Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Emes
Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Emes, more commonly known as the Kane Street Synagogue, is an egalitarian Conservative synagogue at 236 Kane Street in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City, New York, United States. It is the oldest continuously operating synagogue in Brooklyn.
Founded as Baith Israel in 1856, the congregation constructed the first synagogue on Long Island, and hired Aaron Wise for his first rabbinical position in the United States. Early tensions between traditionalists and reformers led to the latter forming Congregation Beth Elohim, a Reform synagogue, in 1861.
The synagogue nearly failed in the early 20th century, but the 1905 hiring of Israel Goldfarb as rabbi, the purchase of its current buildings, and the 1908 merger with Talmud Torah Anshei Emes re-invigorated the congregation. The famous composer Aaron Copland celebrated his Bar Mitzvah there in 1913, and long-time Goldman Sachs head Sidney Weinberg was married there in 1920.
Membership peaked in the 1920s, but with the onset of the Great Depression declined steadily, and by the 1970s the congregation could no longer afford to heat the sanctuary. Membership has recovered since that low point; the congregation renovated its school/community center in 2004, and in 2008 embarked on a million-dollar capital campaign to renovate the sanctuary.
19th century
Origins
Twelve Bavarian, Dutch, and Portuguese Jews gathered at a private home on January 22, 1856, to discuss their "earnest desire effect the incorporation of a synagogue and congregation for divine service", and in March that year they founded Congregation Baith Israel. The group had originally organized in 1855 as the United Brethren Society, a benefit society that provided members with medical and burial assistance. Hiring the Reverend M. Gershon as cantor, they first met in various homes, then rented space at 155 Atlantic Street, now Atlantic Avenue.Gershon's appointment was controversial; after a background check, the board decided by a 10–9 vote on April 6, 1856, that he had never held the position of cantor in any other congregation, and was therefore not "sufficiently acquainted with the actual requirements to fill said office", and was furthermore not "a competent reader enough to read the Sepher Torah". As a result, services were led by laymen, except during the Jewish holidays, when a professional cantor would be brought in from Manhattan.
An 1886 Brooklyn Eagle article states that until the founding of Baith Israel "itherto the Hebrew residents in Brooklyn had been under the necessity of finding their way across the East River in all kinds of weather, when they wished to go to their place of worship". According to synagogue legend, the founders had grown tired of rowing across the East River each Friday to celebrate Shabbat in Manhattan. Carol Levin, however, writes that a ferry service from Whitehall Street in Manhattan to South Ferry, Brooklyn had existed since 1836, that the Atlantic Street synagogue's location, so close to the ferry terminus, "must have seemed convenient to many", and that "erry service was fast, frequent and inexpensive ... In the year 1869 there were almost 52 million passengers." Thus, in her view, the story of the founders growing tired of rowing across the East River is a "folk tale".
Attempts at reform and amalgamation, construction of first synagogue
In the congregation's early years, tensions existed between traditionalists and reformers, and in 1861, 41 of the latter left Baith Israel to form the Congregation Beth Elohim, a Reform synagogue. That year Baith Israel hired the Reverend Joel Alexander as its religious leader. Alexander, the synagogue's first full-time rabbi, was a graduate of the Jews Seminary in Münster, and had been ordained both in Posen and by Hermann Adler, the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom.In 1862, the remaining 35 members purchased two lots at the corner of State Street and Boerum Place in Boerum Hill for $3,000, and on January 12 laid the cornerstone for a new building, the first synagogue built on Long Island. The building was completed on August 12, at a cost of $10,000, and was consecrated on August 31 by Alexander and assembled dignitaries. The synagogue, which came to be known as the Boerum Schule, created a Sunday school soon afterwards, the first in Brooklyn, and at the time, an innovation. The school was free, and run by volunteers, with separate classes for boys and girls. By 1890 the school had 160 students, and at its peak the school had 500 pupils.
In 1869 reformers again left Baith Israel, and, joining with dissenters from Kahal Kodesh Beth Elohim of Williamsburg, founded Temple Israel. Though many reformers had left the congregation, several reforms in the service were nonetheless introduced: the congregation abolished most piyyutim and the Priestly Blessing, and, in 1873, introduced a confirmation ceremony for girls, led by the Reverend Dr. Tinter. The confirmation ceremonies, which had initially been held during the holiday of Sukkot, were eventually moved to the holiday of Shavuot, and continued for both boys and girls until the 1940s.
Aaron Wise, father of Stephen Samuel Wise, was one of the synagogue's earliest rabbis, from 1874 to 1875. This was his first rabbinical position in the United States, before moving to Congregation Rodeph Sholom in Manhattan.
Building renovations, failed mergers, traditionalism
In 1876, the congregation voted by a margin of over two to one to re-orient the synagogue pews in the manner of Christian churches, and introduce mixed seating. However, nothing was done about this until 1879, when the renovations were carried out: the front pews were removed, the side pews extended to the walls, and the vestibule moved outside the sanctuary. Led by rabbi Dr. E. M. Myers, the synagogue was re-dedicated on September 7.In April 1883, Baith Israel, Beth Elohim, and Temple Israel, Brooklyn's three leading synagogues, tried to merge; Beth Elohim and Temple Israel had both been formed in the 1860s by dissenters from Baith Israel. 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 pews in their existing buildings. The rabbis of Beth Elohim and 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 Sir Moses Montefiore.
Baith Israel hired Marcus Friedlander as rabbi in 1887. Born in Congress Poland in 1862, he left Russia for England before he was twenty. Though speaking little English at the time, he graduated there from the London Theological Seminary, before emigrating to the United States. He was 24 years old when he assumed the post at Baith Israel, at the time the youngest man in New York state to be appointed to so significant a position of Jewish leadership. Friedlander served until 1893, when he resigned to take a more lucrative position in California at the First Hebrew Congregation of Oakland. After Friedlander left, his name was, for reasons unknown, deleted from the synagogue histories, and the financial records and minute books dating from his tenure were removed from Baith Israel's archives. He was succeeded by Joseph Taubenhaus, the brother of Dr. Gottheil/Godfrey Taubenhaus, the rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim; another brother, Jacob/Jean Taubenhaus was a famous French chess master.
In 1889, the congregation again renovated the synagogue building, repairing it and replacing the roof, increasing the seating capacity, adding a new vestibule and double entrance way, and redecorating the interior. At that time over half of the congregants still spoke German as their native language. The congregation had 50 members—defined as "heads of families who own seats"—by 1891, and 300 congregants in total. By 1900, the congregation had 160 members, and the congregational school, which held classes for two hours once a week, had ten teachers and 150 students.
Though the synagogue had undertaken innovations in some areas of Jewish law, it still insisted on strict adherence in others. In 1878 Tinter was dismissed for officiating at the marriage of a Jewish woman and Christian man, and Baith Israel was, for a time, the only congregation in Brooklyn that celebrated Jewish holidays for the traditional two days. In 1889 Baith Israel asserted it was "the only orthodox congregation in the city", and that year the board forced the resignation of a Mr. J. Folkart, for transgressing the laws of Yom Kippur. In 1892, when Hyman Rosenberg was expelled as rabbi of Brooklyn's Beth Jacob synagogue for eating ham, the Brooklyn Eagle canvassed local rabbis for their views on the matter. While George Taubenhaus, rabbi of Beth Elohim stated, "I do not believe my congregation would expel me if I ate ham", Baith Israel's rabbi Friedlander responded, "While there are some differences between the reform and orthodox Jews, I do not think it is the place for any Jewish minister to eat ham. The reformers do not so strictly observe the old Mosaic law, but it does not seem to me a good example for a rabbi to set to his congregation."
20th century
Decline and reinvigoration
By 1904, membership had fallen to 30, and the synagogue nearly failed: mass transit had allowed Jews to migrate away from downtown Brooklyn, and a fire had nearly destroyed the Boerum synagogue building. Further innovations were attempted, including a pipe organ and a mixed-sex choir, but these were removed after objections from Orthodox members. The congregation decided that the Boerum location was part of the problem, and made the bold decision to sell it, buy new premises, and hire a rabbi. In 1905, they hired Israel Goldfarb, a 1902 graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary, as "Hazan and Teacher", his first and only pulpit. The following year Goldfarb was appointed rabbi, a position he would hold for over 50 years.Image:Kane Street synagogue exterior.jpg|thumb|250px|left|upright|Kane Street synagogue exterior.
In 1905, the congregation also purchased for $30,000 its current building at Tompkins Place and Harrison Street, along with an adjacent school building and a connecting two-story arcade. The Romanesque revival church building, erected in 1855, had originally housed the Middle Dutch Reformed Church, and, from 1887, the Trinity German Lutheran Church. The hiring of Goldfarb and purchase of a new building helped revive the congregation, and by 1906 membership had doubled.
Goldfarb was a talented musician, known to this day as composer of popular tunes for the songs "Shalom Aleichem" and "Magein Avot" used in most Ashkenazi synagogues. With his brother Samuel E. Goldfarb, he compiled The Jewish Songster for schoolchildren, the first American collection of Jewish songs. Israel Goldfarb also served as Professor of Liturgical Music at the Jewish Theological Seminary from 1920 to 1944, and in 1949 founded the School of Sacred Music at Hebrew Union College.
In his Kol Nidre sermon of 1905, Goldfarb emphasized the need for a Talmud Torah, and it was immediately founded. Talmud Torahs helped synagogues in neighborhoods with small Jewish populations to attract young Jewish families, and were common in "second-settlement areas of New York City such as Harlem and Brooklyn". By 1907–1908 the congregation had grown to 85 member families. The Talmud Torah, which held classes four days a week, had three teachers and 75 students.