H a r Si na i

 

H a r    Si  n a i

1857-2025

Arthur L. Finkle

Har Sinai Hebrew Congregation

Trenton of the Revolution was a small of a hundred houses — a typical Colonial village in its pursuits and interests, dreaming away the years on the pleasant coastal plain. Half a century later it found itself caught up in a great surge of industrial and commercial growth. Linked at last to the two great centers of population to the north and south by rail as well as by water and road-business and large enterprise found Trenton an attractive center in which to locate. By 1857 the city's population was 15,000. Steel, rubber and pottery were on the threshhold of becoming major industries. Retail trade flourished, there was activity in real estate development. Trenton goods began to flow out to the markets of the nation.

This growth had not passed

unnoticed in New York and Philadelphia, whose Jewish communities were already almost two centuries old. Slowly, and later at an increased pace, Jews came to Trenton to work, to live, and to prosper. They found it a pleasant and friendly city and, unlike the solitary traveler or trader of an earlier day who passed through on his way to the larger centers, settled down and took deep root. And quite soon, in the ages-long tradition of their people, they added their congregation to the 18 churches already here to complete Trenton's representation of all the major creeds.

But first there was the Har Sinai Cemetery Association, formed

November 19, 1857 when 11 men met in the home of Morris Singer. They were (besides Singer): Marcus Marx, Julius

Schloss, Issac Wymann, lgnatz Frankenstein, Lazarus Gottheim, Isaac Singer, Joseph Rice, Ephraim Kaufman, Marcus Aaron and Gustavus Cane.

Friends all, and in close contact with one another daily because their homes and small shops were dotted about the center of the city, they decided the time had come to buy a place for the inevitable day of death. The necessary funds were raised by subscription, and eventually a tract at the corner of Liberty and Vroom Streets was bought. It served as Har Sinai's first cemetery for several generations.

Har Sinai Herbrew Congregation was an outgrowth of the Cemetery Association. Before its formation religious services were held in private homes and then in rented quarters. A September 1858 newspaper item tells us that 52 persons attended New Year's services in Temperance Hall, then located at the southeast corner of Broad and Front Streets. Formal services, regularly conducted, began with the formation of Har Sinai Hebrew Congregation in 1860. They were held in the old Chancery Building which stood on the site of the present Trenton Trust Company at West State Street and Chancery Lane.

The congregation had decided upon incorporation at a meeting held July 22, 1860, the trustees named at that time being Simon Kahnweiler, Isaac Wymann, Henry Shoninger, Herman Rosenbaum, Marcus Aaron, Leon Kahnweiler and David Manko, most of them clothing merchants. Nearly all the founders and

first members were of German

abstraction, and for many years services were conducted in German and Hebrew only.

Kahnweiler, probably the first Jew of prominence in his day, had been interested in a number of ventures: a brickyard, vinegar works, grocery store, real estate. He was Har Sinai's first president, and for a number of years exercised considerable influence in the affairs of the small congregation. It was Kahnweiler who purchased from the Lutherans a little brick chapel on the west side of North Montgomery Street, between Academy and Perry. It was refitted as a temple and dedicated with appropriate ceremonies on March 23, 1866. Judge David Naar, an outstanding figure of the time, made the dedicatory address. He had been mayor of Elizabeth, Common Pleas Judge of Essex County, a member of the State Constitution of 1844, owner and publisher of the influential Daily True American, and a powerful figure in state Democratic councils. Rabbi Isaac Lesser, who with Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise then shared the leadership of American Jewry, also spoke at the dedication.

Kahnweiler evidently had never deeded the temple to the congregation, and there seems to have been dissension among the members. Matters reached a climax on March 16, 1872 when the little house of worship was sold at public auction. Left without a permanent home, the congregation

drifted. The future was far from bright, but one member was not disheartened. Mrs. Toretta Kaufman, mother of Amelia Block and S.E. Kaufman, who later took their place as two strong pillars of the temple (Kaufman was one of Trenton's leading merchants in the first decades of the 20th Century), set out to save the temple building. Through her tireless efforts she managed to collect sufficient funds so that by autumn of 1872 the congregation again owned the Montgomery Street property. The largest contributor was said to be Joseph Rice, leading merchant and one of Trenton's most respected citizens, who was very active in temple affairs and made up the balance needed after Mrs. Kaufman had collected as much as she possibly could.

Har Sinai sold its temple to Bayard Post, No.8,G.A.R. in July 1903. In the same year it purchased a lot at the southwest corner of Front and Stockton Streets and erected its second house of worship there. The temple was dedicated on the evening of October 7, 1904. Soon after, the congregation adopted Reform Judaism and engaged Rabbi Nathan Stern as its first reform rabbi. English replaced German in the

services. It was in this temple than many of Har Sinai's older members were Bar Mitzvah, confirmed and married. A memorable event was the address delivered by Governor Woodrow Wilson on November 24, 1910.

In February 1922 the Board of

Trustees voted to join the Union of American Hebrew Congregation; Har Sinai now had official status as a Reform congregation.

Although Har Sinai opened its new temple doors into the depression years of the 1930's, the congregation

managed to carry on through the selfless sacrifice of its rabbis, officers and membership. The temple was completely free of debt when it burned its mortgage on the evening of November 4, 1945.

Rabbi Holtzberg's spiritual

leadership continued over the enriching span of 25 years, years which saw men like Julius Schafer and Dr. J.M. Schildkraut carry Har Sinai from strength to strength. With the death of Rabbi Holtzberg, Rabbi Joshua 0. Haberman came from Buffalo in 1951 to take his place in the pulpit.

Rabbi Haberman's rabbinate for the next eighteen years encompassed an extensive series of innovations, achievements and activities which carried Har Sinai during the fifties and sixties through a period of unprecedented growth.

A significant and important addition to the worship services and the life of Har Sinai took place in 1953 when Cantor Marshall M. Glatzer joined the Temple staff.

In 1957, Har Sinai celebrated its Centennial Year—"more than just another celebration", as Centennial chairman Sidney Goldmann said in this personal message, but "an occasion for

spiritual rededication, a renewal of one's abiding faith in Judaism". The first months of the centennial were featured by outstanding congregational events —a congregational dinner; "The Bible in Song", An evening of Sacred Music with Temple's choir joined by those of four other churches; notable rabbis invited to share the pulpit. The second half of the centennial was highlighted by a Trenton Symphony concert honoring Har Sinai and the March 22, 1958 civic banquet in which leaders of the Jewish and general community joined with the congregation in marking the 100th anniversary.

When Rabbi Haberman answered a call to serve as Rabbi for Washington

·                     Hebrew Congregation in Washington, D.C. in 1969, Har Sinai called to its pulpit Rabbi Bernard Perelmuter from Erie, Pennsylvania, who served Har Sinai

until June, 1982. In the later part of this period the Board of Trustees voted to acquire a tract beyond West Trenton close to Route 1-95, the plans being to erect a new Temple at that location. However, the cost of this project proceeded to be beyond the Temple's means, and the project was abandoned.

In June 1982, Har Sinai welcomed Rabbi David J. Gelfand to its pulpit from Temple Beth El in Great Neck, New York. His energy and warmth, his concern with social issues, his belief in the traditional role of rabbi as teacher of Torah, and his work with young people and in contemporary Jewish education hold great promises for Har Sinai as it marks its 125th year.