The Temple

by Larry Kaufman
A recent discussion of generic terminology for Reform and other Jewish congregations (temple, synagogue, congregation, center, etc.), got me started looking at the non-generic aspects of congregational names. I had noted previously that over 500 of the 900 member congregations in the Union for Reform Judaism use the word “temple” in their names – Temple Sinai, Temple Israel, etc.  But now I want to give special attention to those whose formal names include the specific words, The Temple.

If you type those two words, The Temple, each with a capital T, into the search box on the Union for Reform Judaism web site, you’ll find six listings. (Actually, you’ll find seven, because the search results include New York’s The Temple of Universal Judaism – which I have discounted since its most prevalent self-description is TUJ.)

The key to this discussion is the distinction between The Temple and the temple. In talking about my investigation of congregational names with friends in the Reform movement, I’ve heard about several congregations that are typically referred to as The Temple, even though the words don’t appear in their formal names. In Lexington KY, I learned from a blog post by Gary Yarus, local Jews belong either to The Temple (Reform) or to The Synagogue (Conservative), although both congregations have Hebrew congregational names.

You’ll see in the previous paragraph that I used the word investigation, not research, in reference to my study of temple names. A true historical researcher would have delved into congregational archives, city directories, and other resources, whereas my comments are based largely on what the subject congregations have put on their own web sites, supplemented by anecdotal history and personal speculation. I welcome additions, corrections, and commentary on my observations and hypotheses.

Looking at the six congregations that use The Temple as a formal part of their names, five of them do so in conjunction with a Hebrew name that typically traces back to the formation of the congregation in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. It is hard to tell from the web site histories of these congregations exactly when the founding name gave way to the more prevalent use of The Temple, and even harder to figure out when the congregations began reclaiming their “heritage” names

The congregations under discussion are:

• The Temple Hebrew Benevolent Congregation in Atlanta, Georgia
• The Temple – Tifereth Israel in Cleveland and Beachwood, Ohio
• The Temple Shomer Emunim in Sylvania (Toledo), Ohio
• The Temple Bnai Jehuda Congregation in Overland Park (Kansas City), Kansas
• The Temple Ohabei Shalom in Nashville, Tennessee
• The Temple Adath Israel Brith Sholom in Louisville Kentucky

I have a particular interest in The Temple in Cleveland, because I grew up in its shadow. It was one of two Reform congregations in the city during my young years; the other one, older by a decade and a half, was the Euclid Avenue Temple. So how was Tifereth Israel able to pre-empt its predecessor and become The Temple? Was it because Anshe Chesed, which became the Euclid Avenue Temple, and later Fairmount Temple, had not yet fully identified with Reform? As a side note, each of the two congregations had rabbis in mid-century who were towering figures in their community, in the American Reform rabbinate, and, unusual for Reform rabbis in that era, in the Zionist movement as well. So towering were they, in fact, that members would commonly refer to their congregational affiliation not by the congregation’s formal English name, and, in those days, certainly not by its Hebrew name, but as Silver’s Temple or Brickner’s Temple. When I left Cleveland, in 1954, both of these giants, Abba Hillel Silver and Barnett Brickner, were still in their pulpits, and neither of the two congregations had yet re-Hebraicized its name.

Growing up outside the Reform movement, at a time when class distinctions between German Jews and eastern European Jews still characterized the Jewish community, I shared the conventional wisdom that for a congregation to call itself The Temple bespoke a kind of arrogance. When I later immersed myself in the Reform movement and began learning its history, I was able to put a different spin on the matter, recognizing that typically The Temple was, if not the only game in town, the only Reform congregation in town, co-existing with other synagogues that did not describe themselves as other than synagogues, shuls, or Jewish centers. (The Cleveland Jewish Center, Conservative, was right up there with Tifereth Israel and Anshe Chesed in “losing” its Hebrew name, Anshe Emet. The first of the big congregations to move to the suburbs, a generation ahead of the others, was the Conservative B’nai Jeshurun; and it downplayed its Hebrew name and called its imposing edifice in Cleveland Heights The Temple on the Heights. My grandparents’ Modern Orthodox congregation in Cleveland Heights was called the Heights Jewish Center, and I never knew its Hebrew name.

The Toledo Temple, now located in the suburb of Sylvania, is the only one of the six Temples that remains the only Reform congregation in its community. From its website, one would infer that the Kansas City Temple has tended to put its Hebrew name, B’nai Jehuda h, front and center, although I’m told the inference would be wrong, and that The Temple was the preferred identifier, at least as long as it was the only Reform temple in its metropolitan area. (Its first recorded breakaway came in 1967, when The New Reform Temple was organized; but the New Reform Temple is no longer the new Reform temple, since twenty years after its formation, Beth Torah became a newer Reform temple. In Nashville, The Temple seems to have had the Reform field to itself from 1851 until 1992, when Congregation Micah came into being. Was that the catalyst in Nashville for the revival of the Ohabei Shalom name? Perhaps some Nashville historian can elucidate.

The Louisville story is somewhat different. Adath Israel got its start in 1843, and within fifteen years had identified with Reform. By 1880, more recent German immigrants were uncomfortable with the English worship at Adath Israel, but presumably more so with the Hebrew worship of the Orthodox Beth Israel, so they organized Brith Sholom where they could pray in German. While it appears that both Adath Israel and Brith Sholom referred to their buildings as temples, it was their merger in 1977 that led to adoption of The Temple as the congregation’s name. Whatever singularity they hoped to achieve, a group that disapproved the merger broke away, and gave life to the legend that breakaway congregations, founded amidst strife and discord, inevitably glorify peace, and call themselves Temple Shalom.

When I mentioned to a rabbinic friend that I was developing this blog piece, he began enumerating the presumed subject congregations, and included on his list The Temple in Jacksonville, Florida. Search the URJ website for a Reform congregation in Jacksonville, and you’ll find only Congregation Ahavath Chesed. Click on that name, and you’ll be taken to http://www.thetemplejacksonville.org! That web site includes references both to The Temple and to Congregation Ahavath Chesed, and the congregation’s print bulletin is called The Temple Messenger. It’s hard to distinguish from the spoken word whether someone is saying he’s going to the temple and or if he’s saying he’s going to The Temple. And I’m sure someone will tell me it’s a distinction without a difference.

Nonetheless, I’d still like to hear about other congregations that are better known as The Temple than by their official names on the Union’s records. Even more, I’d like to hear about congregations that had been identified strictly in English that have more recently added or restored Hebrew components to their names. Meanwhile, I’ll be working on the next installment in this series, starting a discussion of the words that go along with Temple, Congregation, or Synagogue, and the values they connote.