Jewish Historical Society of Trenton Administrative Records and Historical Collections (ca. 1880-2006) By Kate McGuire, May 2004 (series A & B) & Ellen R. Callahan, November 2020 (series C-AL) Institutional History The roots of the Jewish Historical Society (JHS) can be found in the 1954-1955 nationwide observance of the American Jewish Tercentenary commemorating the anniversary of the Jews’ arrival in New Amsterdam, now New York. Like many communities across America, Trenton formed a Committee of 300, and developed a yearlong celebration culminating in a successful historical pageant presented to almost 5,000 people in Cadwalader Park. During the planning for this celebration, organizers raised money not just for the Tercentenary but for the publication of a history of Trenton Jewry. 1 Despite the initial enthusiasm however, the book was not written. In late 1962, Bernard and Jessica Alexander sought to revitalize this plan by gathering many of those who had been part of the Committee of 300 to help fulfill this promise by creating the Jewish Historical Society of Trenton. On November 20, 1962, a group met at Adath Israel Synagogue, adopted a constitution and by-laws, and elected their officers: Judge Sidney Goldmann, President; Rabbi S. Joshua, Vice President; Jessica Alexander, Secretary; and Sol Phillips Perlman, Treasurer. The 1962 Constitution set the Society’s objectives as “the collection, preservation and publication of materials relating to the settlement and history of Jews in Trenton and vicinity, and the publication and popularization of information and materials relating to the history of the Jews of New Jersey.” These efforts, however, stalled until 1975 when the upcoming American Bicentennial spurred new interest, and a period of activity began. Major goals for this renewed iteration of the Society were, again, the production of a history of the Trenton Jewish community, creation of a repository for resources and historical material collected, and the building of community support. Members began giving presentations on the history of Trenton’s Jews and a room was 1See Series V – American Jewish Tercentenary below for more information. reserved for the Society’s use at the Jewish Community Center. JHS reached out to the many Jewish community groups, encouraging them to write their own histories and to select someone to help coordinate with JHS in its goal to gather information. The newly elected Vice President, Harry Gerofsky, began his research through newspapers, court records and deeds to develop an exhibit, Trenton Jewish Enterprises of Yesteryear, and a slide show, Union Street Revisited. It was also during the late 1970s that Dr. Milton Feinberg and Rita Allen “cataloged” the collections of Nathan Kramer. While attempts to raise money for the publication of the book failed (requests to both the Jewish Federation of Trenton in 1976 and 1988, and to the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1980 and 1981), the group carried on with lectures on Jewish life in Trenton and JHS-sponsored bus trips until about 1987 when, once again, the organization appeared to have gone dormant. In 1992, a new Jewish Historical Society of Greater Trenton was formed with Herbert Spiegle as president and Orvill “Ozzie” Zuckerman as vice president. Their mission was to “foster a sense of pride in the areas Jewish heritage … (and) to preserve and maintain an archival collection.” Presentations and exhibits were to be an important part of this new Society. At this point, a search for the collection “stored in wet basements and hot attics” began and a new period of productivity was set in motion. Zuckerman took the lead in interviewing some of the older Jews of Trenton and the surrounding area, as well as the children and grandchildren of some of the earlier Jewish settlers and entrepreneurs. These recordings were used to produce Zuckerman’s chronicle of Jewish life in the various newspaper articles he wrote from 1993 to 2006. The call for information and memorabilia was met with an enthusiastic response and once again, the Society began to actively collect, having gained office space at Woodbrook House at 865 Lower Ferry Road in Ewing. This last incarnation of JHS remained active until about 1998, collecting materials, sponsoring lectures, and presenting programs based on research they had gathered. Then, in a February 12, 1999 letter to members, Zuckerman (who was by then president of the Society) reported that “While the volume of materials being placed in our hands for archival storage and cataloguing has kept a steady pace, outside presentations were very limited due to illness by some of our board of directors and volunteers.” By the following year, the Society’s board voted to transfer the collection to the Trenton Free Public Library’s Trentoniana Department. Bibliography Trenton Free Public Library. Trentoniana Department. Jewish Historical Society of Trenton Administrative Records and Historical Collections. Series A - Jewish Historical Society Administrative Records, 1962-1999. Scope and Contents Note This collection consists of the administrative records of the Jewish Historical Society of Trenton, research or subject files of information gathered by their members as well as records of Jewish organizations and individuals. Though the collection spans between about the 1880s to 2006, much of the earliest material is in the form of copies of newspaper articles. Record types Page 2 of 61 and formats vary from series-to-series as described below, but broadly include minutes, newsletters, newspaper articles, copies of newspaper articles and obituaries, correspondence, printed reports, event programs, and scrapbooks. Audio visual formats include taped oral histories or interviews (many of which have been digitized and made available online with transcription summaries – see https://trentonlib.org/trentoniana/oral-histories/), VHS tapes, reel to-reel audio tapes, and some slides, photographic prints, and negatives. In addition, there are some artifacts including yarmulkes, awards, plaques and clothing. The collection consists of 50 boxes and 9 oversized items. The material is divided into 38 series as outlined in the chart below. This collection focuses on the vibrant Jewish community of Trenton that began around 1850, flourished until the late 1970s and then eventually faded as more Jewish families moved out to the surrounding suburbs and beyond. It provides information about the life of Jewish immigrants, their children, and grandchildren, as they worked to become part of the Trenton community while maintaining their religious and cultural identity. It also provides insight into the activities of major Trenton Jewish organizations including the Jewish Federation of Trenton, the Jewish Community Center of Trenton, the 300 Committee of Trenton which planned celebrations for the American Jewish Tercentenary (1954-1955), various synagogues, social clubs and the Trenton Hebrew Academy.
Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Exploring Trenton’s ‘Jewtown’
Exploring Trenton’s ‘Jewtown’
Authors and historians discover and document community’s rich past
While doing archival research as chair of the revitalized Trenton Jewish Historical Society, Arthur Finkle, 75, whose roots in the community reach back three generations, realized that no one had documented the history of the city’s Jews.
So he set out to do just that.
Finkle, a history buff, told NJJN, “Here is a community that knew itself, and there was nothing written about it, so I wrote it.” The book that grew out of Finkle’s research, Trenton’s Jews: Beginning, Adaptation and Achieving the American Dream, was published this year by Hadassa Word Press.
The first Jews in Trenton were Sephardim fleeing the Spanish Inquisition; the next wave, between 1820 and 1850, were the German Jews; and finally, between 1881 and 1914, the Russians and Eastern Europeans. The first Trenton synagogue was Har Sinai Hebrew Congregation, founded by German Jews in 1858. In 1883, Congregation Brothers of Israel (now in Newtown, Pa.) was incorporated, followed in 1891 by its offshoot, Anshe Emes.
By 1888, the city boasted 12 kosher butchers, and, according to Finkle’s book, by 1907, “Trenton’s Jews numbered approximately 4,000 souls”: 700 German Jews, 250 Hungarian Jews, and a little more than 3,000 Russian Jews. In 1909, the Hungarian Jews founded Ahavath Israel, which joined the Conservative movement in 1915.
Finkle is not the only one whose interest has led to an exploration of the history of the small, interconnected sub-city known among its denizens as “Jewtown” — an affectionate sobriquet that only insiders are entitled to use. Albert Stark, whose great-grandfather was the first Orthodox rabbi in Trenton, has written a novel set in the Trenton he grew up in, and Ed Alpern, a native of King of Prussia, Pa., who discovered Trenton in the old photos that lined the walls of the JCC of Princeton Mercer Bucks when it was in Ewing, has documented its history using videos.
Finkle’s family arrived during the Russian immigration. His great-grandfather was a community activist: president of Brothers of Israel from 1890 to 1900, and later president of Anshe Emes. His grandfather founded the Jewish Republican Club and Trenton’s Talmud Torah. That’s history, but, Finkle joked, “My family also told me lots of other bubbe meises, but I straightened that out as I researched.”
His strictly observant grandfather remained a member of Anshe Emes, Finkle said. His father, Lou, and his Uncle Al were active in Trenton politics. His father did public relations for the Democratic machine.
Growing up, Finkle recalled, family members would get together every week. “Many of us gathered on Shabbos, went to shul [at Adath Israel], and came home to my grandparents’ house. Jewishness was the theme.
“From the turn of the century to 1920,” said Finkle, “Jews married within the faith and within the city, and as a result you got a provincial city where everyone is kind of related to one another.”
During his many years blowing the shofar on the High Holy Days for Har Sinai Temple (now in Pennington) and other Reform congregations, Finkle widened his knowledge of the largely German Reform Jews who immigrated to the United States and Trenton in the 1850s. The German Jews, he said, “created their own adaptation to Judaism,” the American branch of Reform Judaism, in 1873. Har Sinai became Reform only in 1920.
Finkle explained that he had two goals for his book: “Historical archiving — just to say this community existed and this is what it was like — and this was the journey of an immigrant from peddler to store owner to professional.”
An interesting thing he shared from his research was that the 1924 U.S. Immigration Act devised a quota system based on the ethnic composition of the population according to the 1890 census, “so people who immigrated subsequently were not counted.” The consequence of this “nativist” act, for Jews leaving Europe seeking better economic opportunities, he said, meant that many had to go to Canada, which had a more open immigration policy until the 1930s.
Citing several of his research findings that he found of particular significance, Finkle noted “the relative closeness of the Trenton community and the marriages between families.” He said there was little ideological dissension regarding the growing Zionist movement. And, the “differences in denominations [were] homogenized in the YMHA and YWHA” on Stockton Street (the Ewing JCC opened in 1955).
Jewish Trenton also had its own sports hero, six-foot-six Mike Bloom, “a fantastic basketball player that nobody knows about because he was in another era,” Finkle said. While Bloom was at Trenton High School in the late ’20s and early ’30s, the team won the state championship every year. At Temple University, his team won the National Invitational Tournament. Bloom played pro basketball for the American Basketball Association until 1936, when the National Basketball Association was created.
“They didn’t score much in those days, and he might have averaged 11 points a game,” Finkle said. There was no time clock, and, up until 1936, after every basket was a tip-off, where two players threw up the ball between them, each trying to tap the ball to a teammate. “Bloom was six-foot-six, and he got all the tip-offs,” Finkle said.
Stark, an attorney, told NJJN that his great-grandfather Samuel Meyer Stark was the first Orthodox rabbi in Trenton, at Brothers of Israel. The Vilnius native arrived in the Lower East Side in 1878, and initially came to Trenton to purchase pottery to peddle in New York. There he met nine German-Jewish families and began ministering to them in their homes in 1883. After he died in 1889, the congregation supported his two sons and daughter until 1903, when the two brothers went to New York to earn money for their mother and sister.
Returning to Trenton after three years, Stark’s grandfather, Louis, opened a grocery with partners Bill and Stan Barlow and worked there until the business closed in 1935 during the Depression. Louis Stark then became an entrepreneur for the rest of his life.
Stark’s father, Sidney, an attorney, served on Har Sinai’s board and as its vice president. The family lived in West Trenton until moving to Lawrenceville in the late 1950s when Albert was in college. In Trenton, he remembers, “we walked everywhere. I went to Junior 3. It was great growing up in Trenton. We had a neighborhood that was predominantly Jewish but was very mixed. We were the middle-class kids; the rich kids lived in Hiltonia, the downtown kids on Market and Lambert streets. We all went to the YMHA on Stockton Street — that’s where the Jewish social life was, and at Har Sinai and Adath on Belleview and the three shuls in the Market Street area.”
Stark graduated from a totally integrated Trenton High School, a melting pot with blacks, Italians, Poles, Irish, and Jews. Not surprisingly, Stark said he was taken aback when, in 1956, he went to a youth group meeting at an Alabama shul, and a little red-haired girl with blue eyes said to him, “We like our segregation — you can have your integration up north.”
Stark recently published a novel, The Statement (Outskirts Press, 2016) which, he said, is “a fictional account of what it was like in Trenton during the civil rights era, ’68 to ’72, after the riots”; another goal of the book was “to advocate against the death penalty.”
In his novel, Stark said, the 15-year-old protagonist, Lester Gold, watches his father being murdered and then the police manipulate him into giving a statement against a black activist and troublemaker, who ends up on death row. “Lester realized he didn’t tell the truth, but it wasn’t all Lester’s fault. The story is about how he manned up, how he lived with this heartache, and became a newspaper reporter at The Trentonian,” Stark said.
In researching his great-grandfather, Stark used many documents in the Trentoniana collection on the history of Trenton and Trenton Jews. He also suggested that the adjacent Jewish cemeteries, for the Reform Har Sinai Temple and the Orthodox Brothers of Israel, were an important historical source. “On one side are the German Jews — old Trenton — then a hedge, and on the left side of the hedge were the newcomers,” said Stark, whose great-grandfather was the second person to be buried in a Brothers of Israel plot.
Alpern, a video producer/director/storyteller who became an amateur historian, moved to Pennington in the late ’90s. In 1999, when his kids were going to the old JCC in Ewing, he noticed pictures on the wall of Trenton old-timers. Because they were getting yellow and dog-eared, Alpern scanned them all. Many of the photos had been donated by Ben Olinsky, coach of the Ewing JCC’s Biddy League basketball.
Alpern then got in touch with Olinsky, whose health was poor, and interviewed him on video. One story Olinsky shared was that his wife, Muriel Schultz, had challenged him to a free-throw shooting contest and won, which was why he “had to marry her.” Two days after Alpern completed the video a year later, Olinsky died, and Alpern gave the video to his wife.
One thing led to another, and Schultz came to Alpern’s home for a Passover seder in 2009. She “told stories about the wonderful place Trenton was: the neighborhoods, the smells, the stores,” said Alpern. Schultz then invited him to come with her and Mark Litowitz, a former judge, to see the materials that Ozzie Zuckerman (see sidebar) had donated to the Trentoniana collection at the Trenton Public Library.
Alpern remembered the Trentoniana curator, Wendy Nardi, pulling out a picture of Jimmy Carter with a woman. Alpern said, “Mark looks up and says, ‘Oh, that’s my wife, Selma Litowitz, who taught at Lawrence High; she was Jon Stewart’s favorite teacher when he was growing up.’
At that point, Alpern started publishing a blog, trentonjewishproject.blogspot.com. “People came out of the woodwork and would respond to me,” he said.
Alpern got an e-mail from David Weinstein, a rabbi and klezmer musician in New Zealand; his father, Sol Weinstein, had grown up in Trenton, was a reporter for The Trentonian, and later wrote the “Loxfinger” series, about agent Oy Oy 7, a satire of Ian Fleming’s secret agent 007, James Bond. Weinstein later wrote episodes of the TV shows Love, American Style and The Jeffersons and wrote a song for Bobby Darin.
While interviewing Rutgers history professor Michael Aaron Rockland, Alpern asked what killed “Jewtown.” Rockland’s answer was simple: “prosperity.” Jews thrived and eventually moved into the surrounding areas, and, in a touch of irony, bought the bankrupt Greenacres Country Club, a “restricted” club that had not allowed Jews to become members.
Alpern is still taken with Trenton and said he has lots of material that he hasn’t put together or released. “I still have a goal to do some kind of a movie,” he said.
The Russian and Polish Jews located in South Trenton
Jewish Trenton in the Early Days
Arthur L. Finkle ‘
The Russian and Polish Jews located in South Trenton. It housed most of the recent Eastern European Jewish immigrants. Its rents were inexpensive and its proximity to consumers was perfect. It also provided merchants a site to sell their wares. Similar to Schenectady, NY, (10 sq. miles compared to Trenton’s 7.6 sq. miles), the first Jews who settled in Schenectady came as peddlers, or small dealers in liquor, clothing, and groceries. In fact, in synagogues in communities like Albany or Syracuse one third to one half of the males were initially employed as peddlers. By the 1870s and 1880s, some had opened small businesses, and some prospered. 1 This section was an already existing marketplace and had been for some years. 1http://schenectadyhist.wordpress.com/page/2/ Figure 1 Market and Greene Streets Photo 1860 of Market St. Facing Greene (Broad) St. Built as a shtetl, all spoke Yiddish. It counted several kosher meat butchers, Kosher bakeries, a Talmud Torah, synagogues and a Mikveh (ritual bath). It also housed social welfare societies, such as the Free Home Loan Society, Immigrant’s Aid, Sick Society, The Workingmen’s Circle etc. Shtetl Ben Cion Pinchuk characterized the shtetl as a nostalgic and sentimental symbol of “The Old Country.” If the old country was so good why did numerous of its Jews move? 2 Further, the shtetl has to be demythologized. The size of a shtetl, depending on your source, was anywhere from 1,500 to 10, 000 people, probably half were Jews. It served other work towns whose inhabitants worked the ground or toiled in industry as a market. It served as a marketplace to exchange goods and services, There were shtetlekh (plural of shtetl in Yiddish) in which the majority of the Jewish population engaged in industry, such as Bzhezhin near Lodz, where 80 percent of the Jewish population, including women and children, produced cheap pants for the Russian empire. Russian Jews found shtetl live stifling, smothered by governments taxes, religious restrictions and religious oppression. Polish Jews found the same thing, to a lesser extent. Romanian Jews were a bit different. Granted citizenship in theory in 1848 and However, they were blamed for the financial crises 1873. Although they granted independence in 1887, Romanian Jews were subsequently restricted by the laws that created government industries. Apparently the ‘native Romanians’ wanted the jobs all to themselves. Indeed, 3 Carl Lueger became Mayor of Vienna in the 1890s, running on an anti-Semitic campaign. Even serous Jewish learning was not included in the shtetlach. Yeshiva bokhers went to schools on the great cities.2 The Bessarabian shtetlekh (Bessarabia was part of the Russian empire from the beginning of the 19th century until 1918, then part of Rumania until World War II) were known chiefly for their secular nature. Clear exceptions were the German and Hungarian Jews who were citizens and lived in Western Europe in the Western tradition. Indeed, a 1908 article in the Times-Advertiser called this section of Trenton a closed community. The Russians are very jealous of their own interests and very unwilling to inform outsiders of their doings. But then, this Russian colony of 2See Jacob Raison, Haskala Movement in Russia, 1913. 4 Trenton, in contradiction to the law of economics, is practically sufficient unto itself. They have their own factories, their own stores, their own milk dealers, in fact the whole category of businesses and trades is represented among them. Those stores and factories which are located within the colony employ only Russians and never fail to observe the Jewish Sabbath, from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, and nothing other than a conflicting city ordinance prevents them from opening Sundays. This ‘Trenton Colony’ produced several charitable institutions. Among the early ones were Wanderers’ Help and Miles Rescind, a non-denominational poor fund. Be Fruitful And Multiply The firsk book of the Torah, Genesis, has a commandment, To Be fruitful and multiply (Pre ur’vu). 5 Mike Kuzma’s, South Trenton non-Jewish resident of South Trenton, recollected: The "Jewtown" I recall, began at Market and Broad where Market St. began its descent into the Valley of the Israelites" as Harry Berkowitz described it. It extended to the river since many businesses were on Bloomsbury St. From Market St. It extended South to Bridge St. and encompassed all the streets in between Cooper, Lamberton, Union, Mill, Decatur, Fall, New, (no not "Nu") and Water Streets. Beyond the Anshei Emes was Steingrob's Grocery, with a huge peanut roaster in the Window. Two doors down on Union St. was Edward's bakery (who could forget "Fran") directly across Union St. was Frey’s Bakery, and Lavine's Dept. Store run by Sam, who was the consummate merchant. The Short 200 block of Fall St. had yet another fine bakery; Feldman's on the corner of Decatur, directly across was "Sada Hannah's (Mrs. Blank) dry goods and notion store. 6 Other Merchant's on this block were Barney Hurwitz, butcher, Jules Lehman, butcher and often bookmaker , a fruit/produce stand, Arthur Finklestein’s United Meat market, where Arthur always offered me a fresh hot dog to nosh on when shopping with my Mom. On the corner across from the Anshei Emes was Union Millner’s meat market, who with Jake Daner owned the Delaware Packing Co. just two blocks west on Fall/and Bloomsbury St. across from Shmulkie Berger, a "Cattle Dealer." Just beyond Bloomsbury St. at the River was Sokalner Brother's Hides and Skins (Leather goods). My dad worked for this wonderful family for 40 years, and they were like family to us. Some of my siblings, including myself were named after members of their family. Warren St. had "Tomar's Department Store", Bobby Binder's Electrical supply, Urken's 7 hardware and Stan Stern's mish mash shop of drek. Peddler’s (Weinstein and Harry Ocha, among others,) presented themselves near the Princeton Worsted Mills on Bloomsbury St. These peddlers housed their mighty steeds each night. We kids would sneak in after dark, take the horses out, and ride like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers along the grassy strip besides the Delaware River. "Ben's Deli" on the corner of Lamberton and Market . . . was the reason business bustled in Jewtown. People for miles would travel to our little enclave by the river to enjoy the best corned beef this side of NYC. Mark Litowitz embellished this walk down memory Lane. There was also Fox’s Deli, the Sttarr Bakery. Mark’s grandparents owned S.Litowitz and Sons, fruit and produce dealers. Four Litowitz brothers (Sam, Harry, 8 Deckie and Louis0, operated the enterprise of Tucker St. The Mikveh stood at the corner of Market and Fall Sts. Going towards the river, was a tinsmith, the Litowitz residence, and a shoe repair shop. Kohn's Deli was known for its corn rye breads; Kunes’ for its sweets. Poplin’s gas station occupied Market and Union Sts. Availing their ware to the new automobile drivers that swept the area in the 1920’s. The Liberty Club, known as the ‘Kachunkie, an institution, for gin and poker card players. Poker occasionally meant big stake gambling. The Club initially was on Lamberton St., cared for by Rufus Popkin. Mikey Daner provided repasts, “Fiddler on the Roof” was a specular show with a nostalgic message. However, we have a storybook knowledge of the Jewish shtetl. As we noted, the 9 entire population was not Jewish varying for 70% to 50%. Mike Kuzma gave estimates of non-Jews living in South Trenton, on the periphery of Market and Union Sts. On Fall St. (the 100 block) between Bloomsbury, and So. Warren there were perhaps 15 houses: 25% Jewish; 30% white eastern European (Polish, Slovak, Hungarian); 10% Irish; and the balance, black. Just around the corner on Bloomsbury St., of the 30 or so homes, 50% were Jew, 50% Southeast-European. Around the other corner, from South Warren St. from Mill St to Bridge St. Jews represented 80 %, with the wealthy living in the big houses nearest the Trent House, and stores with apartments for the owners the rest. of the street. Mark Litowitz describes South Trenton as place where one could feel secure. Everyone knew each other and looked out for each other. No one got in serious trouble – the neighbors saw to that. If there was a ruckus, the ‘mob boss,’ married to a Jewish woman, took care of business.. Love that was shared by all and it transcended race, creed, and gender. The sharing was incredible. The security presented no locks on any house door! The immigrant parents emphasized education as the Bobeshela from 1922-37 shows. Education for the sake of education (Talmud), to get out of poverty and low status, and to assimilate into America. 10 South Trenton produced numerous professionals (physicians, lawyers, accountants, dentists, etc.), business people and solid citizens. Not bad for a people who fled the oppression of Russia with little or nothing to invest. 11 Figure 2 Family Recording of Births to Finkle Family 12 In 1929 were approximately 4,100 Jews; some say 7,100 about 3-5% of Trenton‘s population. Most of this population resided in the area between South Broad and Warren streets, and Market Street and the Delaware-Raritan Canal (Now the Trenton Freeway). If we take a family of seven, the n there were approximately 400 Jewish families in Trenton. The area benefitted from the infrastructure of a growing industrial Trenton. Providing trolley service along Broad St, having sidewalk, water (1859) and sewerage (beginning in 1903 but not completed until 1923), outdoor lighting. Finally furnished with indoor plumbing with its toilet, bathtub and wash area, all ceramics made in Trenton and electricity, this area brimmed with activity. Further it had bright electric street lights in 1887 (Its first electric lights made their Trenton appearance in 1881). 3 Indeed, The City Railway Company was incorporated under the general law in 1875, with an authorized capital of $50,000. In February 1876, Common Council authorized the construction of a horse-car line through Clinton Street, from the city limits to Perry Street, to Broad, terminating at the Chambersburg borough line. The track was to be a double one. Work on the road began and was open to traffic in At this time the borough of Chambersburg authorized the company to extend its tracks from the canal to the southeasterly borough limits, along South Broad Street, bordering what was to become the Hungarian Jewish area. 3See Harry J. Podmore, Trenton – Old and New, Trenton Historical society, 1929. See 1903 Trenton Ordinance. 13 Further, the City Railway Company extend its line from Perry Street to Warren and thence to Ferry Street, up Bridge and into Centre Street down as far as Riverview Cemetery (Jewtown) In October 1885, an ordinance permitted the company to extend its tracks from South Broad Street along Bridge Street, into Centre as far south as Lalor Street, and along Lalor to the canal. The next year, The City Railway Company again extended its line along Hamilton Avenue. In this year the borough of Chambersburg extended the City Railway Company’s franchise to Jennie Street, Hudson Street, Elmer Street, Chestnut Avenue, Cummings Avenue and Coleman Street, with a spur through Cummings Avenue to Division Street, to the car sheds and stables. The Trenton Horse Railroad Company passed into the hands of Colonel Lewis Perrine at about this time. In 1891 he acquired control of the City Railway Company and consolidated the two roads on September 30, 1891, under the name of the Trenton Passenger Railway Company. The very next year, Colonel Perrine had the roads electrified and on May 22, 1891, the first experimental trip by electricity was made. The Jewish area also utilized the Delaware and Raritan Canal for inexpensive portage. And the Pennsylvania railroad was on three blocks away. The first settlers came to South Trenton because the rents were inexpensive. The area was relatively undeveloped and was not near a major factory. 14 Ozzie Zuckerman cites a number of frsts in South Trenton. 1881, Jacob Barker came to Trenton with his wife and seven children. In 1888, Joseph Movshovich opened the first bank on Decatur St. There were twelve kosher butchers. In 1895, Harry Alexander opened the first kosher deli. Alex Cohen was a boxing promoter and cut man. Other early South Trenton residents included Isaac Berman, Solomon Goldstein, David Lavine, Max Feinberg, Harry Haveson, Israel Silverstein, Isaac Levy, Israel Kohn, Gabriel Lavinson, Louis Levy, Solomon Urken, Daniel Levine and Abraham Moskowitz. 4 Below is a scheme of most of this area with names of occupants and stores. 4Interview Ozzie Zuckerman, Trenton Jewish Historical Society May 1, 1999 15 Figure 3 Masrket Street, Heart of South Trenton From the visual map, counted on Market Street were: 3-Deli’s; a Drug Store; a Restaurants; 3-Bakers; a Gas Station, a Dentist (Dr. Bloom); 3-Butchers; a Furniture store; a Mikveh (Religious Ritual Bath) On Union St., were counted: 3-Shuls; a Hotel; a Social Club (Liberty Club); 3- Bakeries; 2-Chicken stores; 2-Fish Markets; 5-Butchers; a Hardware store; 3 Dry Goods Stores; a Tire Store; a Clothing ship; and a Print shop. The aggregate totals were 6-bakers, 8-butchers, 3 dry goods stores; 3 Deli’s, 3- Dry Goods Stores, 3-shuks, 2 Fish stores, 2-chicken stores. We found one Mikveh (Ritual Bath), Hotel, a saddle shop, a cooperage (barrels) Restaurant, Gas station, Tire Store, Print shop, Hardware store, barber and social club. 16 Unlike Eastern Europe, these little stores were not monopolized by women. Rather, in fast becoming Americans, they played the role ascribed to them in the ‘new’ country as keepers of the household and their households were large. See Hyman. Each owner’s family lived atop the store. Another interesting fact was that, although was an enormous presence of potteries (60), rubber manufacturers and wire and cable (Roebling had its plant on more than 35 acres), Jews did not compete with others for these factory jobs. Stores in ‘Jewtown’ Bakers Kohn’s Kunes’s Kramer’s Cattle dealer – Isaac Dohen, Sharky Rosenthal 17 Wholesale – Myron Cohen Kosher Butchers Hafetz - David Hafetz passed on his store to his son(s) Joseph and Frank Hafetz Katzeff and Weiner Morris Stern Butcher – Kalman Horowitz Liberty Meat Mkt Eremyi Hayfetz in front of Hayfetz Meat 18 Produce Silverstein’s – Fruit and Produce Fish and Produce – Solomon Cohen Grocer – David Cohen Meat and Produce – Maurice Finkle Produce Wholesalers – Litowitz and Son, Decatur St. Grocery Stores George Levie Jacob Levie Samuel Levin Feldman’s Wineberg Fish (including live carp) 19 Smitty’s – Sam Smith Barker’s - Fish Mkt Chickens Balitz Chickens Feigman’s chickens Tires United Tires - Irving Cohen Izzy Richmond Junk Dealers Jacob Albert Joe Finkle 20 Figure 2 Junk Dealers Phil albert Harvey Cohen David and Jack Introlligator Sam Saperstein Restaurants Charles Levie Benn Hock Café – Heifel Cohen Spiegel’s Furniture 21 22 Mercer Paint and Paper Company - Marcus-Nitzburg family, owned (Milton) Palat’s Furs Small Department Stores Normal Department Store – Swamp Angel (Isaac Finkle) Finkle’s Dry Good’s – Willow and Spring (Sam Finkle) Figure 4 Finkle's Normal Store, Calhoun and Spring Streets Store Owners Klempner’s Max Nabutovsky Sadie Cohen Bill Kravitz Figure 5 S. Braod St, 1920s Saga of the Jewish Peddler Many Jews were peddlers because they could celebrate the Sabbath without business pressures. Others were junkyard dealers for the same reason. 23 In the early days, in fact, ‘Jewtown’ was silent of the Jewish Sabbath because all the stores were closed. They reopened on Sunday with the wink and the nod of the Police Department because Blue Laws prohibited most commerce on Sunday. Peddlers earned about five dollars a week and rarely grossed a profit, often depending on the wives and children to peddle alongside of them. The peddler lifestyle marked a profound loss of status for many of the immigrants. Marcus Figure 6 Home Delivery Ravage, a famous writer during the time, couldn’t believe his eyes when he witnessed a man, “who had been the chairman of the hospital committee in Vaslui and a prominent grain merchant . . .dispensing soda-water and selling lollypops on the corner of Essex Street in New York.” 24 Figure 7 Peddler Along with status issues, newly arrived Jews experienced profound culture shock. The new American workday was no longer circumscribed by meals shared with family, prayer, or Jewish holidays and the Sabbath. They agonized about having to abandon the structured and religious traditions of their homogenous village life. The Eastern European Jewish immigrants may have been poor, but mostpossessed skills as merchants from the Russian shtetls. Since the Russian government prevented Jews from owning land or raw materials, Eastern European Jews possessed a skill set different from other immigrants. See Ashley L. Koch. 25 Figure 8 Peddler The five Finkle brothers became door-to-door peddlers traversing a weekly route from Trenton to Lambertville, to Flemington, to Somerville back to Trenton for the Sabbath. When one earned sufficient money, he sent for the second brother ad seriatim. Eventually, with enough capital, they settled in Trenton and its environs to establish dry goods stores. In Lambertville, Finkle’s Hardware Store is still operating, more than 100 years later. Harry Gerofsky also commented on the coming together of Trenton. It received a charter in 1792 (population 1, 2500). In 1837, its population was 4,000. In 1838, it became the county seat of a new county (Mercer). In 1847, it authorized streets and alleys. In 1851, it annexed the Borough of South Trenton, 26 then known as Mill Hill and Bloomberg (3rd and 4th wards which later would house ‘Jewtown’). In 1888, the Trenton State Gazette, a Republican newspaper, pushed for more annexation. In short order, Trenton annexed Chambersburg (1895), Wilbur (1898), and the western part of the city (Cadwalader Place, Hillcrest, and the Asylum). Figure 8 NJ Gazette (cloised 1908) From 1875 to 1905, Trenton began to flex its manufacturing muscle and it received the workers as the immigrants poured into tiny Trenton. The population went from 25,000 in 1875 to 84,000 in 1905. During this time the pottery industry, the rubber industry, and the iron, wire, and cable industry (Roebling) mushroomed. Harry Gerofsky’s collection at the Trenton Free Public library presents a trove of information. There were two Yiddish newspapers in 1909 and 1916, both of short duration. Perhaps Jacob Riis, the Danish-born American journalist, Jews will make the best Americans. They have no country to which to return. See Riis. This 27 hypothesis is borne out by a Canadian study on the migration of Jews from 1900-1920, stating, that, unlike the American immigrants, the Jews who immigrated later to Canada were influenced by the Haskala (Jewish secular culture based on the Enlightenment) and nationalism (Zionism) to a much larger extent than the American Jews. Accordingly, their assimilation was much more difficult. Adaptation to the ‘New Country’ Between 1881 and 1924, almost 2.5 Jews immigrated to America. In place of religion, the preponderance of Jews committed themselves to what they called Jewishness, or Yiddishkeit—a secular cultural Judaism that emphasized the importance of helping Jews, fighting anti-Semitism, and promoting universal social justice. They opposed all forms of religious coercion, insisting that both religion and anti-religion were “private affairs,” and they demanded that education and culture be protected from any form of heresy-hunting On the religious front, a Federation of Congregations, comprising about fifteen important Orthodox synagogues, formed in 1888 to choose a Chief Rabbi to straighten affairs. A great Russian rabbinical authority, Rabbi Jacob Joseph from Vilnas and a student of Israel Salanter, became Chief Rabbi of the Federation. But the federation of synagogues soon ceased to function due to disagreements over the inspection of Kosher meat. Further, many independent Orthodox rabbis did not submit to the authority of the great rabbi. 28 In 1892, the Jewish Alliance was consolidated with "The American Committee for Ameliorating the Condition of the Russian Refugees." Fifteen years later it become the American Jewish Committee. National Jewish organizations formed In the late 19th century, led by German Jews, establishing the American Jewish Historical Society, Jewish Publication Society, and The Jewish Chautauqua Society, As early as 1873, Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, formed the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, a Reform Jewish group. In 1875, the Union created Hebrew Union College (HUC) in Cincinnati to train rabbis and later cantors, The Central Conference American Rabbi’s for Reform Rabbi’s formed in 1889, Further, Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise founded a Reform rabbinical college in 1922 in New York City. Rabbi Wise, a great organizer, attempted to hold alternatives to Orthodoxy as one group along with Rev. Isaac Leeser. However, the famous Trefa Banquet in 1883 saw still another American Jewish religious group form – the Conservative movement. The Trefa Banquet was a celebration of the first graduating class of Hebrew Union College, culminating in a banquet in a posh hotel in Cincinnati. On the menu, in direct violation of Kashrut, were clams, oysters, and frogs’ legs. Too radical for Rev. Leeser and Rabbi Sabato Morais, they formed the Conservative movement. 29 The Morais era (1886–1897) Rabbi Sabato Morais championed the reaction to American Reform. He opposed Reform’s more radical changes but was open to moderate changes that would not offend traditional sensibilities. After the Reform movement published the Pittsburgh Platform, basically rejecting tradition, Morais recognized the futility of his efforts and began the creation of a new rabbinical school in New York City. The "Jewish Theological Seminary Association" was founded with Morais as its President in 1886. Morais was soon joined by Rabbi Alexander Kohut of Hungary and Rabbi Bernard Drachman, both of whom had received rabbinic ordination) at Rabbi Frankel's Breslau Liberal seminary. Fffffurther he received the help of Dr. H. Pereira Mendes, along with a group of prominent lay leaders from Sephardic congregations in Philadelphia and New York They shaped the curriculum and philosophy of the new school after Rabbi Frankel's seminary. The first graduate to be ordained was Morris Mandel who went on to lead the Adath Israel congregation (Washington, D.C.). Morais served as the president of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America until he died in 1897. JTS held its first class of ten students in the vestry of the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue, New York City's oldest congregation. But the idea of a middle ground did not die. Indeed, in October 1901, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America formed, and backed the German Reform Jew, Jacob H. Schiff with a fund of over $500,000. 30 Garnering Dr. Solomon Schechter, an Oxford Don who had performed significant work in the Cairo Geniza, under the discipline of Wissenschaft (empirical research). In 1913, he presided over the creation of the United Synagogue of America. (The name was changed in 1991 to the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.) "Conservative Judaism attempts to combine a positive attitude toward modern culture, acceptance of critical secular scholarship regarding Judaism's sacred texts and commitment to Jewish observance." 5 Orthodoxy, on the other hand, faced difficulty in the new land. There were few qualified Rabbi’s. Most remained in Europe telling their congregants that the United States was the devil’s den. There were local Yeshiva’s that were similar to those in Europe. The Order of Study, based on the medieval Ashkenazic yeshiva, trained students to reach halakhic decisions—that is, to prepare them for the rabbinate—although only a select few of the students attained that level. The second area was poskim: the head of the yeshiva imparted the principles of decision-making according to the Jewish Law, together with his innovations. 5https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/background-and-overview-of-conservative-judaism 31 the third component of the yeshiva curriculum—the pilpul lesson—was the one that ultimately gave became primary in the yeshivas of Eastern. Pilpul was a medieval, scholastic method of logic, intended to sharpen the minds of its students. Yeshiva University has its roots in the Etz Chaim Yeshiva founded in 1886 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, with one teacher and 10 students. In 1897 the Rabbi Elchanan Rabbinical College became the foundation of Yeshiva University, now a religiously oriented Liberal Arts College with expert graduate schools. Despite the religious schooling for Rabbi’s in America, most of the new immigrants were Yiddishkite Jews. Revolving around the Yiddish language, it created secular institutions like the Workmen’s Circle (Arbeter Ring), the Yiddish press, schools (the Yiddishe Schule), camps, thriving Yiddish literature, music, art, theater, food, and, in time, radio. Without ever entering a synagogue, secular East European Jews in America felt intensely Jewish. The Yidsihkite Jews lived with other Jews and belonged to Landshaftn (benevolent societies form their city fo origin). These secular institutions provided Life cycle events. Although most Jews belonged to synagogues in smaller towns, New York City had a phenomenon was sparse synagogue membership and attendance. In 1904, 25% of Jews did not belong to a synagogue. In 1920, the figure dipped to 12% 32 Yiddishkeit Jews made an easier transition than the religious immigrants who experienced difficulty in adapting to the new procedures of the new country. They worked on the Sabbath; violated Kashrut laws (ate from non-kosher plates and utensils; then the food itself); they strayed from ritual behavior. Brises, marriages, and synagogue attendance went their own way. Life cycle events were lax except for burial where orthodox rituals prevailed out of respect for families left in Europe. This secular culture phenomenon continued because of four critical factors. First, and perhaps foremost, was a shared language—Yiddish. the folk language of the Jewish masses. Yiddish also distinguished Jews from non-Jews and linked East European Jews in America. Second, patterns of residential segregation made secular Jewish culture possible. East European Jews overwhelmingly lived in Jewish neighborhoods which they dominated: in places like Brownsville, Far Rockaway, and Grand Concourse (all of which were 60 to 80 percent Jewish), but also elsewhere, in cities like Boston, Cleveland, and Chicago Third, secular Jews lived side by side with religious Jews. Finally, Nativist anti-Semitism, hatred of Jews in all of its manifold forms, helped to preserve Jewish unity as a protection against a common enemy. Social anti-Semitism, in addition, helped to prevent intermarriage. The fact that Jews were not welcome in many non-Jewish clubs and homes, and non 33 Jewish parents could not countenance the idea of having a Jewish relative, significantly limited the risk of intermarriage during the first half of the 20th century. In the second half of the 20th century, everything changed. It was no longer ‘American’ to be considered free thinkers. Indeed, the Commiturn (the international Communist organization) and the Nazis shook the pillars of Jewish secular culture, disillusioning many who had come to harbor a perfect faith in progress, universal justice, and human potential. After the war, Soviet purges and general Jewish discrimination further undermined the confidence of those who had come to see the Soviet Union as something of a Jewish secular paradise. Yiddish lost its hold among the Jewish masses. In 1958, fewer than 2 percent of American Jewish children were studying in Jewish secular schools (Yiddishe Schule), and the demise of Yiddish was widely heralded. Jewish secularism, nonetheless, made something of a comeback. The National Yiddish Book Center—a creation of young Jews in their 20s—works to “rescue Yiddish...books and celebrate the culture they contain.” With 30,000 members young and old, it claims to be “the largest and fastest-growing Jewish cultural organization in America.” Reboot, an organization that reached out to Jews in their 20s and 30s, produced a wide range of cultural materials including books, a magazine, a 34 record label, and a film—almost all of it overtly secular. Revealingly, David Katznelson, who managed Reboot Records, describes himself as an “atheist leaning agnostic leftist Zionist who is a firm lover of the cultural tradition of Judaism and not a believer in the religious side of it.” Heeb Magazine, known as “the crown jewel of publications courting Generation X and Y Jews,” describes itself as seeking to engage “progressive, Figure 9 Cadwalader Park – An Olmsted Vision culturally savvy Jews in their 20s and 30s who are disproportionately left leaning, disproportionately unaffiliated, disproportionately smart.” Cadwalader Park – An Olmsted Vision 35 Ellarslie Mansion became a museum with many of the items and historical images consolidated into one large second-floor gallery. Visitors will meet the Park’s originators — Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape architect, and Edmund Hill of Trenton – and appreciate the success of their work. Vintage photos, postcards, paintings, and air photos bring museum visitors into every corner of the Park in a period spanning 115 years. Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of Central Park and Trenton’s own Cadwalader Park is considered to be the father of American landscape architecture. His public parks, the design of which he was most proud, have had a lasting effect on urban America. Celebrating 115 years of that legacy, the exhibit at Ellarslie will explore the importance of Cadwalader Park to Trenton residents and visitors alike. Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1822, Frederick Law Olmsted spent many years experiencing various professions and touring the world seeking and absorbing knowledge before honing in on landscape design as his life’s passion. He first studied surveying, engineering, chemistry, and farming and toured Europe visiting numerous parks and private estates. He published books on his travels and used his literary activities to oppose slavery and to argue for the abolition of slavery in the southern United States. By the time FLO began his work in landscape architecture, he had developed a belief in community and understood the importance of public institutions. Olmsted believed that the public realm should be a respite; a place 36 to retreat from the stress of urban life, and that public open space should be accessible to all people. In 1857 he took the position of superintendent of Central Park in New York City and, along with architect Calvin Vaux, won the design competition for the park the following year. He then spent the next seven years as the primary administrator in charge of the construction of Central Park. Olmsted’s success in park-making in NYC led to his renowned career designing and creating some of our nation’s most important urban parks. By the time FLO began to design Cadwalader Park in 1890, he had been planning parks in this country’s leading cities for over 30 years. Cadwalader Park in Trenton is Olmsted’s last great urban park. Cadwalader Park has the distinction of being the only New Jersey park designed personally by Frederick Law Olmsted. While many other New Jersey parks and spaces were designed by the Olmsted firm in the years following the creation of Trenton’s largest park, Cadwalader is the only New Jersey park to be designed by FLO himself. Trenton is fortunate to possess one of these urban treasures which still preserves many of the landscape and spatial qualities of the original plan. Cadwalader Park is beloved by many of Trenton’s residents who nostalgically recall pony rides, picnics, concerts, and the balloon man and, also, by many who come today to experience tennis matches, baseball games, and family outings not to mention those who flock to the various exhibits offered at the Trenton City Museum. In addition, Olmstead designed Lawrenceville School with Olmsted’s greatest campus design, the grounds of. Olmsted’s core design principles are 37 evident at Lawrenceville School in the rolling landscape and curving paths throughout. 6 Trenton’s Westward Residential Flow from 1840-1930 The more successful immigrants and especially their children moved to the Western part of Trenton, which, until the late 1890s was generally farmland. In quick succession, there was a residential building. The Calhoun Street Boundary In 1830, ‘The country’ included anything west of Calhoun Street Calhoun Street passed through the little settlement of ‘Camptown,’ at West Hanover Street and Calhoun Street (that served as a recruiting station during the early years of the Civil War. In 1849, Isaac L. Pearson, originally a resident of Philadelphia, erected his summer home named "Glencairn." In 1926, this spot later became the site of the luxurious, in its day, Glen Cairn Arms. 6http://ellarslie.org/cadwalader-park-an-olmsted-vision-abridged/ 38 THE HORSE CAR LINE The Horse Car Line defined the westerly flow of city residents. By 1883, The Horse Car Line extended just beyond Calhoun Street. Thereafter to Prospect Street. Figure 10 THE HORSE CAR LINE BELLEVILLE MANSION "Belleville," a charming rural retreat dating from Colonial times, stood on a site near where Prospect Street now meets West State. Sir John Sinclair (St. Clair), a baronet of Nova Scotia, was an early occupant of this rural retreat. He distinguished himself in Revolutionary history because an American General with a British title. ‘Lord’’ Stirling took a leading part in the Battle of Trenton. He was a resident of Somerset County and commanded the New Jersey Continental Line at the beginning of the conflict. 39 Figure 12 Emlen House THE MCCALL-MONTGOMERY ESTATE Further west on State Street stood "Berryville," formerly the Montgomery estate. In 1886, Patrick J. Berry purchased this tract to the fifteen-acre tract into a new residential district of brick-row homes on State Street, West End Avenue, Montgomery Place and North Fisher Place. THE HERMITAGE Going West some more, a short distance west of "Berryville," was the Dickinson estate. Before the revolution, the Rutherford family built a mansion, "Hermitage." General Philemon Dickinson, in 1776, shortly before the Battle of Trenton, purchased this mansion. It served as housing for fifty Hessian mercenaries before the Battle. After the revolution, Figure 11 The Hermitage famous visitors to this mansion included George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Livingston, Benjamin Franklin, George Clymer (Pennsylvania representative, Clymer was, along with five others, a signatory of both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution), Marquis de Lafayette, (former soldier) Baron Fredrich von Steuben (American General), Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau, Louis Phillippe, and Joseph Bonaparte. 40 Figure 13 Cadwalader Place In 1850, Philemon Dickinson sold the mansion to Edward J. C. Atterbury. Atterbury developed "Atterbury Woods” in 1904 into the residential streets Atterbury Ave., Colonial Ave. General Greene Avenue, Hermitage Ave, Murray St., and Boudinot St. 41 CADWALADER PLACE Cadwalader Place was planned, developed, and promoted as a prime suburb. It was "the best part of Trenton to live in." Many of the houses were designed by architects who promoted the most fashionable architectural styles and progressive interior amenities of the day. The district contains 107 buildings that exemplify the architectural eclecticism of turn-of-the-century suburban domestic architecture. The area contains a "portfolio" of what can be categorized as "Late Victorian" architectural styles. The houses of this period tend to be of ample proportions, with numerous windows and high ceilings. Many of the homes built for Cadwalader Place were designed in the Victorian Eclectic mode and display a variety of forms, textures, colors, and materials. The use of elements from classical, Gothic, Renaissance, and other styles contributed to the diversity. The various ways of juxtaposing architectural elements such as patterned shingling, stained leaded glass, and decorative trim, distinguished individual structures. The result was fanciful and richly-decorated. West State Street and Berkeley Avenue have excellent examples of Victorian eclectic architecture. 42 Also within the district are good examples of Queen Anne, Stick style, Italian Villa, Colonial Revival, Classical Revival, Tudor, Romanesque, and Bungaloid. The architectural value is enhanced by its high level of architectural integrity. Nearly all of the over 100 structures within the proposed district boundaries add to the cohesiveness of the district. There are only three structures that detract from the architectural integrity of the district. Substantial alterations are noticeable on only several of the structures, including a modern addition to Trinity Cathedral Day School which reflects the architect's concern that mass and building materials integrate with the older structures in the neighborhood. Street Names Berkeley Avenue • Gouverneur Avenue • Overbrook Avenue •Riversid e Avenue • State Street West http://www.livingplaces.com/NJ/Mercer_County/Trenton_City/Ber keley_Square.html 43 The Cadwalader family owned the land west of Overbrook Avenue, comprising about one-hundred-and-fifty acres. Dr. Thomas Cadwalader. In 1750, gave five-hundred pounds to found the Trenton Library Company, which gave Trenton the honor of having the first "public" library in New Jersey. Figure 14 Scating Rink- Cadwalader Park After the death of General Thomas Cadwalader, his heirs developed the property into a large suburban., under the supervision of the famous landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmstead & Company, with the help of Trentonian Edmund C. Hill. In 1896, the first dwelling at 904 Riverside Avenue stimulated the extension of the electric street car to Cadwalader Place. 1897 - Cadwalader Place (around Cadwalader Park, including Berkeley and Carteret Streets) 44 Figure 14 Ads to Move West 45 The paving and sidewalk records of the city bear the western expansion. Berkeley Square Historic District Berkeley Square Historic District Berkeley Square Historic District Berkeley Square Historic District is a well preserved six-block area that was developed as "Cadwalader Place," a planned residential community, organized and constructed between 1890 and 1910. The area provides an excellent illustration of suburban residential planning which dominated late nineteenth-century concepts of urban place, and to which the middle class migrated in an attempt to benefit from the best of both urban and rural life. Berkeley Square has local significance as a prime example of the early development of Trenton's suburban neighborhoods, containing a high degree of architectural variety, quality, and integrity. The Berkeley Square, once part of the Cadwalader family estate consisted of approximately 248 acres along the Delaware River. 46 47 In 1890, John and Richard Cadwalader began to develop the land—which had been in the family since 1776—for residential use. The land was surveyed by Elbridge G. Weir, Civil Engineer. A map, designated "Plan of Cadwalader Place" and dated November 1, 1890, was filed the following year. In 1891, the daughters agreed to begin selling part of their shares to their brothers, on the Plan of "Cadwalader Place." In 1891, the roads now extant in the area including Riverside, Parkside, Berkeley and Gouverneur Avenues, were surveyed and Figure 15 Berkely Suare Hoiistoric District filed. Some land was purchased by the City of Trenton for schools and parks. Edmund C. Hill was hired as a sales agent and promoter. Hill was a prominent Edwardian civic leader of Trenton who was active in a variety of civic affairs, particularly concerning park developments, and who served as the head of the Trenton Chamber of Commerce. Before the building lots were put on the market, further improvements such as sewers, utility lines, gas lines, city water, and sidewalks were provided. The lots were then sold to middle and upper-middle-class families eager to escape the high-density crime, pollution, and other ills of urban life. The community was promoted as "one of the finest residential suburbs in America" with "all the comforts of country life without losing any of the good features of city life." Urban amenities included mail delivery three times daily; trolley service and a stop on the Belvidere Delaware railroad; and police and fire protection. Schools, libraries, and churches were within walking distance. Residents enjoyed the rural scenery. This tract consisted of considerably larger urban lots. Bounded by Cadwalader Park and the Delaware River, to quote from the prospectus "'Cadwalader Place' presents the never failing charms of clean pure 48 air, vistas of river and mountain, fine old trees, well-kept lawns, and beautiful shrubbery ..." A semi-exclusive, "nice" neighborhood was one factor that encouraged families to move to the suburbs. "The excellent class of the present residents and the attractive nature of the dwellings afford the best guarantees against future depreciation." An upper-middle class refuge, deeds required that all houses cost more than $3,000 and be of "artistic architecture." 49 LOVERS’ LANE Beyond Cadwalader Place was the roadway known as "Lovers’ Lane" leading to "Ellarslie," the original name of the Cadwalader Park mansion. As the city grew and traffic on the Belvedere division of the Pennsylvania Railroad increased. the danger of accidents. To avoid accidents, the City built an entrance in the rear of the park. Then the City built a tunnel in 1934 on Parkside Avenue. George W. Farlee, a New York broker, secured "Ellarslie." He developed the Hillcrest residential tract. Mr. Farlee remained at Ellarslie" until he sold the eighty-acre tract to the city of Trenton in 1888 for $50,000, as part of the Cadwalader Park tract. The city of the park authorities built an outdoor skating in 1897, with 1500 skaters on the scene. Across State Street, where Junior High School Number 3 now stands, stood the Y. M. C. A. athletic field. 7 Historical Chronology 7http://www.trentonhistory.org/Old&New.html#WEST OF CALHOUN STREET 50 To understand the development of the park landscape, the park history is divided into several major chronological periods. These are: • Settlement/The Country Seat (1680–1743) • Ellarslie/The Estate (1776–1888) • Park Implementation (1888–1892) • Cadwalader Park (1892–1911) • Cadwalader Park (1912–1936) • Cadwalader Park (mid-century). The park changed as did changes in American society. The Country Seat period, for instance, represented a time in American settlement when wealthy individuals built retreats from the crowded, dirty cities. often as summer homes, on the rural edges of urban areas. The period at the turn of the century was a golden era for the building of urban parks and park systems in the U.S., known as the city Beautiful Movement. One of the foremost leaders was Frederick Law Olmstead, Many of these parks were designed by the same Olmsted Brothers firm, a famous landscape architectural form. In 1858, he and his partner Calvert Vaux beat out thirty-two entrants to design the famous Central Park in New York City. Over the next fifteen years, Olmsted and Vaux designed Prospect Park and Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn, Washington and Jackson parks in Chicago, and the Buffalo park system. Then, working on his own, Olmsted planned the park at Mount Royal in Montreal and Belle Isle in Detroit. In 1884, his stepson, John C. Olmsted, 51 became his partner. The two men developed the extensive system of Boston parks known as the “Emerald Necklace.” Two years before they began work on Cadwalader Park, the Olmsteds’ started planning the park system of Rochester, NY; and in 1891 they initiated the design of the park system of Louisville. Cadwalader Park and Frederick Law Olmsted By 1890. Olmsted, five years after retirement, began to design Cadwalader Park. Cadwalader Park the only New Jersey park Law Olmsted designed. Between 1890 and 1892, Olmsted worked on planning Cadwalader Park as well as planning residential subdivisions adjacent to the park. One development, Cadwalader Place, extended from Overbook Avenue to Lenape Avenue (the street west of Junior 3) along State St. to the Water Power. Another area, across Parkside Avenue, was Cadwalader Heights. The Olmsted firm returned to plan Cadwalader Heights more fully during 1905-11. Olmsted did not write an extensive report about Cadwalader Park, apparently because he expected that it was going to be considerably enlarged. The Olmsted Plan of September 1891 The “Preliminary Plan” of 1891 represents the final version of Frederick Law Olmsted’s design for Cadwalader Park. The plan presents Olmstead elements including making full use of the landscape qualities and a coherent system of walks and drives by which park users can enjoy the scenery in all kinds of weather. 52 The scene at Cadwalader Park illustrates open quality beneath tree canopy typical of early park Figure 16 Tree Canopy Typical Of Early Park A concourse provided a spacious gathering place for the carriages of those using the refectory: it also overlooked the music stand in the adjoining concert grove. By this means, Olmsted introduced a feature that he and Calvert Vaux had first used in Prospect Park in the 1860s—a concert area designed for both pedestrians and people in carriages. Initial city improvements simply added park features, such as benches, tables, and a temporary bandstand, and demolished agrarian estate features, such as fences. The Ellarslie residence transformed space for a natural history museum and a restaurant. Citizens began to donate small animals and birds to the park, thus establishing a menagerie. City officials converted an old stable and other outbuildings to accommodate this “zoological garden” and the variety of animals grew to include larger animals such as deer, monkeys, and a black bear cub, brought to the park by Edmund Hill. Playgrounds and Team Sports Facilities 53 Olmstead also planned for “Cadwalader Playgrounds,” or “Cadwalader Common.” He improved the “common” by laying out a baseball diamond and cricket field.” The Olmsted plan included a sidewalk and rows of shade trees along Parkside Avenue and the northern border (i.e., along Lenape Avenue). In 1912, the Olmstead firm proposed a tunnel to carry the canal feeder to the Delaware and Raritan Canal. The city completed this tunnel in 1932. Figure 17 CADWALADER PARK Overpass, WPA Project (1892–1911) In 1892, a new mayor, backed by groups opposed to further major expenditure on parks, proceeded to scale down Olmsted’s Plan. The state legislature established a Park Commission appointed by the mayor In 1911, the Olmstead firm designed a Lower Recreation Area to include tennis courts, a running track and two small toilet/locker room facilities. CADWALADER PARK (1912–1936) Cadwalader became a city focal point for parades, picnics, reunions, celebrations and visitors strolling along its paths. The park advertised itself with 54 displays of annual beds spelling “CADWALADER PARK” along the canal embankment. The Park Greenhouse grew assorted annuals in 1908. In 1913, the city built an enclosure for the park deer. The menagerie buildings, adapted from the Ellarslie carriage house and stables, converted into a new monkey house, animal shed, and aviary; and the Park Commission enlarged the nearby bear cage was enlarged. WPA Projects The Works Progress Administration of the New Deal era brought some long-term changes with consequences for West Trenton and Cadwalader Park. Ellarslie mansion became the site of a monkey house for the park menagerie. Another WPA project of the New Deal era filled in most of the Delaware and Raritan Canal in Trenton. Although a feeder canal passed through Cadwalader Park, all possible navigation ceased in the city. The D&R Canal ceased operation in 1933; deeded first to the state and, in 1936, to the city. Later, the D & R, the city adapted parts of the property as a water supply system. See Cadwalader Park Master Plan Atterbury Estate 55 56 In 1914, the Atterbury estate developed a semi-detached row house residential area incorporating Atterbury, Delawareview, General Greene and Colonial Avenues In 1917, West End extended to Bryn Mawr Avenue. Further, the city completed cement sidewalks on Hermitage Avenue. The Trolley line now extended to Parkside Avenue and Stuyvesant Avenue. 57 In 1923, a developer built high-end residential from on the Hiltonia Tract. 58 In 1926, Charles G. Tuenin developed Glen Afton (along the canal, now Rte. #29 to Lower Ferry Road), into three high-end residential sections: Riverview, Hillslope and the Country Club Division. Hilltonia The original layout of Hiltonia featured stately homes, wide, tree-lined avenues, and large landscaped lots, with neighborhood boundaries of a canal, Cadwalader Park, and state-owned lands. Today, the beauty of Hiltonia is in the diversity of its housing stock—from fieldstone Tudors to brick Dutch colonials, Cotswold cottages, large split levels to mid-century modern ranches, as well as attached townhouses (semis), built first as workers’ cottages to provide the funding needed to jump-start the rest of the development. The diversity and quality of housing stock also allow buyers at every price point to purchase in the neighborhood. 59 The Hiltonia Association began as a men’s eating club, with many members living in the neighborhood for decades. After the 1960’s upheaval in Trenton, the Association’s membership dwindled and was later revitalized by a new group of incoming residents in the 1970s. The revitalized Association was founded to: 1) Protect and promote the welfare of the Association, 2) Advance civic and social interest, 3) Function on non-sectarian, non-political and non-racial principles, and 4) Provide support for worthwhile charitable, civic, and cultural projects within the City of Trenton. The Association is not a 501(c)3. Fischer-Richey-Pedecaris Historic District In West Trenton, there is a high-income housing tract, originally built for tycoons to walk to work 60 Figure 3 Fischer-Richey-Pedecaris Historic District 61 62 Adath Israel Congregation The synagogues followed. In 1923, Adath Israel, a new conservative congregation, composed of former South Trenton residents. Har Sinai Temple moved from Stockton Street to Bellevue Avenue in 1929. This congregation included many of the original German Jewish families but others from South Trenton joined. 63 Eventually, Anshie Emes moved to State Street, renamed as B’nai Jeshuran; Ahavath Israel relocated to Lower Ferry Road, and the Y.M.H.A. relocated to Lower Ferry Road. 64 Appendix A Silver Annıversary Enshrined in the glorious history of the Adath Israel Congregation are the names of men and women whose lives were devoted to the cause of Judaism. They gave their time and money unsparingly to enrich the lives of their fellow Jews and their progeny. These patriarchs foresaw the need for a synagogue "n the western section of the city which would keep in step with American life, yet not lose the essence of Judaism. Many of these Adath Israel's founders are still devoted to•the same cause, but many are listed in its annals by GOLL,61`id,b. The spirit of 65 these men and women of vision bears influence and fruit in the community. As early as October 1920 a movement began for the formation of a conservative synagogue n Trenton. It was conceived in the mind of Mr. Samuel Levin, whose widow, was Levin is a member of the congregation. Mr. Levin broached the matter with Mr. Sol Phillips Perlman. After some discussion, they consulted NT. Harris Fiestal, whereupon it was agreed to have an organization committee formed, and several persons were asked to join the committee. The committee was made up of N. H. Aroniss, Bernard Cohen, Harris Fiestal, Isaac Fineberg, Phillip Forman, Michael Gilinsky, Israel Kohn, Louis Kaplan, Samuel Levin, Joseph Lavine, Harris Levin, I. H. Levy, Sol Phillips Perlman, I. C. Rednor, Samuel Shankman, Sol Orken, Philip Vine, and Israel Vine. Sol Phillips Perlman was chosen as the temporary secretary. He called a meeting of the committee and notices were sent out for an organizational meeting. This meeting was held on November 15, 1920, in the Republican Hall. About 100 persons responded, and 52 members were enrolled. Assistance was furnished by Rabbi Samuel Axi. Cohen, of the Jewish Theological Seminary, and Rabbi Mellammed addressed the group. The temporary chairman was Benjamin C. Fineberg. At a later meeting, Joseph Lavine held this office. Sol Phillips Perlman was made secretary and Louis S. Kaplan treasurer. 66 - 2- A Constitutional Committee was formed, of which Counsellor Sol Phillips Perlman was chairman. Before November 1922 the Congregation held services. The first services were held at the Republican club Hall on a Friday evening, and on a subsequent Friday, evening services were held at the Ahavath Israel Synagogue on Center street. Thereafter high Holy pay services were-held at the Progress Club (Later Greennares CC) on West State Street. Trustees were appointed, but no permanent officers were elected up until that time. The first three-year term trustees were: Solomon Urken, Frank Millner, Samuel Levin, Joseph Lavine, Joseph Greenberger, Isadore Rednor, Bernard Cohen. The first two-year term trustees were: Isaac Fineberg, Benjamin Fineberg, Larris Fiestal, Phillips Perlman, Israel Kohn, David Kelsey, and Phillip Forman. The first one-year term trustees were: Nathan H. ArDnis, 'harles Gil'nsky„ David Josephson, Samuel Shankman, Harry Goodstein, Louis Caplan, and I. Herbert Levy. The present building site at Hermitage and Bellevue Avenues was purchased in 1923. The Congregation was incorporated on October 15, 1923. On October 18, 1925 ceremonies were held for the laying of the corner stone, plans having been prepared by Mr. Louis Kaplan. Mr. J. Conner French and Rev. Samuel Steinmetz were the main speakers. Mrs. Rebecca Siegel had the honor of laying the corner stone. The first Rabbi, of. Adath Israel was Rabbi Samuel Rosenblatt, son of the famous Cantor, Josef Rosenblatt. A memorable event during that year was the singing of Cantor Rosenblatt and his entire choir. The first permanent officers were Solomon Urken, President; Samuel Levin, 1st Vice President; I. C. Rednor, 2nd Vice President; Harry Siegel, 3rd Vice President; Alex Hudson, Recording secretary; Louis Lavine, Financial Secretary; and Samuel B. Shankman, Treasurer. The first sabbath service at Adath Israel was held on Friday, July 23, 1925. Rabbi Leon J. Liebreich accepted the pulpit and became Adath’s spiritual leader for the next 18 years. In the twenty-five years, many .nterest'ng events have taken place at Adath Israel. Aside from the many joyous and sorrowful occasions, there were events of grandeur that left their mark on Adath Israel for all times. On the tenth anniversary of 67 Rabbi Leon J. Liebreichts being at Adath Israel, a special worship was held at the synagogue and a reception was tendered to molly and the. Rabbi at the Stacy-Trent Hotel; celebrations were held for the Bar Mitzvah of the synagogue; several presentations of Torahs to the synagogue were made, and when the World War was over significant services were held. Mr. Samuel Bwern did .some splendid work as head of the Mortgage Committee when the mortgage was paid off in 1944, and as chairman of the New Building Committee when 00,000 was raised for a new building. Memorable for their long record in the Presidency were both Solomon Urken and Harry bevy. Mr. bevy held office from 1939 to 1947. Both devoted their wholehearted energies to the welfare of the Congregation. In 1947, under the spi44itujal guidance of Rabbi S.Joshua Kohn, Adath Israel follows in the footsteps of its founders and the finest traditions of conservative In 1948, president, Bernard Alexander, assumed office in January, Appendix B The Adath Israel Congregation Story By Samuel R. Lavine The first Orthodox Jews of Trenton came in small groups. They came to America to get away from the tyrannies, persecution, and pogroms of Eastern Europe mostly from Poland and Russia. Almost eleven million people poured into these shores of Liberty and Equality from approximately 1655 to 1888, among whom were a good percentage of Jews. The greater number of these Jews settled in the Atlantic Seaboard~ States and brought with them little but their hopes and aspirations. They were not disillusioned nor did hardship discourage them. They invariably turned to the selling of’ small wares on foot peddling. These peddlers covered the whole countryside with packs on their backs and ~ baskets on their arms containing, in most cases, notions., small dry goods items, and even tinware. When their economic conditions improved, which was very slow, they branched out into other vending fields. The horse and wagon came lateç as an aid in the junk business, long before any Jew was the proud possessor of a little store. The pushcart was seldom used for peddling, in small communities. These pioneer Orthodox Jews were a hardy race. They had to struggle for a livelihood. They came to stay and reared large families in the 68 tradition of the “old country”. Seldom were there less than a half dozen children in any family, and fifteen or sixteen was not an unusual thing. But these early 2. Jewish settlers were determined men and women~ determined to become part and parcel of the land. In 1857, Har Sinai was originally a Jewish cemetery association and was broadened into the Har Sinai Temple in 1860. It began to function as an Orthodox House of Worship, mostly of German lineage. t changed to a Reform Temple in the late nineties. Har Sinai was already well established when small numbers of Polish and Russian arrived in Trenton in the early eighties. The Brothers of Israel synagogue in South Trenton was for years the only Orthodox House of Worship in Trenton. After Her Sinai Temple changed to Reform Judaism, a movement which began in the liberal atmosphere of Boston by Jews who fled Germany for political reasons. The Brothers of Israel Synagogue was built in 1900 into a modern edifice After approximately, a quarter of a century discord and dissatisfaction set in at the Brothers of Israel Synagogue, setting a precedent for other synagogues to be established; and there followed The People of Truth, Ahavath Israel, and Workers of Truth. The original Talmud Torah began in the 1880s, directly across the street from the synagogue on Union Street, and it was organized and controlled by the Brothers of Israel Congregation. There were, however, several “rabbis” who taught Hebrew in private homes or in “chedorim”, akin to a classroom conducted by private individuals. The separately organized Talmud Torah came much later. Against a background of improved circumstances, the exodus of Trenton Jews took place; at first gradually and later en masse to the western residential section of the city. The education of the children began to sprout in all directions of higher learning. The better the circumstances of the newcomer, the higher the goal for education; but college education had not yet come into the picture for the progeny of the early Trenton Jews. Once the old surroundings were left, generally speaking, new ideas and new ideals overtook them. However, from the old and the new locations, the children of Orthodox Jewish homes were entering and graduating from high school. There were few 69 entrees for college education in the early nineties, but the equal opportunity offered the Jewish people developed leaders who were looked up to. Although the early Jews - a humble lot, were intent on experiencing .every avenue of American life. In 1920, ‘there was considerable talk of establishing a House of Worship, a synagogue, closer to the new Jewish population in ‘the western section of the city. Since economic conditions had improved greatly for the Jews, a more liberal view of life and religion, in general, had come into existence. The spiritual requirements of these Jews in the western section of the city were in transition, leaders had been developed who baa great vision of religious life to come: The influence of the Torah and its precepts had a stronghold On the Jewish community. Crime and delinquency were unheard of among Jewish people in those early years, but it was feared that in the freer atmosphere Jews would turn away from Orthodox Judaism. Rationalism seemed to be spreading to such an extent that Jewish leaders sensed a danger to Judaism. In the larger cities another force came into being——Conservative Judaism——and it caught on here in Trenton. It fitted into the pattern of American life more suitably, and it would help to conserve Judaism whereas strict orthodoxy was beginning to lose ground. Conservative Jewish Movement Following the strictures of Orthodox Judaism became cumbersome for the new Americans. To become more Americanized, a new Jewish movement rose. Conservative Judaism was a religious movement that regarded the authority of halakha (Jewish law) and traditions came primarily from its people and community. It, therefore, viewed halakha as both binding and subject to historical development. The Conservative rabbinate employed modern historical critical research, rather than only traditional methods and sources, and lent great weight to its constituency when determining its stance on matters of practice. The movement considered its approach authentic and appropriate for the continuation of halakhic discourse in modern society. It also eschewed strict theological definitions, lacking a consensus in matters of faith and allowing great pluralism. 70 Regarding itself as the heir of Rabbi Zecharias Frankel's 19th-century Positive-Historical School in Europe, Conservative Judaism was fully institutionalized in the United States during the mid-20th century. Already, a Reform movement had arisen in 1850-70, that excluded antiquated ideas of return the Israel, Messianism, the Temple, boofy resurrection and excluded Hebrew for English. Most of these Reform Jews were German Jews. The Russian and Polish cultures thought that Reform had strayed from the Judaism they (Russian) were comfortable with. The first organizational meeting of the Adath Israel Congregation was held in November 1920, at the Y. M. H. A., on South Stockton Street, where it still is today, by a few prominent Trenton Jews, to discuss the necessity of the Conservative movement and the need of a synagogue closer to the Jewish homes in the western section of the city. Lacking records for 1920 to 1923, there is a record of a public meeting that was called for on November 15, 1920, according to the Trenton Times Sunday Advertiser of November 1, 1920. The record shows that Joseph Lavine. Counsellor Sol Phillips Perlman was named secretary; Louis Kaplan, treasurer; and the committee in charge of arrangements was made up of N. H. Aroniss, Bernard Cohen, Harris Fiestal, Isaac Fineberg, Phillip Forman, Michael Gilinsky, Israel Kohn, Samuel Levin, Harris Levin, I. Herbert Levy, I. C. Rednor, Samuel Shankman, Sol Urken, Phillip S. Vine and Israel Vine. Convened this meeting. Samuel Levin was a prime mover of this public meeting The Adath Israel Congregation started to function immediately by having services at the old Progress Club on West State Street, at the Ahavath Israel Synagogue on Center Street, and in other different places. The second organizational meeting of the Adath Israel Congregation was held on October 15, 1923. The meeting was called to order by Samuel Levin. The first Board of Trustees consisted of Solomon Urken, Harry Bernstein, Alexander Budson, and Harry. Gross, Henry Millner, Samuel Sharikman, Samuel Lavinthal, Joseph Lavine, I. C. Rednor, Israel Vine, Samuel Levin, Michael Gilinsky, Israel Kohn, Harry Siegel, and Isaac Goldberg. The Certificate of incorporation of the Adath Israel Congregation of Trenton, New Jersey, was signed by the above men of the Board of Trustees on the above date——October 15, 1923. On October 28, 71 1923, Solomon Urken was elected the first president of the Adath Israel Congregation; Samuel Levin, vice president; and henry Millner, financial secretary. At this meeting, Samuel Levin reported that he had obtained an option on a strip of land on the southerly side of Bellevue Avenue at the corner of Hermitage. The lot consisted of 22O feet of frontage and ran back to the land adjoining the canal. The option price was $17,000.00 The site and the price were approved by the Board of Trustees immediately, and the future home of the Adath Israel Congregation was assured. On May l, 1925, a committee was authorized to execute a contract with Day & Sons for the erection of a synagogue at the price of $.,000.00 exclusive of heat and electric wiring and fixtures, and stained glass windows. Up to this time, only $8,000.00 had been raised from members and by September 30, 1925, the officers had to borrow $20,000.00. President Solomon Urken designated the following to act as a committee of finance: Herman Stein, Harry Urken, Frank Kohn~ ~Abraham Bellin, (I. Herbert) Eatry Levy, David Gross, Samuel Koppelman, John L. Zimmerman, Harry Raphael Bernstein, Sol Phillips Perlman, Samuel Leventhal, slid William Spiezle. Two years after the Adath Israel Congregation was incorporated, the cornerstone was laid, and exercises took place, in 1925. The complete cost of the edifice was put at $98,236. Architect Louis S. Kaplan, the architect of the War Memorial and Har Sinai Temple designed blueprints for a synagogue in the western section of the city where Jews had gathered, moving from South Trenton. The leaders of the conservative movement in Trenton had the necessary vision and confidence in the future of Judaism to which the Adath Israel Congregation building is a monument. The first Sabbath service was held in the new building on Friday, July 23, 1926, and Rabbi Samuel Rosenblatt, son of the famous cantor, Josef Rosenblatt, officiated and served the Adath Israel Congregation for one year. Cantor Josef Rosenblatt conducted a concert at Adath Israel Synagogue during the tenure of his son, Cantor Samuel Rosenblatt, as rabbi of the congregation. Rabbi Samuel Rosenblatt~ however, ~ resigned from the congregation to accept the synagogue post in Baltimore because he did not approve of men and 72 women sitting together in the Conservative manner. In 1926, Solomon Urket continued as president of Adath Israel Congregation; Samuel Levin, vice— president; Harry Siegel, treasurer ? ; and Alexander Budson, recording secretary, (Alex Budson continued in the office of recording secretary until 1926.) On May 5, 1926, at a Special Meeting, Samuel Levine was authorized to negotiate with the Greenwood Cemetery for a burial ground for members and families of the Adath Israel Congregation. A segregated plot of burial ground~~ in a beautifully kept area was arranged by Samuel Levine without any actual expense to the congregation. Har Sinai Temple had a plot of ground at Greenwood Cemetery since 1900. There were a few resignations ~ several of the older generations terminated their membership To the majority of Adath Israel members, Conservative Judaism was an advancement not too far removed from orthodoxy. The liberal .interpretation of the ancient customs and traditions was aceefle4 wholeheartedly. It was a unique modern movement, not to defy Judaism, but to renew the quality of ancient love of the Torah, “the Law”. It had long been foreseen that changes had to be made to meet the Americanized Jewish community. Even though Sargçnt had, painted the synagogue in desolation, nevertheless, the Rennaisance of Jewish life had begun in Trenton. In America Conservative Judaism ]iad caught on like wildfire in those years. Rabbi Leon J. Liebreich arrived at the Adath Israel Con— creation in 192?, from Stamford, Connecticut. A graduate of the College of the City of New York in 1921, he received his Master of Arts degree at Columbia University in l921. He was ordained rabbi in Israel by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1925. Rabbi Liebreich occupied the pulpit at Temple Beth El in Stamford, Connecticut, and for two years taught Jewish History and Biblical Literature at the Friedlander Classes of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Much of the history of Conservative Judaism in Trenton is entwined with Rabbi Liebreich’s record in Trenton. He carried on prolific work at the synagogue, with the pulpit and the children in the Sunday School and the Rebrew School. It was for the respect and admiration of Rabbi Liebreich, and the love of the Torah and their children, who were members of Math Israel Congregation, that Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Lavine, non—members, presented a Torah to the Adath Israel Congregation on Sunday, July 25, 1926. The Torah 73 was accepted by Rabbi Liebreich and the Board of Trustees in a joyous celebration. The early years of Rabbi Leon 3. Liebrecht's ministry was very interesting: Uniting all elements of the congregation, owing to his amiability, his learning, and his understanding of the problems confronting him. He witnessed the “labor pains” of the growing congregation, all of the joys and sorrows of the growth, suffering many hardships and sacrifices along with the officers, the elders, and members of the Adath Israel Congregation. In short, he was loved by the congregation, and, in return, he showed his love for his fellow—members and the children. Many of the children whom he confirmed and who was Bar Mitzvah under his tutelage, he later married. From the beginning there were financial difficulties in the running of the Adath Israel Congregation, owing to the overwhelming mortgage. The president, Solomon Urken, and the Board of Trustees met the situation with courage, augmented by personal gifts of cash, free signing of notes, and the generous contributions of the Adath Israel Sisterhood. An illustration of the financial condition of the congregation in the early years is on the minutes: Cantor Asher Goldenberg’s contract was renewed for one year on June 5, 1928, but on August 22, 1928, a letter was received by the secretary informing the Board of Trustees that Cantor Goldenberg had not received his salary for nearly twelve weeks. Under Cantor Goldenberg’s guidance, Bar Mitzvah boys received two and a half hours of instruction per week in Hebrew. The Adath Israel Sunday School enrolled 128 pupils in those days, l~3 of whom were children of non members. The Sunday School staff counted seven teachers in 1928. The Adath Israel Congregation weathered the “stormy” years of the depression——1929, 1930, and 1931——with the aid and patience of the president, Solomon Urken, Zalman B’reb Yeshua Urken, and the Board of Trustees. The Sisterhood was a source of strength in those days to those courageous men, who came forward with financial aid at critical times. The finances during those fateful history— making years were insufficient to cover the successful operation of the synagogue. In 1933, Harry Siegel was elected president of the Adath Israel Congregation but immediately resigned and declined the 10. office. His resignation was accepted with regret and the Board of Trustees—elected Solomon Urken president. During the years that Solomon Urken served the synagogue, he saw to it that the Conservative Jewish traditions of the new 74 generation were adhered to. His viewpoint was such that it left no room for schisms. He leaned toward moderation in religion, where youth found enough interest and attraction to hold them in the synagogue. His idea was to unite the religious with the social and modern——a herculean task in those days. Solomon Urken accepted a Torah from Dr. and Mrs. Barney D. Lavine, in 1935, in honor of their son, Arthur’s Bar Mitzvah, at a celebration in the synagogue. Harry Siegel and his wife presented a Torah to Adath Israel Congregation; Mr. and Mrs. Hyman Green, The Brothers of Israel Synagogue; and, recently, Mr. Bernard Casway——all presented Torahs which are still in use at Adath Israel Congregation. He served his fellow Jews well, this softly—spoken man, Solomon Urken, as president of Adath Israel Congregation from 1926 to 1938, the last two years from a sick bed——1937 and 1938. When he passed away in 1938, the whole Jewish community as well as the Adath Israel Congregation mourned the loss of a leader whom they loved. Adath Israel Congregation was enriched by Mr. Urken’s untiring efforts. It was a great joy to him that he saw the Confirmation of a granddaughter and the Bar Mitzvah of their grandson in his “Shull”. Through Solomon Urken’s efforts Rabbi Leon J. Liebreich, who fitted in with his philosophy, was installed as rabbi of the congregation. He left the Jewish community a priceless possession in the establishment of a Conservative Jewish House of Worship, and a part of himself in his sons, who follow in his footsteps by working hard in the synagogue to have these traditions passed on to the generations that follow. It is important to record that, until the time of his death, Harry Koppelman served as financial secretary under Solomon Urken. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Rabbi Leon J. Liebreich’s service at the Adath Israel Congregation, a special worship at the Adath Israel synagogue was given in which he was honored, and at a reception tendered in their honor, Rabbi and Mollie, at the StacyTrant Hotel, on a Sunday in January 1938, many high and fine tributes were paid the Liebreichs. Professor Louis Finkelstein, president of the Jewish Theological Seminary, was the main speaker. In February 1938, at the Board of Trustees meeting, those present stood in silent prayer out of respect to the deceased president, Solomon Urken. A resolution of condolence was forwarded to his widow and family. Harry Levy was elevated to the presidency at this meeting; Sol Phillips Perlman, first vice— président; Harry Goodstein, second vice—president; 75 Nathan Levin, treasurer; Hyman Garb, financial secretary; and Jack Bernstein, recording secretary. Harry Levy was re-elected to the presidency in 1939 and 1911.0, making it the third consecutive term; Sol Phillips Per].man, first vice— president; Rany Goodstein, second vice—president; Nathan Levin, treasurer; Wyman Garb, financial secretary; and Jack Bernstein, Recording Secretary. The financial difficulties of a growing congregation were met in the same way as heretofore: by the signing of notes and donations by the Board of Trustees members. Those elected to the Board of Trustees were Samuel Koppelman, Irving Lewis, Harry Siegel, Samuel Swern, Roy Abramson, Michael Gilinsky, and Harry Gross. An amendment to the—Laws of the Congregation passed at the Annual Meeting in 1940, increasing the Board of Trustees by six members. At the. meeting of the Board of Trustees in April 1940., Harry Levy president of the Adath Israel Congregation, gave notice that he wished to retire from the presidency at the end of the year. On January 10, 1941, at the Annual, Meeting, the Board of Trustees was increased to 30 members, one of whom may be a woman member of the congregation”, Despite his desire to retire from the presidency, Harry Levy continued in office. Sol Phillips Penman became vice—president again. Nahan Levin continued as treasurer, and Jack Bernstein was renamed as recording secretary. Lester Kolman, a newcomer, was elected financial secretary. At the meeting of the Board of Trustees on November 5, 1941, the secretary, Jack Bernstein, read to the Board of Trustees an invitation to the Adath Israel Congregation to attend the 35th anniversary of the ordination of Rabbi. Abraham Holzberg, of Temple, Has Sinai, as a Reform Rabbi • Rabbi Leon Liebreich accepted the invitation to be one of the speakers at this celebration at Har Sinai, and Chaplain Bernard Segal, of Fort Dix, accepted the invitation to occupy the Adath Israel Congregation pulpit during Rabbi Liebreich’s absence. The meeting of the Board of Trustees of November 5, 1941, also records a suggestion by Sidney Goldman.~ chairman of the Public Relations Committee of Trenton, and not a member of Adath Israel Congregation, which was supported by the Chairman, Mr. Levy, that the use of the Adath Israel synagogue was offered to the local Defense Council for whatever purpose they deemed necessary during the war shelter, feeding place, and Red Cross classes. Mr. Andrew Thach, Trenton Home Defense chairman, accepted the offer. The synagogue was used for several of these purposes, 76 especially Red Cross work during -the war. The war years in 1941 and 1942 gave the officers and the Board of Trustees extra responsibilities At the Annual meeting of the Board of Trustees, Barry Levy again was elected to the presidency of the Adath Israel Congregation on January 22-, l923. The other officers elected were Sol Phillips Perlman, 1st Vice-President Harry L.Goodstein, 2nd vice—president; Benjamin Rosenthal, treasurer for the first Benjamin Goodstein, assistant treasurer, for the first time; Lester KoIman, financial). secretary~ and Jack Bernstein, recording secretary. In 1921. Mr. Louis Shipper undertook an initiative for A building fund drive to pay off the mortgage of the Adath Israel edifice. Dr. Max Artz, of the United Synagogue of America~ was the main speaker at a dinner given at the synagogue to pay off the mortgage. Mr. Samuel Swern was chairman of the drive. At the Board of Trustees Meeting of December l943, L. Goodstein reported that the mortgage had been reduced. $20,000.00, with additional pledges of $25,000. On Sunday, January 23, l924, Burning of the Mortgage Ceremonies took place in the vestry rooms of the synagogue. Chaired by Sol Phillips Perlman, President Harry Levy; Rabbi Leon 3. Liebreioh; Samuel Swan, chairman of Campaign for Funds to pay off the Mortgage; Mrs. Louis Ruderman, president of Adath Israel Sisterhood, Mrs. Harry Levy of the Sisterhood gave addresses at the Reception Committee in the Social Hall. On February 6, 1921, the Adath Israel Congregation signed a resolution addressed to the President of the United States, “with the earnest appeal that all appropriate action be taken to insure the entire withdrawal of the British Palestine White Paper May 1939, with its unjustifiable restrictions on immigration and land settlement..,” President Harry Levy’s signature a— do~ned the resolution. At this meeting, the privilege of erect— Coo ing an Honor Roll on the Adath grounds at Bellevue and Hermitage Avenues was granted by the Board of Trustees. At the Annual Board of Trustees meeting, which was held on February 9, 19~44, Marry Levy was again elected unanimously president of Adath Israel Congregation; Sd Phillips Penman, VLd 1st vice—president; Harry L. Goodstein, 2nd vice—president; Benjamin Rosenthal, treasurer; Joseph Klatzkin, financial secretary, new in this office; and Jack Bernstein, recording secretary. Harry 77 Levy, the president, reported that he was in correspondence with the Foreign Relations Committee at Washington, D. C, concerning establishing Palestine as a Jewish Homeland, 15. and that he had received replies from Honorable Tom Connely and Honorable Arthur Walsh. The report of the minutes of the Board of Trustees of April 5, 191+14, mourned the passing of Israel H6 Albert. Services were held in the synagogue, and the arrangements were made by Bezrjamin &rb and Hyinan Garb. Adath Israel Congregation paid tribute to Israel H. Albert, and the synagogue was filled. Rabbi Leon Liebreich was superb in conducting the funeral service and paid high tribute to his memory. Phillip Albert was appointed to -the Board of Trustees to fill the vacancy caused by his father s death. In Apri1~ 19%14, at a Board of Trusteeà Meeting, a new committee was formed to establish a bulletin for the synagogue news and ethel’ news about Jewish current events. The Adath Israel. News begafl its publieation cateer at once. a chairman of the monthly sheet Mrs. Norris Nochumson was named, assisted by Sol Philllph Penman arid Samuel R. Lavine. - On January 7, 1910, the same slate, as of l944, was. elected at the Adath Israel Congregation: Harry Levy, presi~tent; no Sol Phillips Penman, 1st vice—president; Harry Is. Goodstein, 2nd vice—president; Benjamin Rosenthal, treasurer; Joseph Klatzkin, financial secretary; and Jack Bernstein, recording secretary. At the Board of Trustees Meeting of May 2, 19~+5, it was passed that a $5.00 assessment would be made on all Adath Israel members on behalf of the Jewish Theological Seminary of 4Rmel’ioa. (The Adath Israel Sisterhood of the congregation had established ) • (I a voluntary contribution of $6.11 per member f6r the- S~ndnary.) 16. It was also passed, at this meeting, to sell on behalf of the congregation the 1000 shares of Panhandle Railroad stock which was contributed anonymously to the Math Israel Congregation. It was at this meeting, also of May 2, 1945, that Rabbi Leon Liebreich informed the Board of Trustees that he had accepted a professorship at Gratz College, in Philadelphia, and that he would continue at his post at Adath Israel synagogue until a new rabbi was installed in his place. The Board of Trustees reluctantly accepted the -resignation of Rabbi Leon 3. Liebreich and wished him every success. It was in November~ 1945, that Bernard Alexander reported to Rabbinical Committee that Rabbi S. Joshua Kohn, who was a chaplain in the U. S. Maritime Service with the rank of Lieutenant Commander would shortly be released from service and that he would be the guest rabbi at the Friday evening services on November 8, 1945. 78 On November 19, 1945, Rabbi S. Joshua Kohn accepted the pulpit that was offered to him by the Board of Trustees. On. On Tanuary 4, 1946, Rabl4 S. Joshua Kohn was installed at Adath Israel synagogue with all the honors of becoming a rabbi of Israel. On January 14, 191.6, an amendment to the—Laws, Article XVI, was proposed, increasing the members of the Board of Trustees to 36, one of whom shall be a woman member of the congregation. A drive for funds was conducted in November 1945, for a new building. So, eighteen years of service for Rabbi Leon J. Liebreich and Mollie, his wife, was drawing to a close. The last years of his rabbinate were trying years for the Liebreichs since a child of theirs was seriously ill. After long years of ministering to the Adath Israel Congregation, Rabbi Liebreich had explained to the Board of Trustees that he decided to change his life’s work to teaching and doing research work in Hebrew 11 Letters. Rabbi Liebreich left his mark on the congregation—— the sweetness of his chanting daily or holiday services, the establishing Conservative customs that appealed to the congregation, the love the children in all the classes bore him, and~ in return, his love for them; especially his work with the Confirmation Classes - Bar Mitzvahs, and the Adult Institute of Learning. When the Liebreichs left Trenton, they were honored by young and old alike, and the loss was keenly felt for a long time. One of the most memorable events in the annals of Adath Israel Congregation’s history took place on Wednesday evening, January 23, 191,6, in the vestry rooms of the synagogue. A farewell dinner was tendered to Rabbi ánd Mollie Liebreich at which time a token of appreciation in the form of a 41, OOO.OO purse from the Adath Israel Congregation treasury and a purse from the congregation presented the Liebreichs with the best wishes of the congregation. Rabbi Leon J. Liebreich was also presented with a life’s Honorary Membership, at the congregation he served so well for 18 years, entitling him to all the privileges of membership. At the Annual Meeting of the Board of Trustees in July, 19146, Harry Levy continued in the presidency; Sol Phillips Perlman, 1st vice president; Harry L. Goodstein, 2nd vice—president; Benjamin Rosenthal, treasurer; Lester Kolman, financial 18. secretary; and Jack Bernstein, recording secretary. At this meeting of the Board of Trustees the president, Harry Levy commented on the excellence of the Math Israel News. The Board of Trustees passed a motion to select a home for the new rabbi, S. Joshua Kahn, for $8,000.00. Secretary Jack S. Bernstein notified Cantor Ralph Eckhaus of his appointment by the Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees had not renewed 79 Cantor Judah L. Wise s contract. Cantor Wise had been at the Adath Israel Congregation since 1936. Cantor Wise taught Hebrew to Bar Mitzvah bays as an aid to Rabbi Leon J. Liebreich and served as cantor up to the end of his term in 19k5. Cantor Wise became a Nohel during his career at Adath Israel synagogue and a writer of Jewish music. The Annual Trustee Meeting of the Adath Israel Congregation was held on Wednesday, January 22, 19k?, and again Harry Levy became president; Sal Phillips Perlman, 1st vice—president; Harry L. Goodstein, 2nd vice—president; Benjamin Rosenthal, treasurer; Lester Kolman, financial secretary; and Jack Bernstein, recording secretary——the slate being the same as in 1946. The House Committee chairman, Isaac Levy, suggested changes in the synagogue, as safety measures, at the Board of Trustees Meeting of March 5, 1947. Harry Goodstein reported at this meeting cash on hand of $49,102.25, and unpaid pledges of $1,800.00 from the drive for funds for a new building. This report of funds was from the drive of November 1945. At the meeting of June 4, 1941, Irving Lewis, chairman of the Membership Committee, reported $5,600.00 in collections for 19. the Hebrew and the Sunday School. Cantor Ralph Eckhaus’ contract was renewed for the fall term at this meeting. There is a letter in the files of the synagogue from the Jewish Federation of Trenton, dated June 2, 1947, thanking the Adath Israel Congregation for the loan of $40,000 which went...” to meet the urgent need for cash...” by the United Jewish Appeal. At the Board of Trustees Meeting of December 3, 1947, Irving Lewis reported that a total of 70 new members had been enrolled for the year 191,?. On February 1, 1948, at the Annual Meeting of the Board of Trustees, Harry Levy declined the office of president, which he had occupied since 1938. In 1937, Harry Levy became 1st vice— president of the congregation, and then in 1938, became the president. For ten long, trying years he and the Board of Trustees labored to keep the synagogue open and going through years of war and peace, and years of insufficient funds and failing health. This amiable man, Harry Levy, like his predecessor, was the right man for the office he held——gave his all that Adath Israel Congregation and Conservative Judaism might live in the hearts of his sons as well as his fellow Jews. That he succeeded beyond his hopes and &eams was due to his wisdom, his knowledge of men, and his thorough knowledge of financial matters. Solomon Urken nurtured the living flame in its early stages, and Harry Levy blew more life into it so that it would grow. During Harry Levy’s presidency, there was 80 a joy for him and his wife, Rita, that all three of his sons were Bar Mitzvah at Adath Israel synagogue and two of his boys were married by Adath Israel’s rabbi, and one at the synagogue. Even after re 20. tiring from the heavier responsibilities of the presidency, Harry Levy has aided in some of the most important work of a changing era. The nomination of the next president took place at the Annual Meeting of the Board of Trustees on February 1~ 191+8. The nomination for president of Adath Israel Congregation by Sal Phillips Perlxnan was declined. The slate that was elected Cone sisted of Bernard Alexander, president; Hyman Garb, 1st vice—president; Hyman Urken, 2nd vice—president; Isador Miller, treasurer, new in office; Hyman Siegel, assistant treasurer; Lester Kolman, financial secretary; and Bernard Green, also holding office for the first times recording secretary. We must note here that Jack Bernstein had to relinquish his post as recording secretary, which he held since 1935, because of serious illness. Jack Bernstein’s record as recording secretary stands out as a service rendered with unlimited measure alongside the many whose names will be enshrined in the glory of Adath Israel’s history Ior all times. For many years the Board of Trustees had been planning to build an addition to the synagogue of the Adath Israel Congregation with modern classrooms, a kitchen, and a large auditorium. Although there had been a drive for funds in 191+5, and nearly $80,000 had been raised for this purpose, nothing had as yet materialized. At the meeting of the Board of Trustees of April 7, 191+8, Louis S. Kaplan, prominent Trenton architect, exhibited his newest plan for an addition to the synagogue, and he commented in detail on the plans. On September 1, 191+8, Cantor 7 21. Ralph Eckhaus was re-engaged for the High-Holy Days. For the Board of Trustees, the last few years were years of planning and viewing other synagogues-—what a new wing of the Adath Israel Synagogue ought to look like. Rabbi S. Joshua Kohn continually kept urging the Board of Trustees to take positive action. The collection of pledges and the disagreements, the many problems to overcome, were finally overcome by a unity that emerged—a dream becoming a reality. Slowly but surely the dream synchronized in general agreement by the gentle handling of the question by the president, Bernard Aiexander~ At the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees on November 5, l9’+9, it was reported that 91 members had voluntarily increased their dues, which totaled $5,000.00. The hand of the ex-president, Harry Levy who was chairman of the finance committee, was in evidence. At this meeting, there was 81 talk of reviving the Men s Club and revitalizing it. Wyman Urken, a constant urger for more Conservative services complained, at this meeting of November 5, 191+9, of the services being too long. Harry Levy reported to the Board of Trustees, on December 15, 191+9, that $6,600.00 dues would be received from 11+0 of its members, and that possibly (10’-.’ $7,500.00 might be in the “offing”. Emanuel Kaplan was elected ‘jot president of the Men’s Club, and Harry Levy was elected Honorary president of the Adath Israel Congregation. An invitation was read from Dr. and Mrs. Leon J. Liebreich içA at the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of January 1, LcLt il 1950, inviting the congregation to the Bar Mitzvah of their son, Joseph, in Philadelphia, at the Portuguese Synagogue. The minutes of the Board of Trustees Meeting of March 1, 1950, showed that Max Mosovich and Albert Shapiro were elected to the Board of Trustees and the following officers were elected: Bernard Alexander, president; Hyman Garb, 1st vice—president; Hyman Urken, 2nd vice—president; Isador Miller, treasurer; Hyman Siegel, assistant treasurer; Lester Kolman, financial secretary; and Bernard Greene recording secretary. It was reported at this meeting that the new building would cost approximately $2????. Mrs. Benjamin Pincus, president of the Sisterhood of the Adath Israel Congregation, advised the Board of Trustees at the Board of Trustees Meeting of April 5, 1950, that the 25th wedding anniversary of Rabbi and Priva Kohn would take place in June, and that at the same time it would mark the 5th anniversary of the Kohn~’ association and leadership with the Adath Israel Congregation. Accordingly, in June a celebration was held on the anniversary of the Kohns’ wedding and the 5th anniversary of their being at Math Israel, in which a purse was presented and a reception tendered to Rabbi S. Joshua Kohn and Priva, his wife. At this meeting of April 5, 1950, Rabbi Kohn spoke of the additional “load” that the congregation was carrying in all phases of synagogue activity and the necessity of more personnel. Ben OarS reported the resignation of Mrs. Albert Shapiro, better known as Mollie Shapiro, as Sunday School principal, who had accomplished “superhuman” things with her position. Some very important events took place at the meeting of the Board of Trustees on May 3, 1950. The committee of Hebrew and the Sunday School Committee reported that some 23. changes were necessary for the Hebrew and Sunday School program, and wished to submit it to the Board of Trustees for consideration: (1) That an educational director be engaged to supervise the synagogue’s youth educational activities. (2) That the 82 Adath Israel Congregation schools be limited to children of members only and that children o~ non— members be allowed to complete their courses, (3) That an additional fee of $10.00 is added to t~ie $ar Mitzvah and Confirmation enrollees. The first two items met with the approval of the Board of ‘E13 Trustees and were passed. The meeting on May 3, 1950, wq~s La— portent also for the reason that the general dues were 44zqreaBed is3 • to $75.00 per year. Many who could afford it were to increase in dues voluntarily. The Building Committee reported that the inscription over the entrance to the new building would be; “The Future of a People Lies in the Education of its Youth.” Emmanuel Kaplan announced that the groundbreaking would take place on Sunday morning, May 7, 1950. The Men’s Club would present orchids to the ladies attending the !; ~oi: Special Mothers Day service at Adath Israel synagogue. t At the meeting of the Board of Trustees it was announced .3 that Rabbi S • Joshua Kohn was leaving for a visit to Israel and that a Ben Voyage Service and Oneg Shabat would be held at the synagogue on the last Friday evening of June. An appropriate purse of appreciation was presented to the rabbi as a token of good wishes to the congregation. Rabbi Kohn was very much deserving 21+. of a rest. He has been working ardently since 191+6, since his installation at 4dath Israel Congregation, Rabbi S. Joshua Kohn ~ has brought many improvements and necessary changes to a rapidly expanding congregation. The synagogue grew up spontaneously with the Kohns (Rabbi S. Joshua, Priva Kohn, and Joseph Kohn). Priva gave her all in successfully aiding all social functions coming under the synagogue’s jurisdiction, by teaching leadership courses and Hebrew studies, leading the all—girl choir, and advising and managing wedding ceremonies Joseph, their son, played an important part in the Junior Congregational work, where he was a director. Rabbi Koim gained h4.s doctorate while being a teacher and spiritual guide of the congregation——the Adath Israel Synagogue. From a membership of 180 families at Adath Israel Congregation in 1946; to 650 in 1951. It was through Rabbi Kohn’s continuous urging that the change in membership and the new building came about. His supervision supported by the president, Bernard Alexander, and the Board of Trustees brought a dream into being a reality: Th~ magnificent additions to the synagogue with all modern facilities——classrooms, auditorium, banquet room, and chapel. One room downstairs served as a small room in the synagogue for the daily minyan and Talmud training. In addition, there were cheerful and 83 spacious rooms in the new wing. Under Rabbi K9hn’s guidance, the Hebrew School which had 1+7 children in 191+6 now has 210, a credit to the fine educational progress. Moreover, the number of Sunday School classes has risen from 25. ‘±0 small crowded group to more than 200. The Hebrew High School 111 was instituted in l9~f6, as a three—year extension course, and now is combined with the Leaders Training Fellowship, which boys are former Bar Mitzvah graduates. In 1946, the Hebrew School had only two sessions per week, one hour each session; now it has four sessions per week——one hour per session as heretofore. On - Sunday there is a two—hour session, making a total of six hours are per week. Rabbi Kahn established a Youth Congregation, a Junior Congregation which flourished and the attendance is at least 50 at each service: This means that at least 100 young people attend 9f~W Some service at the synagogue. There are four teachers directed by the Educational Director, Mordecai Levow, who received his LA. at Brooklyn College and has attended the Teachers Institute of the Yeshiva. At present, the Educational Director is attending - classes at the Graduate School of Education of Dropsie College. Rabbi Kahn has instituted an Adult Jewish Institute for sods six consecutive Tuesday evenings. In addition to the evening bits classes, there are morning classes: discussion groups of the Sisterhood and Daughterhood; the subjects— —Conservatism Judaism, Jewish History, Beginners and Intermediate Hebrew, and Jewish music which includes synagogue music. Cantor Irving S. ~‘e1lerts soo’I experience in Cantillation, chanting of the Haftora——recognition of the symbols and their usage in chanting and singing the ancient melodies, makes his classes one of the most essential in the synagogue. Adath Israel protected its rabbi with a pension and a retirement plan issued by the Joint Retirement Board. Adath Israel has established a Rabbi’s Fund to which members contribute and the rabbi dispenses at his discretion without publicity to the giver or taker. Rabbi Kohn has greatly increased the attendance of the Friday night services, which was always a spot that needed improvement. Rabbi S. Joshua Kohn’s sermons are modern interpretations of the scriptures interspersed with the wisdom of the sages His simple methods and pleasing personality has endeared him to the congregation. Being an ardent Zionist, a former president of the Zionist Organization of Trenton, he centers his whole life around Zionism, Judaism, and the Adath Israel Congregation. The question of additional space in the Greenwood Cemetery came up at the Board of Trustees Meeting of April .2, 84 1952. Honorary president, Harry Levy, reported that additional space could be added for $Th.O,000.OO. However, instead of additional space at the Greenwood Cemetery, the Honorary president negotiated successfully with the Fountain Lawn Park, Eggerts Crossing Road, the cost being put at $40.00 per grave. The park, containing approximately l50 graves, beautifully Ihndscaped, was consecrated as another Adath Zarkel Coh’~regation Cemetery on October 4, 1953. On the 15th day of Shot-at, the 7th day of February 1953, Harry L. Goodstein passed s1&a~’, leaving an enviable record in the synagogue as a vice—president and as chairman of the different Building Drives. At the meeting of the Board of Trustees on May 7, 1952, Mordecai Levow was selected as the Educational Director of the Adath Israel Congregation. Under Mordecai Levow s directorship 27. the religious schools have grown considerably. The Hebrew School attendance in 1952—53 was 110 pupils, in 1953—54, 245 pupils, and in 1954—55, 188 pupils. The Hebrew curriculum is based on a 5—year study period, and toward this end, the Adath Israel Congregation Board of Education has increased the requirements for Bar Mitzvah and Confirmation to a minimum of four years • The follow ing are the activities of the religious schools: Adath Alumnae Confirmation Group, Junior Congregation, Youth Congregation, Special Assembly Programs, The Hazzonim Club, Keren Ami Project, Sadye Lewis Essay Contest, Parent-Teacher Meetings, United Synagogue Youth, the Talus and Tephilin Club and the Scouts. After a year of e#austive study and planning, with the concurrence of the Board of Trustees, the Board of Education launched its nursery school project, on September 15, 1954. At the Annual Board of Trustees Meeting on Sunday evening, January 16, 1955, several new officers were elected: Hyman Garb was elected president; Hyman Urken, 1st vice—president; Alfred Shapiro, treasurer; Jack Rudnick, assistant treasurer; and Bernard Green, recording secretary, as heretofore. At this meeting, Irving Lewis received the “Man of the Year” award of the Adath Israel Congregation, a custom established some years ago by President Bernard Alexander. Jack S. Bernstein was the first to receive this honor in 1948; Harry Siegel in 1949; Hyman B. Garb in 1950; Samuel Robbins in 1951; Isador Miller in 1952; and Alfred Shapiro in 1953. The Annual Meeting of the Board of Trustees brought to a close the successful reign of Bernard Alexander as president. 28. Adath Israel Congregation had the right men when it needed them. Bernard Alexander’s reign——seven years——was not easy years. The need of controlling an 85 organization pushing in all directions was an immense job——the president’s job. Coming to Adath Israel Congregation experienced in the way of leading and organizing campaigns for funds~ Bernard Alexander immediately 5et himself to improve all branches of the Adath Israel Congregation, and found this work cut out for him. At all times in command of the situation with the Board of Trustees, he knew where he was going and what he wanted to accomplish. It has been said that a great many leaders fail in their efforts because of trying to please everybody. President Bernard Alexander always led, led with positive thinking. A man of great wit and charm, not without artifice—- but what leader was not a “politician” of rank? Bernard Alexander, the president, never relaxed his vigilance——a vigilance of fair play for those who were employed at Adath Israel Congregation, waxing mildly sarcastic when necessary, coming to the point quickly. The Board of Trustees had respect for his broad knowledge of religious and civic affairs and were moved many times into quick action by his plea. His record as president will be long remembered for his accomplishments. Coming from the presidency of the Jewish Federation of Trenton, he was familiar with all phases of Jewish life. Not only is Bernard Alexander prominent in Jewish leadership locally and nationally, but he holds many offices of great communal and civic origin——a man of prolific energy. His most recent appointment to the Board of Managers of the State Board of Child Welfare is no little honor to himself and his 29. family——Jessica, Naomi, Dan, and Ruth, all prominent in their own 3d right as leaders in their fields, women’s and youth’s world——and to the congregation which he headed for seven long years. B Bernard Alexander, in short, is a sincere, charitable P2 person, who has headed the Middle Atlantic Region of the Joint Distribution Committee and the United Jewish Appeal. An indefatigable worker, he served with tact and natural ability the Adath Israel Congregation. To Bernard Alexander goes the credit S for inspiring the Board of Trustees to act fearlessly in assuming the responsibility and contracting for a new building which costs well over $200,000. Moreover, to Bernard Alexander goes the bad credit of seeing to it that the mortgage on the Adath Israel Congregation Buildings was reduced to less than one—third of the original amount. To Barney, as he is known to his friends, go the splendid record of contributing great strides to the cause of Judaism and Americanism a~ the Adath Israel Congregation. 86 To the women of Adath Israel Congregation belongs a great Li deal of the credit showered on the numerous men——ni immeasurable I Ls1 credit. Its members also have their names engraved, for all time, •0 OS in golden letters in the annals of the Adath Israel History. The funds they raised and contributed to the synagogue are only a minor detail of their service to the Adath Israel Congregation. Since the beginning, the Sisterhood has contributed thousands of dollars to the different funds of the synagogue. The last contribution was $~÷,??? for the reduction of the mortgage. The women of the Sisterhood of the Adath Israel Congregation have taken an equal responsibility with the men and have also given their intuition, knowledge, experience, and talents so that the Adath Israel Congregation might prove a lasting influence for good to the children’s children of the founders. The list of presidents is in sequential order: Mrs. Frank Cohen, Mrs. S. Phillips Perlman, Mrs. Charles Gilinsky, Mrs. Frank Miliner, Mrs. Ernest Glici~an, Mrs. David Gross, Mrs. Irving Lewis, Mrs. Fred Fox, Mrs. Sidney Rosen, Mrs. Samuel Eisenstat, Mrs. Roy Abramson, Mrs. Louis Altman, Mrs. Louis Ruderman, Mrs. Samuel Swern, Mrs. Norris Nochumson, Mrs. Alfred Bernstein, Mrs. Benjamin Pincus, Mrs. Charles Popkin, and Mrs. Louis Lehman, In 1953, Sisterhood membership to the Board of Trustees was increased to three of the Adath Israel Congregation. To the Men’s Club goes the credit of developing men who are willing to devote their time assisting to build a great institution. Not as old in years as the other branch of the congregation, the Sisterhood, nevertheless it has been important in the aiding of social, religious, and financial departments of the modern synagogue, The first president was Bernard Green, and the second was Albert Shapiro. Emanuel Kaplan, president of the revitalized Men’s Club, goes the credit for putting new life into the organization, in 1950. To Irving Schwartzman falls the responsibility of carrying on a work well established, a pattern to be followed, and new heights to be reached, As a tribute to Emanuel Kaplan, and what he accomplished, & a testimonial dinner was tendered to him on December 7, 1953, Adath Israel stands as a monument of the Jewish Rennaissance in America. It stands as a source of strength in the realization that Conservative Judaism is a potent force that will preserve the spiritual values of the Jewish people; that the historic role of the Jew and his mission to the world will become a living influence to himself and his neighbors; that Judaism has again become an adventure in good living——a way of life; that the younger generations will 87 discover the spiritual as well as the educational values of its precepts. The larger and the smaller memorials also stand as a monument; included in all the above are the memorials dedicated for all time to the memory of men and women whose names will share in the revitalization of Judaism through Conservatism. 88 89 Appendix C Cadwalader Park Cadwalader Park | All Parks | Location: Parkside Avenue Approximate Size: 100 acres Facilities: D&R Canal, Ellarslie the Trenton City Museum At just over 100 acres, Cadwalader Park is the City of Trenton’s most significant and historically important open space. Designed in 1891 by Frederick Law Olmsted, it is the only public park in the State of New Jersey laid out by the father of Landscape Architecture. Though the park has suffered through several decades of funding cutbacks, it still retains many of the landscape and spatial qualities present in the original plan. A Master Plan to direct the restoration of the park was developed by a team of Landscape Architects, Engineers, Architects and Urban Foresters with significant input from City of Trenton staff. The plan proposes a broad, prioritized range of short and long term capital improvements, as well as management and programming 90 Cadwalader Park Gallery | Cadwalader Park | Cadwalader Park Master Plan | Cadwalader Park | CONTENTS Quicklinks: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CHAPTER 1: THE PLANNING PROCESS CHAPTER 2: HISTORY OF THE PARK CHAPTER 3: THE PARK TODAY CHAPTER 4: PARK RESTORATION AND IMPROVEMENT CHAPTER 5: IMPLEMENTATION CHAPTER 6: FUNDING AND COSTS BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIX EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OBJECTIVES RECOMMENDATIONS: PARKWIDE RENEWAL RECOMMENDATIONS: PROJECT AREAS 91 Ellarslie Performance Area and Vistas Canal and Picnic Area Deer Area and Stream Restoration Parkside Avenue Entrance Maintenance Area CHAPTER 1: THE PLANNING PROCESS INTRODUCTION PLANNING PROCESS Inventory and Project Scoping Program and Alternatives Draft Master Plan Final Master Plan COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION CHAPTER 2: HISTORY OF THE PARK INTRODUCTION Historical Document Search Historical Chronology 92 SETTLEMENT/THE COUNTRY SEAT (1680–1743) ELLARSLIE/THE ESTATE (1776–1888) Ellarslie FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED AND THE OLMSTED FIRM Cadwalader Park and Olmsted’s National Career Cadwalader Park and Olmsted Firm’s Park Design Work in New Jersey Surviving Correspondence and Plans PARK IMPLEMENTATION (1888–1892) Early Stages of Park Planning, 1888–1891 The Olmsted Plan of September 1891 Formal Area—Refectory and Concert Grove Pastoral Landscape Circulation System Boundary Areas Playgrounds and Team Sports Facilities Eastern Ravine Western Ravine Construction of the Park, 1890–1892 Circulation System Plantings CADWALADER PARK (1892–1911) Olmsted Involvement 1892–1910 Park Projects, 1892–1911 93 Olmsted Involvement 1910–1911 CADWALADER PARK (1912–1936) WPA Projects CADWALADER PARK (MID-CENTURY) Historic Preservation End of an Era CHAPTER 3: THE PARK TODAY INTRODUCTION REGIONAL LINKAGES NEIGHBORHOOD SETTING PARK USE AND IMAGE Scheduled and Event Use Group Use Casual Visitation Park Abuses Perceptions of the Park EXISTING ENVIRONMENT Geology Soils Topography 94 Hydrology General Conditions Upper Pond West Ravine within Deer Paddock Deer Paddock Lake West Ravine below Paddock Water Quality East Ravine STORMWATER MANAGEMENT AND SOIL COMPACTION Stormwater Management Soil Compaction CIRCULATION Access and Circulation Parking Walkways UTILITIES Potable Water Sanitary Sewer VEGETATION Overall Trends and Patterns Current Tree Inventory Species Diversity 95 Tree Condition Woodlands Ornamental Plantings BUILDINGS AND STRUCTURES Buildings Structures and Monuments Structures Monuments RECREATIONAL FACILITIES FURNISHINGS AND SIGNS ANIMAL MANAGEMENT Site Description History Animal Management Diet Servicing Health and Herd Management SECURITY EXISTING LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT Organizational and Reporting Structure Division of Natural Resources Division of Recreation Division of Culture 96 Staffing for Cadwalader Park Natural Resources Budget ESTIMATED CURRENT CADWALADER PARK MAINTENANCE BUDGET (ANNUAL) CHAPTER 4: PARK RESTORATION AND IMPROVEMENT STRATEGIES INTRODUCTION PARKWIDE RENEWAL Park History Park Ecology Access and Circulation Parking Walkways Utilities and Stormwater Management Vegetation Trees Woodlands Vistas Buildings Structures Recreational Facilities 97 Furnishings Animal Management Security PARK PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES Introduction Food Planned Events and Group Programs Special Event Celebrations Recreational Activities Environmental Education Ranger Program KEY CAPITAL PROJECTS Proposed Circulation and Ellarslie Performance Area and Vistas Canal Bridge, Picnic Grounds and Recreation Area Deer Paddock, Environmental Center and Stream Restoration Parkside Avenue Entrance and Administration Area CHAPTER 5: IMPLEMENTATION 98 OVERALL STRATEGIC APPROACH COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT Short-Term Community Strategy PARK MANAGEMENT AND MAINTENANCE Short-Term Park Maintenance Strategy LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT AND MAINTENANCE Purpose of Management Plan Management Goals Management Principles Conservation of the Historic Landscape Public Use Physical Features Vegetation Structures Water Bodies HORTICULTURE MAINTENANCE Lawn Areas Mowing Irrigation Soil Amendments Aeration Overseeding Closing of Lawns Planting Areas 99 Trees Ballfields Vehicles and Storage MANAGEMENT OF SPECIAL EVENTS ENFORCEMENT CHAPTER 6: FUNDING AND COSTS PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP FUNDING SOURCES Public Sector Private Sector Direct Revenue COST ESTIMATES BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIX Appendix D Adath Israel Presidents Solomon Urken 1923-1938 Harry Levy 1939-1947 Bernard Alexander 1948-1955 Hyman B. Garb 1956-1958 Hyman Urken 1959-1960 Benjamin H. Garb 1961-1963 Isadore Miller 1964-1965 Irving H. Lewis 1966 Harry S. Ginsberg 1967-1968 Irving Schwartzman 1969-1971 Louis Lehman 1971-1973 Dr. Milton Palat 1974-1975 Leon Siskowitz 1976-1977 Seymour D. Kaplan 1978-1979 Albert Z. Segal 1980-1983 Rudy Loewenstein 1984-1985 Lawrence Pincus 1986-1988 Bernice S. Abramovich 1988-1989 Arthur Spiezle 1989-1990 Vincent Lee 1990-1993 100 Carl Shipper 1993-1996 Larry A. Solomon 1996-1997 Barry Sussman 1997-1999 Bradley Berit 1999-2001 Israel Dubin 2001-2002 Carl Shipper 2002-20023 Bradley Berit 2003-2004 John V. Dember 2004-2007 Bernice Siskowitz Abramovich 2007-2010 Michael P. Weiner 2010-2013 Seth Goodman Park 2013-2015 Stephanie Loesberg 2015-2017 Scott Berger 2017-2019 Abe Abramovich 2019-2021 101 Appendix E Adath Israel Sisterhood Presidents Mrs. Frank Kohn 1926-27 Rose Lerner Pearlman 1927-28 Rose Miller 1928-29 Rose Gilinsky 1929-31 Ida Glickman 1931-32 Sadie Gross 1932-33 June Lewis Kimmel 1933-35 Mollie Fox 1935-36 Alice Rosen 1936-37 Dora Eisenstat 1937-38 Sadie Abramsohn 1938-40 Ada Altman 1940-42 Gertrude Ruderman 1942-44 Sadie Swern 1944-46 Rhoda Nachumson Frazier 1946-48 Jean Bernstein 1948-49 Lillian Pincus 1949-52 Vivian Popkin 1952-54 Sylvia Lehman 1954-57 Fannie K. Miller 1957-58 102 Charlotte Rothschild 1959-61 Maxine Suval 1961-64 Rita Rosenberg 1964-67 Sydell Levine 1970-72 Sandra Nussblatt 1972-75 Rebecca F. Globus 1975-77 Barbara Lavin 1977-79 Barbara Millner 1979-82 Sarah Getten 1982-84 Barbara Millner 1984-86 Ruth Lubitz 1987-88 Linda Warren 1989-90 Judy Gelfand 1990-92 Carol Schwatrz 1992-94 Selma Siskowitz 1994-96 Roni Wolff 1996-1997 Judith Kay 1997-00 Lisa Ganzman 2000-06 Janice Berger 2007-09 Helene Y. Dubin and Jessica Z. Harris 2010-12 103 Appendix F Adath Israel Woman of the Year Jennie Green 1953 Tessa Hoffman 1954 Rhoda Nachumson 1955 Anita Norman 1956 Charlotte Rothschild 1957 Selma Schwartz 1958 Irene Linder 1959 Vivian Popkin 1960 Mollie Fox 1961 Sylvia Lehman 1962 Lillian Millner & Beatrice Levine 1963 Maxine Suval 1954 Dora Levine 1965 All Women Congregants 1966-1970 Esther Weisberg 1971 Jessica Alexander 1972 Ann Schwartzman 1973 Clara Loewenstein 1974 Regina Spiegel 1975 Sadie Palat 1976 104 Rose Eisenstein 1977 Rebecca F. Globus 1978 Ruth Richmond 1979 Barbara Millner 1980 Sally Heisler & Anna Rabinowitz 1981 Susan Blumberg 1982 Brenda Soloman & Bernice Abramovich 1983 Sarah Getten 1984 Linda Warren 1985 Florence Lipstein 1986 Ernestine Urken 1987 Ruth Lubitz 1988 Sylvia Hirsh 1989 Tamar Kops 1990 Bertha Ropeik 1991 Phyllis Brody & Rita Braun 1992 Judy Gelfand 1993 Alva Aronson & Frances Warren 1994 Phyllis Deal 1995 Linda Reisner 1996 Janet Susswein 1997 105 Julie Robinson 1998 Beverly Rubman 1999 Carol Greenfield-Dubin 2000 Joan Applebaum 2001 Blanche Farber 2002 Elaine Sussman 2003 Lisa Ganzman 2004 Janice A. Pinkus 2005 Stephanie Loesberg 2006 Judi Weiner 2007 Jessica Z. Harris 2008 Cheryl Gorski 2009 Sandra Widlitz 2010 Laurel Masten Cantor 2011 Francine Abramson 2012 Janice Berger 2013 Judith Kay 2014 Lisa B. Snyder 2015 Peggy Shapiro 2016 Glenda Mendelsohn 2017 106 Helene Y. Dubin 2018 Debra W. Kestenbaum 2019 Robyn Gordon 2020 Sharon Sharlin 2021 107 Appendix G Adath Israel Man of the Year Jack Berstein 1949 Hyman B. Garb 1950 Harry Siegel 1951 Isadore Miller 1953 Alfred Shapiro 1954 Irving H. Lewis 1955 Harry Alexander & Ichael Garb 1956 Hyman Urken 1957 Bernard L. Green 1958 Benjamin H. Garb 1959 Harry S. Ginsberg 1960 Lester Kolman 1961 Irving Schwatzman 1962 J. Charles Popkin 1963 Leon Siskowitz 1964 Simon Bash 1965 Herman Wolfer 1956 Harry Phillips 1967 Louis Lehman 1968 Melvin Fromkin 1969 108 Samuel Aronson 1970 Dr. Benjamin Lavine 1971 Bernard Popkin 1972 I. Sully Alexander 1973 Dr. Milton Palat 1974 Monroe Levy 1975 Harry Newman 1976 Rudy Loewenstein 1977 Philip Wiener 1978 Mike Sloshberg 1979 Albert Richmond 1980 Arthur Garfing & Benjamin Popkin 1981 Herbert Gartner 1982 Albert Z. Segal 1983 Abraham “Ace” Aronson 1984 Frank Lubitz 1984 Dr. Henry Drezner 1985 William Newman 1985 Lawrence Pinkus 1986 Martin Lipstein 1987 Abraham Schear 1987 109 Mark Eisenstein, M.D. 1988 Rick A. Laden 1989 Larry A. Solomon 1990 Ian A. Kops 1991 Arthur Spiezle 1992 Jeffrey J. Reisner 1993 Jerold Schwartz 1994 Vicent Lee 1995 Rudy Loewenstein 1996 Carl Shipper 1997 John Eros 1998 Rabbi Daniel Grossman 1999 Barry Sussman 2000 Michael Weiner 2001 Bruce Kaplan 2002 Bradley Berit 2003 Burton Lavin 2004 Gary Forshner 2005 David Shaw 2006 Israel Dubin 2007 110 Gerald Freedman 2008 John V. Dember 2009 Arthur Applebaum 2010 Abe Abramovich 2011 Ira Snyder 2012 Richard Byer 2013 Jonathan Miller 2014 Seth G. Park 2015 David I. Rubin 2016 Jeffrey Ziment 2017 Jay Ganzman 2018 Scott B. Dubin 2019 Scott Berger 2020 Samuel Bergman 2021 111 Appendix H Adath Israel Men’s Club Presidents Bernard Green 1946-47 Alfred Shapiro 1947-48 Emanuel Kaplan 1948-53 Irving Schwartzman 1953-55 J. Charles Popkin 1955-56 Seymour D. Kaplan 1956-58 Harry S. Ginsberg 1958-61 Bernard Popkin 1961-63 Simon Bash 1963-65 Albert Z. Segal 1965-67 Louis Lehman 1967-69 Fred Bernstein 1969-70 I.Sully Alexander 1971-72 Hyman Urken 1972-73 Rudy Loewenstein 1973-76 Albert Richmond 1977-81 Rudy Lowenstein 1981-82 Terry Kanefsky, M.D. 1982 Lawrence Pinkus 1983-85 Carl Shipper 1986-88 112 Ian A. Kops 1989-90 Jeffrey J. Reisner 1990-92 John V. Denber 1992-94 Jerold Schwartz 1994-96 Bernie Lerner 1996-98 Bruce Kaplan 1998-00 Irving Rozansky 2022-03 Daniel Brucker 2003-06 Israel Dubin 2007-08 113 Appendix I November 22, 1922 Meeting Auithorizing Synagogue A meeting of the persons interested in the formatio of the Conservative Synagogue in this city, was held at on the office of Alexander Buds on, American Mechanic Btilding Monday, November 13, 1922. Messrs. Sam Levin, Charles Gilinsky, Gross, S. Urken, A. Lewis, Greenberger, Kaplan, Joseph Lavine, Harry Urken, Perlstein, Rednor and I. Kohn were present. The minutes of the preceding meeting were ordered read and approved as read. The secretary of the meeting reported on the services conducted the two next preceding Friday evenings. It was moved by Mr. Kaplan and duly seconded that Mr. Farber be brought bank to TreAton to conduct services the following Friday evening. On motion of Mr. Perlman this motion was amended to read that Mr. Farber and Rabbi Samuel M. Cohen of New York, both be brought the following Friday evening. The amendment was accepted by Er. Kaplan and carried. Mr. Joseph Greenberger volunteered to mimeograph letters announcing services for the following Friday evening. The chairman of the Building Committee reported that the been had paid on lot on Bellevue Avenue, opposite the Mercer Hospital had agreed to be purchased for the sum of $4000, of which 200 be taken. been paid as a deposit, and the balance was to be llebruary 1, 1923, at which time title to the said lot would 114 It was duly moved by Mr. Harry Urken, seconded Mx. Gross, and carried, that the chairman be authorized to arrange for a mass meeting to be held sometime during the month of of of November, 1922, and that he be permitted to expend a sum not exceeding 0100 for publicity. The chairman suggesged that those present devote their time for the purpose of canvassing the public, in order order to enroll members, obtain pledges and advertise the ser vices to be held the next Friday evening. Messrs S. Urken, Peristein, Rednor, Charles Gilinsky, Lewis, Kaplan and Gross volunteered their services for these purposes. It was duly moved by Mr. Harry Urken, seconded and and carried that all bills heretofore incurred, be paid after being passed by the chairman and treasurer. It was duly moved by Mr. Greenberger, seconded and carried, Mr. S, Urken/that 60 more prayer books be purchased by the secretary. Contributions were received from Mr. Joseph Lavine and from Frank Peristein each in the sum of $25.00. There being no further business to be transacted, the meeting was on motion declared adjourned. Secretary, Pro. Tem. 116