger members of the congregation found no specific fault with Brandenstein, but wanted "a change", and succeeded in dismissing him and electing an entirely new board of officers. The final vote was 29 in favor, 21 against, out of a total membership of 53 or 54 (only the male heads of households were counted as members during this era). Solomon Mosche was hired to replace Brandenstein.
In April 1883, Baith Israel, Beth Elohim, and Temple Israel
Union Temple (Brooklyn, New York)
Union Temple is a Reform synagogue in Brooklyn, New York. It is the result of the merger of two nineteenth century congregations, K. K. Beth Elohim and Temple Israel.-K.K. Beth Elohim:...
, Brooklyn's three leading synagogues, attempted an amalgamation. This was the third such attempt; the previous two had failed when the members could not agree on synagogue ritual. The combined congregation, which would purchase new premises, would have 150 members; members would be refunded half the purchase price of the pew
Pew
A pew is a long bench seat or enclosed box used for seating members of a congregation or choir in a church, or sometimes in a courtroom.-Overview:Churches were not commonly furnished with permanent pews before the Protestant Reformation...
s in their existing buildings. Mosche and the rabbi of Temple Israel were to split the offices of rabbi and cantor: Baith Israel, at the time, had no rabbi. Though this attempt also failed, in the following year the three congregations carried out combined activities, including a picnic and a celebration of the 100th birthday of Moses Montefiore
Moses Montefiore
Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, Kt was one of the most famous British Jews of the 19th century. Montefiore was a financier, banker, philanthropist and Sheriff of London...
. Membership at that time still hovered around 50.
Mosche fell ill in 1884, and after being unable to serve for six months, was replaced by 26-year-old William Sparger. Despite his illness, Mosche lived until age 75, dying on November 3, 1911.
Sparger was Hungarian
History of the Jews in Hungary
Hungarian Jews have existed since at least the 11th century. After struggling against discrimination throughout the Middle Ages, by the early 20th century the community grew to be 5% of Hungary's population , and were prominent in science, the arts and business...
by birth, a graduate of the Prince Rudolph University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
, and, according to a contemporary New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
article, "belong[ed] to the extreme liberal school of Hebrew theology". He introduced changes to the services, including improving the choir, bringing in a new prayer book, adding Friday night services, and the "radical reform" of making the sermon the most important part of the service. He appealed to younger congregants, and, under his direction, the synagogue experienced a large increase in attendance.
State Street
In 1891, Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
offered Sparger a salary larger than Beth Elohim could match, and he moved there. Beth Elohim subsequently split the offices of cantor and rabbi, hiring G. Taubenhaus as rabbi and the Mauritz Weisskopf as cantor.
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, Taubenhaus could read the Pentateuch fluently in Hebrew at age four, and began studying the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
at age six. He attended the "Berlin theological seminary" (likely the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums
Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums
The Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, or Higher Institute for Jewish Studies, was a rabbinical seminary, established in Berlin in 1872 destroyed by the Nazi government of Germany in 1942...
) for six years. Upon emigrating to the United States, he served at Kehillah
Kodesh Bene Yeshurum in Paducah, Kentucky
Paducah, Kentucky
Paducah is the largest city in Kentucky's Jackson Purchase Region and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky, United States. It is located at the confluence of the Tennessee River and the Ohio River, halfway between the metropolitan areas of St. Louis, Missouri, to the west and Nashville,...
, Temple Israel
Temple Israel (Dayton, Ohio)
Temple Israel is a Reform congregation located at 130 Riverside Drive in Dayton, Ohio. Formed in 1850, it incorporated as "Kehillah Kodesh B'nai Yeshurun" in 1854. After meeting in rented quarters, the congregation purchased its first synagogue building, a former Baptist church at 4th and...
in Dayton, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
, and Congregation B'nai Israel
Congregation B'nai Israel (Sacramento, California)
Congregation B'nai Israel is the oldest Jewish congregation in Sacramento, California. The congregation, which began as an Orthodox community, traces its history back to the gold rush of 1849, when Jewish settlers gathered to observe the high holy days...
in Sacramento, California
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
, before becoming the rabbi of the Shaari Zedek ("Gates of Hope") synagogue in New York. Differences with the latter congregation led to his resignation there shortly before being hired by Beth Elohim. Taubenhaus's brother Joseph would be appointed rabbi at Baith Israel, Beth Elohim's parent congregation, in 1893, and another brother, Jacob/Jean Taubenhaus
Jean Taubenhaus
Jean Taubenhaus was a Polish–born French chess master.-Biography:Taubenhaus was a foremost Warsaw chess player in late 70s of 19th century. In 1880, he settled in Paris. In the 4th international Congress of the German Chess Association at Hamburg in July 1885, he took 14th place...
, was a famous French chess master
Chess master
A chess master is a chess player of such skill that he/she can usually beat chess experts, who themselves typically prevail against most amateurs. Among chess players, the term is often abbreviated to master, the meaning being clear from context....
.
By the time of Taubenhaus's hiring, Beth Elohim was, according to the Brooklyn Eagle, "recognized as the leading Hebrew synagogue of Brooklyn". The views of the congregation regarding kashrut
Kashrut
Kashrut is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha is termed kosher in English, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term kashér , meaning "fit" Kashrut (also kashruth or kashrus) is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha (Jewish law) is termed...
(the Jewish dietary laws) were by then quite liberal; in 1892, when Hyman Rosenberg was expelled as rabbi of Brooklyn's Beth Jacob synagogue
Congregation Beth Jacob Ohev Sholom
Congregation Beth Jacob Ohev Sholom is an Orthodox synagogue located at 284 Rodney Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York...
for eating ham
Kosher animals
Kosher animals are those that comply with regulations for Kosher food in Jewish religion. These food regulations form the main aspect of kashrut, and ultimately derive from various passages in the Torah...
, Taubenhaus stated that he did not believe his congregation would expel him for doing the same.
In 1895, Samuel Radnitz succeeded Weisskopf as cantor, a role he filled until his death in 1944.
By the turn of the twentieth century English had replaced German in the services and official minutes, and the second days of holidays
Jewish holiday
Jewish holidays are days observed by Jews as holy or secular commemorations of important events in Jewish history. In Hebrew, Jewish holidays and festivals, depending on their nature, may be called yom tov or chag or ta'anit...
eliminated. The synagogue had 106 members and annual revenues of around $8,000 (today $), and its Sunday School
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
had approximately 300 pupils.
Taubenhaus left the congregation in 1901, and the following year Alexander Lyons was hired as the congregation's first American-born rabbi. Lyons went on to serve the congregation for 37 years, until his death in 1939 at the age of 71.
In 1907, the women's auxiliary was founded; until then, though seating was mixed, women had little say in the running of the synagogue. That year the congregation had 110 member families and annual revenues of $9,259.55 (today $). The congregational school, which held classes one day a week, had 15 teachers and 200 students.
1908–1929: New buildings
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
style, this "monumental example" of "austere neo-Classical grandeur" had five sides, representing the five books of Moses, a sanctuary that ultimately sat 1,200, and was capped by a saucer dome
Dome
A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....
. The entrance faced the corner of Garfield and Eighth, and carved in stone over it was the Biblical verse fragment "MINE HOUSE SHALL BE AN HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL PEOPLE" . The basement held classrooms, an auditorium, and administrative offices, and behind the Torah ark was a combination Rabbi's study/Board meeting room. The State Street building was sold to Congregation Mount Sinai.
1909 was also the year Judah Leon Magnes
Judah Leon Magnes
Judah Leon Magnes was a prominent Reform rabbi in both the United States and Palestine. He is best remembered as a leader pacifist movement of the World War I period and as one of the most widely recognized voices of 20th Century American Reform Judaism.-Biography:He was born in San Francisco,...
proposed and founded his Kehilla, a "comprehensive communal organization for the Jews of New York", which operated until 1922. Lyons opposed its creation, arguing that Jews in New York were too diverse to co-exist in one organization with a single set of standards, that Jews should not organize as Jews for anything except purely religious purposes, and that in any event Reform Judaism was the future and Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
would not survive. As Lyons put it,
To me Reform Judaism is an irresistible conviction. I believe it to be the religion of the Jewish future, while I regard orthodoxy as a survival that may have a galvanized life now and then, but on the whole is doomed.
By 1919, Beth Elohim had 133 member families. The congregational school, which held classes once a week, had 305 students and 16 teachers.
Negotiations to merge with Union Temple
Union Temple (Brooklyn, New York)
Union Temple is a Reform synagogue in Brooklyn, New York. It is the result of the merger of two nineteenth century congregations, K. K. Beth Elohim and Temple Israel.-K.K. Beth Elohim:...
(the successor to Temple Israel) were started in 1925. A confirmation vote eventually passed, and the impending merger was announced in the Brooklyn Eagle
Brooklyn Eagle
The Brooklyn Daily Bulletin began publishing when the original Eagle folded in 1955. In 1996 it merged with a newly revived Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and now publishes a morning paper five days a week under the Brooklyn Daily Eagle name...
. However, younger congregants feared a loss of identity, and forced a withdrawal.
Cast stone
Cast stone is defined as “a refined architectural concrete building unit manufactured to simulate natural cut stone, used in unit masonry applications”. In the UK and Europe cast stone is defined as “any material manufactured with aggregate and cementitious binder, intended to resemble in...
building's architectural style
Architectural style
Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...
was "Jewish Deco", a mix of Romanesque Revival
Romanesque Revival architecture
Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed beginning in the mid 19th century inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque architecture...
and Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
decorative forms that was common in Jewish buildings of the period. Romanesque features included the fenestrations, while a prominent Art Deco feature was "the figure of Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
and the Tablets of Law
Tablets of stone
The Tablets of Stone, Stone Tablets, Tablets of Law, or Tablets of Testimony in the Bible, were the two pieces of special stone inscribed with the Ten Commandments when Moses ascended Mount Sinai as recorded in the Book of Exodus...
, emphasizing the corner of the roof parapet
Parapet
A parapet is a wall-like barrier at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony or other structure. Where extending above a roof, it may simply be the portion of an exterior wall that continues above the line of the roof surface, or may be a continuation of a vertical feature beneath the roof such as a...
." The doorway and balcony at the east end of the building had "a distinctly Moorish
Moorish Revival
Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of the Romanticist fascination with all things oriental...
flavor, featuring symbolic ornament: the Star of David
Star of David
The Star of David, known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David is a generally recognized symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism.Its shape is that of a hexagram, the compound of two equilateral triangles...
, the Menorah, and the Lion of Judah
Lion of Judah
The Lion of Judah was the symbol of the Israelite tribe of Judah in the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible .-Lion of Judah and Judaism:...
." The names of major figures from the Tanakh
Tanakh
The Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...
(Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
) were inscribed on the Garfield Place facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
, and the Biblical verses "SHOW ME THY WAYS O LORD TEACH ME THY PATHS GUIDE ME" on the Eighth Avenue facade. The building was also decorated with bas-reliefs of Jonah being swallowed by a great fish and Babylonian charioteers. It housed a 125 seat chapel, a large ballroom, social halls, class rooms for the religious school, meeting rooms, administrative offices, a library, handball courts, a gymnasium, and a swimming pool.
Lyons took on a number of causes in the 1910s and 1920s. He worked with Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
David Greer
David Hummell Greer
David Hummell Greer was an American Protestant Episcopal bishop.-Biography:He was born in Wheeling, Virginia, , graduated at Washington College in 1862, and studied at the Protestant Episcopal Seminary, Gambier, Ohio...
and Rabbi Stephen Wise
Stephen Samuel Wise
Stephen Samuel Wise was an Austro-Hungarian-born American Reform rabbi and Zionist leader.-Early life:...
to expose conditions in New York's tenements
New York State Tenement House Act
One of the reforms of the Progressive Era, the New York State Tenement House Act of 1901 was one of the first such laws to ban the construction of dark, poorly ventilated tenement buildings in the state of New York...
, dissociated himself from Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society...
candidates, tried to secure a re-trial for Leo Frank
Leo Frank
Leo Max Frank was a Jewish-American factory superintendent whose hanging in 1915 by a lynch mob of prominent citizens in Marietta, Georgia drew attention to antisemitism in the United States....
, and opposed some of the views of Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers was an English-born American cigar maker who became a labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor , and served as that organization's president from 1886 to 1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924...
. In 1912, Lyons was a founding member of the Eastern Council of Reform Rabbis, an organization of Reform rabbis from the Eastern United States
Eastern United States
The Eastern United States, the American East, or simply the East is traditionally defined as the states east of the Mississippi River. The first two tiers of states west of the Mississippi have traditionally been considered part of the West, but can be included in the East today; usually in...
that was created despite opposition from the Central Conference of Reform Rabbis
Central Conference of American Rabbis
The Central Conference of American Rabbis , founded in 1889 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, is the principal organization of Reform rabbis in the United States and Canada, the CCAR is the largest and oldest rabbinical organization in the world....
. In 1919 he withdrew from the Brooklyn Victory Celebration Committee (celebrating the Allied
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
victory in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
) and asked that his contributed funds be donated instead to the Red Cross; a large number of committee members eventually resigned in protest over the overt politicization of the event, and its control by William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
.
1930s: Landman joins, Great Depression, Lyons dies
Isaac LandmanIsaac Landman
Isaac Landman was an American Reform rabbi, author and anti-Zionist activist. He was editor of the ten volume Universal Jewish Encyclopedia.-Biography:...
, a graduate of Hebrew Union College
Hebrew Union College
The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the oldest extant Jewish seminary in the Americas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism.HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem.The Jerusalem...
, joined Lyons as rabbi of Beth Elohim in 1931. Born in Russia in 1880, Landman had come to the United States in 1890. In 1911, with the assistance of Jacob Schiff
Jacob Schiff
Jacob Henry Schiff, born Jakob Heinrich Schiff was a German-born Jewish American banker and philanthropist, who helped finance, among many other things, the Japanese military efforts against Tsarist Russia in the Russo-Japanese War.From his base on Wall Street, he was the foremost Jewish leader...
, Julius Rosenwald
Julius Rosenwald
Julius Rosenwald was a U.S. clothier, manufacturer, business executive, and philanthropist. He is best known as a part-owner and leader of Sears, Roebuck and Company, and for the Rosenwald Fund which donated millions to support the education of African American children in the rural South, as well...
, and Simon Bamberger
Simon Bamberger
Simon Bamberger was the fourth Governor of Utah after it achieved statehood from territorial status in 1896. Bamberger bears the distinction of being the first non-Mormon, the first Democrat, and the first and to date only Jew to be elected Governor of the State of Utah...
, he founded a Jewish farm colony in Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, and during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
he was "said to be the first Jewish chaplain
Military chaplain
A military chaplain is a chaplain who ministers to soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and other members of the military. In many countries, chaplains also minister to the family members of military personnel, to civilian noncombatants working for military organizations and to civilians within the...
in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
to serve on foreign soil". A leader in Jewish–Christian ecumenism
Christian-Jewish reconciliation
Reconciliation between Christianity and Judaism refers to the efforts that are being made to improve understanding of the Jewish people and of Judaism, to do away with Christian antisemitism and Jewish anti-Christian sentiment...
, he was editor of American Hebrew Magazine from 1918, served as the delegate of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now Union for Reform Judaism
Union for Reform Judaism
The Union for Reform Judaism , formerly known as the Union of American Hebrew Congregations , is an organization which supports Reform Jewish congregations in North America. The current President is Rabbi Eric H...
) to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities...
, and in the late 1930s and early 1940s was editor of the new ten volume Universal Jewish Encyclopedia.
Landman had also been a prominent opponent of Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
: when, in 1922, the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
was considering the Lodge–Fish resolution in support of the Balfour Declaration, Landman and Rabbi David Philipson
David Philipson
David Philipson was an American Reform rabbi, orator, and author. The son of German-Jewish immigrants, he was a member of the first graduating class of the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. As an adult, he was one of the leaders of American Reform Judaism and a philanthropic leader in his...
had presented the Reform movement's (then) anti-Zionist
Anti-Zionism
Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionistic views or opposition to the state of Israel. The term is used to describe various religious, moral and political points of view in opposition to these, but their diversity of motivation and expression is sufficiently different that "anti-Zionism" cannot be...
position to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Landman also printed many opinions against the resolution and Zionism in his American Hebrew Magazine. The bill was eventually unanimously supported by both houses of Congress, and approved by President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Harding
Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...
.
During the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
synagogue membership decreased significantly; experiencing financial difficulties, the congregation stopped paying its mortgage. Nevertheless, Beth Elohim was not completely moribund; in 1931 it opened its Academy of Adult Jewish Education, which "offered courses in Bible, religion and contemporary Jewish life", and operated throughout the Depression. By 1937 the congregation had elected Lyons "rabbi for life".
In 1938 Lyons made common cause with Thomas Harten, the black pastor of Holy Trinity Baptist Church. Speaking to a mixed black–Jewish audience at the church, Lyons informed the listeners that he was planning to attend the second Joe Louis versus Max Schmeling
Joe Louis versus Max Schmeling
The Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling refer to two separate fights which are among boxing's most talked about fights. Schmeling won the first match by a knockout in round twelve, but in the second match, Louis won through a knockout in the first round...
boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
match in order to protest Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's "view that a bout between a German and a Negro was improper". Lyons denounced the Nazi racial ideas
Nazism and race
Nazism developed several theories concerning races. The Nazis claimed to scientifically measure a strict hierarchy of human race; at the top was the master race, the "Aryan race", narrowly defined by the Nazis as being identical with the Nordic race, followed by lesser races.At the bottom of this...
, which he noted discriminated against blacks as well as Jews, and encouraged the audience to boycott all German-made goods until "Hitler comes to his senses".
Lyons died the following year, and Landman served as sole rabbi. After his death, the Central Conference of American Rabbis described Lyons as the "dean of the Brooklyn rabbinate from the point of view of service".
World War II and aftermath: Sack joins, Landman dies
The synagogue's fortunes improved in the 1940s, but in 1946, its bank threatened to foreclose on its buildings, in anticipation of their sale to the local Catholic dioceseDiocese
A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...
, as the congregation had not paid the mortgage in many years. The congregation succeeded in convincing the bank to re-negotiate its mortgage, and reduce the outstanding loan, and Max Koeppel led a drive to pay it off completely.
Eugene Sack, the father of Second Circuit Court of Appeals
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals...
judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
Robert D. Sack
Robert D. Sack
Robert David Sack is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.-Personal:Sack was raised in Brooklyn, New York. His father was Eugene Sack, who served as rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim for 35 years. In 1989 he married his second wife, the lawyer Anne K...
, joined Landman as rabbi in 1946. While serving as assistant rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Shalom of Philadelphia
Congregation Rodeph Shalom (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Congregation Rodeph Shalom of Philadelphia, founded in 1795, is the oldest Ashkenazic synagogue in the Western Hemisphere. It is noted historically for its leadership of the Reform movement among American Hebrew congregations, for its spiritual influence upon international Jewry, and for its unique...
, Sack had been instrumental in the founding of the Reform movement's National Federation of Temple Youth
North American Federation of Temple Youth
The North American Federation of Temple Youth is the organized youth movement of Reform Judaism in North America. Funded and supported by the Union for Reform Judaism, NFTY exists to supplement and support Reform youth groups at the synagogue level...
in 1939, and had presented a paper at its first biennial convention. Starting in 1943 he spent 18 months in the Pacific Theater of Operations
Pacific Theater of Operations
The Pacific Theater of Operations was the World War II area of military activity in the Pacific Ocean and the countries bordering it, a geographic scope that reflected the operational and administrative command structures of the American forces during that period...
of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
as an army chaplain
Chaplain Corps (United States Army)
The Chaplain Corps of the United States Army consists of ordained clergy who are commissioned Army officers as well as enlisted soldiers who serve as assistants. Their purpose is to offer religious services, counseling, and moral support to the armed forces, whether in peacetime or at war.-Army...
; at one point he had to substitute peach juice for Passover wine.
Sack had also previously been involved in anti-Zionist efforts amongst the Reform rabbinate. In 1942 the Central Conference of American Rabbis had abandoned its former anti-Zionist stance, and adopted a resolution favoring the creation of a Jewish army in Palestine, to fight alongside other Allied armies
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
, and under Allied command. Sack and other prominent Reform rabbis opposed this; meeting on March 18, 1942, they agreed "there was a need to revitalize Reform Judaism, to oppose Jewish nationalism, and to publicize their point of view". They planned "for a meeting of non-Zionist Reform Rabbis to discuss the problems that confront Judaism and Jews in the world emergency", to be held in Atlantic City. 36 rabbis eventually attended the two-day conference on June 1, 1942, including Beth Israel's Landman. The conference led to the formation of the anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism
American Council for Judaism
The American Council for Judaism is an organization of American Jews committed to the proposition that Jews are not a nationality but merely a religious group, adhering to the original stated principles of Reform Judaism, as articulated in the 1885 Pittsburgh Platform.The ACJ was founded in June...
, "the only American Jewish organization ever formed for the specific purpose of fighting Zionism and opposing the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine."
Landman died suddenly in 1946, leaving Sack to head Beth Elohim alone; Sack would eventually serve as rabbi for 35 years. Richard Harvey also joined as cantor in the 1940s; he would serve until his death in the 1970s.
After the war, Beth Elohim allowed women to become full members, granting them full voting privileges and allowing them to hold office. The congregation subsequently elected Jeanette Marks as a trustee. At this time the origins of the membership began to change, as Jews of Eastern European descent started joining the congregation.
In the late 1940s the central vault ceiling of the main sanctuary cracked, and had to be repaired. At that time the pulpit was also rebuilt, so that the rabbi and cantor had separate pulpits. Underneath the sanctuary ran an underground stream which would regularly overflow, leading to flooding problems. The flooding was fixed in the 1950s with the installation of check valve
Check valve
A check valve, clack valve, non-return valve or one-way valve is a mechanical device, a valve, which normally allows fluid to flow through it in only one direction....
s, and a concrete slab floor was installed. Though the intent was to provide usable space in the basement, it was rarely used.
By 1953, Beth Elohim had grown to over 700 families, and the religious school had over 550 students. In the 1960s, however, membership began to decline, as young families moved to the suburbs.
1970s–2000s: Decline, Weider joins, re-birth
Nursery school
A nursery school is a school for children between the ages of one and five years, staffed by suitably qualified and other professionals who encourage and supervise educational play rather than simply providing childcare...
s in the neighborhood, which, along with the Brownstone Revival movement in Park Slope, helped draw Jewish families back into the temple and revitalize the membership. One of those young families was that of Gerald I. Weider, a young rabbi who joined the synagogue's staff in 1978.
A native of the Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
, Weider graduated from Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
, and was ordained at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati in 1973 (he would be granted a Doctor of Divinity degree by Hebrew Union College in 1998). Before joining Beth Elohim, he served as Assistant Rabbi of Temple Ohabei Shalom of Brookline, Massachusetts, and as the Associate Rabbi of Washington Hebrew Congregation
Washington Hebrew Congregation
The Washington Hebrew Congregation is a Jewish congregation formed on April 25, 1852, in Washington, D.C., by twenty-one members.Solomon Pribram was elected the first president. By 1854, there were forty-two members...
in Washington, D.C. At Beth Elohim, he focused on programming and services for urban Jewish families. Under his leadership, Beth Elohim opened after–school and early childhood centers in 1978, and a day camp the following year, all housed in the Temple House.
The 1970s also saw a return to more traditional practices in the service, under Weider's guidance. Some members began wearing head coverings
Kippah
A kippah or kipa , also known as a yarmulke , kapele , is a hemispherical or platter-shaped head cover, usually made of cloth, often worn by Orthodox Jewish men to fulfill the customary requirement that their head be covered at all times, and sometimes worn by both men and, less frequently, women...
in the sanctuary, some Hebrew prayers were added to the Sabbath service, and the Reform movement's new High Holy Days
High Holy Days
The High Holidays or High Holy Days, in Judaism, more properly known as the Yamim Noraim , may mean:#strictly, the holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur ;...
prayer book The Gates of Repentance was adopted. The synagogue building and Temple House were contributing properties
Contributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...
to the Park Slope historic district
Historic district (United States)
In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...
, which was listed as a New York City Landmark district in 1973, and added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1980.
In 1985, Weider and Beth Elohim, in cooperation with the rabbis of the Park Slope Jewish Center
Park Slope Jewish Center
The Park Slope Jewish Center, known from 1925 to 1960 as Congregation Tifereth Israel, is a Conservative synagogue at 1320 Eight Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York, New York. It was built in 1925 and is a -story brick building with Romanesque and Baroque style elements...
and Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Emes, proposed opening a liberal Jewish day school
Jewish day school
A Jewish day school is a modern Jewish educational institution that is designed to provide Jewish children with both a Jewish and a secular education in one school on a full time basis, hence its name of "day school" meaning a school that the students attend for an entire day and not on a part time...
in Brooklyn. Though housed at Beth Elohim, it would not be affiliated with any specific Jewish movement, and was intended for children from all branches of Judaism. Planning began in earnest in 1994; the school was modeled on New York's Abraham Joshua Heschel School
Abraham Joshua Heschel School
The Abraham Joshua Heschel School is a pluralistic pre-K to 12 Jewish day school in New York City. Its two central values, pluralism and egalitarianism, create a tightly-knit yet diverse community...
, as an outgrowth of Beth Elohim's preschool program
Preschool education
Preschool education is the provision of learning to children before the commencement of statutory and obligatory education, usually between the ages of zero and three or five, depending on the jurisdiction....
. The intent was to start with only first grade in 1995, but extend to eighth grade by 2000. At the time Beth Elohim had approximately 500 member families and 141 children in the preschool. The school opened in 1995, and continued for three years, growing to 38 students, before moving to new premises and becoming independent under the name "Hannah Senesh Community Day School".
In the 1980s and 1990s Beth Elohim's buildings were repaired and refurbished a number of times. The sanctuary ceiling cracked in the early 1980s, and services were held in Temple House for a time. The congregation mounted a "Save our Sanctuary" campaign in 1982, and repaired the ceiling. In the 1980s Beth Elohim also refurbished the Moses stained glass window, and painted the main sanctuary. The congregation restored and renovated its buildings in 1990, and in 1992 did emergency restoration work to the facade of Temple House and restored the pews. In 1997 the synagogue began its "Kadimah Capital Campaign", which was intended to raise funds to repair and renovate the buildings. By 1999, the congregation had restored Temple House's facade, rebuilt the collapsed Garfield St. entrance, made entry into the synagogue handicapped accessible, added a multipurpose space and classrooms in the basement of the sanctuary, and planned to add a fifth floor for more classrooms. That year Sack (by then Rabbi Emeritus) died; the year before his death his son, Robert, at his induction as a Second Circuit judge, had described his father as "the most open minded man he had ever known".
Janet Leuchter joined as cantor in 2001. A native of Vineland, New Jersey, and 1999 graduate of Hebrew Union College, she had previously served as cantor of Temple Avodah in Oceanside, New York.
Weider retires, events since 2006
Weider retired as senior rabbi in 2006, after 28 years of service. He was succeeded by Andy Bachman. At that time, Beth Elohim had over 1,000 members. In 2007, the synagogue was a winner of the Union for Reform JudaismUnion for Reform Judaism
The Union for Reform Judaism , formerly known as the Union of American Hebrew Congregations , is an organization which supports Reform Jewish congregations in North America. The current President is Rabbi Eric H...
's Congregation of Learners award for medium size synagogues, for "those synagogues that provide an exceptional environment of varied and comprehensive learning opportunities and have imbued their synagogue communities with a culture of learning".
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
as one of America's 25 "Most Vibrant" Jewish congregations. In September of that year, just four days before Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur , also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest and most solemn day of the year for the Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue...
, a part of the sanctuary ceiling collapsed. No-one was hurt, but the sanctuary had to be closed. The nearby Old First Reformed Church—with which Beth Elohim had had close ties since the 1930s—offered its premises for the holiday (Sunday night and Monday), and accommodated over 1000 worshipers. The day before the holiday, the synagogue was picketed by members of the Westboro Baptist Church
Westboro Baptist Church
The Westboro Baptist Church is an independent Baptist church known for its extreme stance against homosexuality and its protest activities, which include picketing funerals and desecrating the American flag. The church is widely described as a hate group and is monitored as such by the...
, who shouted antisemitic and anti-gay slogans.
, Beth Elohim was the largest and most active Reform congregation in Brooklyn, the "oldest Brooklyn congregation that continues to function under its corporate name", and its pulpit
Pulpit
Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...
was the oldest in continuous use in any Brooklyn synagogue. Prominent members included U.S. Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Chuck Schumer. The rabbis were Andy Bachman and Shira Koch Epstein, the congregational scholar was Rabbi Daniel Bronstein, the rabbi emeritus was Gerald Weider, and the cantor was Janet Leuchter.
Epstein, born in the Bronx and raised in New Milford, Connecticut
New Milford, Connecticut
New Milford is a town in southern Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States north of Danbury, on the Housatonic River. It is the largest town in the state in terms of land area at nearly . The population was 28,671 according to the Census Bureau's 2006 estimates...
, attended Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
and Hebrew Union College, and served as the coordinator of the Institute for Reform Zionism. In 2008 she was a member of "Rabbis for Obama", a cross-denominational group of more than 300 American rabbis supporting Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
's 2008 presidential campaign
Barack Obama presidential campaign, 2008
Barack Obama, then junior United States Senator from Illinois, announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States in Springfield, Illinois, on February 10, 2007. On August 27, 2008, he was declared nominee of the Democratic Party for the 2008 presidential election...
.
Bronstein, a native of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, received a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
from the University of Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin System
The University of Wisconsin System is a university system of public universities in the state of Wisconsin. It is one of the largest public higher education systems in the country, enrolling more than 182,000 students each year and employing more than 32,000 faculty and staff statewide...
, an M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
from Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
, graduated from Hebrew Union College in 1996, and completed a PhD in Jewish history at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Jewish Theological Seminary of America
The Jewish Theological Seminary of America is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism, and a major center for academic scholarship in Jewish studies.JTS operates five schools: Albert A...
in February 2009. He has seen every episode of Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
.
Bachman, a graduate of University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
with a 1996 rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College, became the Beth Elohim's first new senior rabbi in 25 years on October 25, 2006. Before becoming senior rabbi he had previously been an educator there from 1993 to 1998. An advocate of more traditionalism in the Reform movement, in 2002 he started a small, more traditional, Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
-focused spinoff prayer group
Minyan
A minyan in Judaism refers to the quorum of ten Jewish adults required for certain religious obligations. According to many non-Orthodox streams of Judaism adult females count in the minyan....
at Beth Elohim, and has spoken in favor of a more traditional liturgy. Bachman and his wife, Rachel Altstein, have been instrumental in bringing 20 and 30 year-olds into the synagogue, and in December 2007, Bachman was named one of The Forward
The Forward
The Forward , commonly known as The Jewish Daily Forward, is a Jewish-American newspaper published in New York City. The publication began in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily issued by dissidents from the Socialist Labor Party of Daniel DeLeon...
s "Forward 50". In 2008 he was a regular contributor to the Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive
Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive
Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive was an online subsidiary of the Washington Post Company, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, United States. WPNI operated washingtonpost.com, the website of the Washington Post, as well as the Web sites Newsweek.com, Slate, Foreign Policy Magazine, Budget...
website.
External links
- Congregation Beth Elohim website
- Rabbi Andy Bachman's website, summary of a sermon given by Rabbi William Sparger of Congregation Beth Elohim, in The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, May 31, 1886, p. 2., summary of a sermon given by Rabbi G. Taubenhaus of Congregation Beth Elohim, in The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, October 7, 1897, p. 7., letter to the editor by Rabbi Alexander Lyons of Congregation Beth Elohim, in The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, October 12, 1902, p. 6.