Rockdale Temple

Rockdale Temple occupies a prominent place in American Jewish history as the oldest Jewish congregation west of the Allegheny Mountains and, by its own account, the eleventh-oldest congregation in the United States.[1][2] It is today a Reform congregation of approximately 400 families, including members descended from seventh-generation Cincinnati Jewish families as well as those new to the city.[3]

The congregation is situated on the Ridge Road Mayerson JCC Campus in Amberley Village, a northern Cincinnati suburb. Its own history gives 1969 for the move to Ridge Road, while the American Jewish Archives dates the new temple's dedication to 1970.[4][1] Its facilities include the Messer Chapel, built in 1969 as part of the original Ridge Road structure, whose distinctive ceiling features a Star of David motif; the chapel serves lifecycle events, the Kehal Kodesh School, and regular Shabbat services.[5] The congregation describes itself as a community whose activities encompass worship, education, community engagement, lifecycle events, and civic engagement projects.[3]

Across its successive Cincinnati homes, the congregation has been formally known as Congregation Bene Israel, Kahal Kadosh Bene Israel, or K.K. Bene Israel. The name "Rockdale Temple" derives from the building at Rockdale and Harvey Avenues in Avondale, which opened in 1906, and remained the congregation's popular name after its move to Amberley Village.[1][4] The congregation was one of the founding bodies of both the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, cementing its institutional importance to American Reform Judaism well beyond its Cincinnati home.[6]

Earliest Jewish Worship in Cincinnati

The congregational story begins before Bene Israel itself was organized. Joseph Jonas, who had arrived in Cincinnati in March 1817 and remained the city's only Jewish resident for roughly two years, was among five Jews who gathered for autumn holiday services in 1819.[7][7] The others were Lewis Cohen, Barnet Levi, Jonas Levy, and David Israel Johnson.[8] This gathering was the first Jewish religious service in the western portion of the United States, and similar services were held during the following three autumns as the community slowly grew.[8] A telling anecdote preserved in historical accounts records a Quaker woman asking to examine Jonas because he was Jewish, then remarking that he was "no different to other people" — a glimpse into the novelty of Jewish settlement on the early American frontier.[7]

By 1824, Cincinnati's Jewish population had grown to approximately twenty, and the moment for formal organization had arrived.[7]

Founding of Congregation Bene Israel

The congregation held a preliminary meeting on January 4, 1824, followed by its formal organization on January 18 of that year.[8] Ten people attended the founding meeting, among them Joseph Jonas, David I. Johnson, Morris Moses, and Solomon Buckingham.[8] Jonas was elected the congregation's first president, with Phineas Moses and Jonas Levy serving as vestrymen.[9] An earlier gathering at Morris Moses's home had produced a draft constitution for the new body.[10]

A preserved appeal dated July 3, 1825, offers a rare early snapshot of the congregation: it counted 18 assessed and six unassessed members, already possessed a synagogue room, two Torah scrolls, a burial ground, and a member who served as shochet.[7] The young congregation lacked the wealth to build a permanent synagogue without external help and appealed to older Jewish communities in Philadelphia, Charleston, and New Orleans, as well as to congregations in Portsmouth, England, and Barbados.[8] The Ohio General Assembly granted the congregation a formal charter on January 8, 1830.[9]

David Israel Johnson is also identified, in a Hebrew Union College gallery guide, as instrumental in founding the congregation, which that source calls Kahal Kadosh Bene Israel.[11]

From Rented Rooms to a First Synagogue

For roughly twelve years the congregation worshiped in rented rooms while accumulating the funds necessary for a permanent home.[8] A building committee was appointed in 1834, the cornerstone of the first synagogue was laid on June 11, 1835, and the completed building — situated on Broadway between Fifth and Sixth Streets — was dedicated on September 9, 1836.[8][1] A second building was constructed beside the earlier synagogue in 1852.[1]

In those early decades the congregation was strictly Orthodox in practice, maintaining its own shochet and matzah ovens and following traditional liturgy.[1] Until 1855 it was served by hazans and visiting rabbis rather than a permanent rabbi.[1] Membership had grown to 150 by 1846, and the congregation had become a center of local charitable activity.[9] Before 1847 a cantor performed duties that would later fall to a preacher; that year the Rev. James K. Gutheim was elected as a lecturer for a six-month term.[9]

Educational Initiatives

Bene Israel took an early and active interest in Jewish education. In 1842 the congregation established its first religious school, supervised by Louisa (or Mrs. Louis) Symonds, making it the first Jewish religious school in Cincinnati.[1][8] This early school was short-lived, but a Talmud Torah followed in 1845; in 1846 it gave way to the Hebrew Institute, which also closed after its founder, James K. Gutheim, departed for New Orleans.[8]

In 1855 the congregation established the Noyoth School. Noyoth later merged with the Talmud Yelodim Institute, which continued until 1866.[1][10] These successive educational ventures, while episodic, reflect the congregation's sustained commitment to transmitting Jewish learning in a frontier and then rapidly expanding city.

The Reform Transition Under Max Lilienthal

The congregation's transformation into a Reform body unfolded gradually and was decisively shaped by the arrival of rabbinic leadership in 1855. In that year Congregation Bene Israel elected the Rev. Dr. Max Lilienthal as its first permanent rabbi.[1][8] Lilienthal served until his death in office on April 5, 1882 — a tenure of nearly twenty-seven years.[8]

Under Lilienthal's leadership the congregation moved away from Orthodoxy, introducing family pews, a mixed choir with organ accompaniment, English prayers and sermons, and an Americanized prayerbook.[1] Not everyone accepted these changes: in September 1855, members who remained committed to Orthodox practice seceded and formed Congregation Sheerith Israel.[9] For those who remained, the transformation continued over the following two decades. The final symbolic break came on September 19, 1875, when the congregation passed a resolution abolishing observance of the second day of Rosh Hashanah.[1]

The Jewish Encyclopedia places Lilienthal's appointment at Bene Israel alongside Isaac M. Wise's appointment at the separate Congregation Bene Yeshurun in 1854, describing the two rabbis' combined leadership as giving Cincinnati's Jewish community a commanding position in American Jewish life.[8]

Hebrew Union College and the Mound Street Temple

As the congregation's membership gravitated westward within Cincinnati, Bene Israel purchased a lot at Eighth and Mound Streets in January 1865.[9] The cornerstone of the Mound Street Temple was laid on June 5, 1868, and the building was dedicated on August 27, 1869; the dedication sermons were delivered jointly by Max Lilienthal and Isaac M. Wise.[9]

This building would soon play a role in a pivotal moment of American Jewish institutional history. When Hebrew Union College held its first classes in the fall of 1875, those classes — nine students strong — met in the basement of Bene Israel's Mound Street Temple.[12] The congregation's connection to the new college was thus immediate and concrete, going beyond founding membership to providing HUC's first classroom.

Building the Rockdale Avenue Temple

As Cincinnati's Jewish community continued its geographic movement — this time toward the Avondale and Walnut Hills neighborhoods — Bene Israel again followed its congregants. The initiative to relocate came from congregation president Victor Abraham in 1900; members authorized an investigation of relocation that October, and by October 1901 they had unanimously adopted a committee's finding that a move was both advisable and practicable.[9]

On March 1, 1903, the congregation authorized the purchase of a lot at Rockdale and Harvey Avenues in Avondale.[9] The lot was notable for its size — an entire city block — which allowed for park-like surroundings with space for landscaping, trees, shrubs, and flowers.[9] Ground was broken on July 28, 1904, and the cornerstone was laid on April 16, 1905; artifacts from that construction period, including a pair of brass doorknobs and backplates dated 1905, are preserved at the Cincinnati Skirball Museum.[13][9]

The new temple was dedicated in September 1906, with the program beginning at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, September 14, and continuing through the weekend.[9] The 1912 historical account reported that the congregation had 475 members, property valued at approximately $250,000, and annual expenditures of $26,000.[9] Solomon Fox, a longtime president and trustee, is credited with being chiefly instrumental in securing the funds for this building; he also served as treasurer and a leading member of the committee that built new Hebrew Union College structures, and was active in the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.[14]

Rabbi David Philipson

Following Max Lilienthal's death in 1882, Raphael Benjamin served the congregation until November 1888, when David Philipson took charge.[8] Philipson had been one of Hebrew Union College's first four graduates in 1883 and would go on to teach at HUC and serve on its Board of Governors.[11] He served Bene Israel for fifty years, voluntarily retiring in 1938 and becoming rabbi emeritus.[11] The extensive correspondence and congregational records he generated form the core of the American Jewish Archives' Congregation Bene Israel collection.[1]

Move to Amberley Village

As suburban migration accelerated in the mid-twentieth century, the congregation again moved with its members. Its own history dates the move to Ridge Road in Amberley Village to 1969, while the American Jewish Archives dates the new temple's dedication to 1970.[4][1] This facility, which includes the Messer Chapel, remains the congregation's home today.[5]

The congregation counts ten senior rabbis across its history, spanning from Dr. Max Lilienthal to Rabbi Meredith Kahan.[2] Kahan's path to the senior rabbinate is itself a reflection of the congregation's continuity: she began her Jewish life at Rockdale Temple, was ordained at Hebrew Union College in 2013, and then returned to serve as Assistant Rabbi and Educator.[15] After seven years as Associate Rabbi and Educator and a period as Acting Senior Rabbi from May 2020 to March 2021, she was elected the congregation's tenth Senior Rabbi at a special congregational meeting on March 14, 2021.[15] The search committee, chaired by Abby Schwartz and Aaron Herzig, unanimously selected Kahan after reviewing applications and interviewing candidates, and the membership voted unanimously to approve her election.[16]

Today the congregation serves approximately 400 families, including members from seventh-generation Cincinnati Jewish families as well as people new to the city.[3] Congregational life encompasses worship, education, community engagement, lifecycle events, and civic engagement — a range that reflects the breadth of the community's two-century evolution from a frontier Orthodox minyan into a well-established Reform congregation.

A 2000 oral-history interview preserved by the Jewish Women's Archive offers a personal window into Rockdale Temple's mid-twentieth-century character. Jean Trounstine recalled that her Cincinnati family belonged to the temple and described it as exceptionally Reform — so Reform, she remembered, that it "didn't even have — hardly even had any bar mitzvahs." She also recalled being drawn to the beauty and ritual of services she attended with her grandmother.[17]

Rockdale Temple's history of public engagement extends well into the contemporary period. In May 2018, Rabbis Sigma Coran and Meredith Kahan were both listed as Rockdale Temple signatories to a national appeal by religious leaders urging the U.S. Secretary of State to appoint a Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism.[18]

That same year, the congregation — listed as "K. K. Bene Israel, Rockdale Temple" — joined Ohio state and local organizations in signing an Anti-Defamation League–hosted letter dated June 20, 2018, opposing the expanded "zero-tolerance" policy and family separation practices at the U.S. border.[19] The congregation's civic voice extended further: in August 2019, Rockdale Temple was among Ohio organizations supporting a request that the United States meet its FY2019 refugee resettlement admissions goal and raise the FY2020 admissions cap.[20]

These actions show how contemporary congregational life includes civic advocacy alongside Rockdale Temple's religious and educational functions.

The American Jewish Archives holds Congregation Bene Israel (Rockdale Temple) Records as Manuscript Collection No. 24, spanning 1829 to 1960 and measuring 18.9 linear feet.[1] The collection is held on permanent loan from the congregation and is open to researchers.

The materials are extensive in scope: they include correspondence — primarily that of Rabbi David Philipson — as well as reports, vestry and board minutes, school records, financial material, membership rolls, burial records, pew deeds, Hebrew Relief Association records, and committee materials.[1] The collection provides extensive primary-source material for the study of a nineteenth-century American Jewish congregation and the development of Reform Judaism in the United States.

Several historical questions surrounding the congregation rest on sources that offer differing accounts. The American Jewish Archives finding aid gives January 18, 1824, as the congregation's organization date, but its scope note describes the congregation as dating from 1825; the archive does not explain the discrepancy.[1]

A similar inconsistency appears in accounts of Hebrew Union College's 1875 opening. One passage in the American Jewish Archives states that HUC's opening exercises were held at Plum Street Temple, while a timeline on the same page places them at Bene Yeshurun Temple; the source does not resolve the difference.[12]

Rockdale Temple's bicentennial materials call it the oldest continuous Jewish congregation west of the Allegheny Mountains and the eleventh-oldest congregation in America.[2] The broader claim that it is the oldest congregation west of the Alleghenies is also made by the American Jewish Archives and Hebrew Union College materials, but the more specific claims of uninterrupted continuity and an eleventh-place national ranking were not independently corroborated in the other sources examined.[1][11]

Early historical sources identify the congregation as B'ne Israel, Bene Israel, or Kahal Kodesh Bene Israel. Modern institutional sources identify it as K.K. Bene Israel, familiarly known as Rockdale Temple, a popular name associated with the congregation's 1906 building at Rockdale and Harvey Avenues.[1][6]