Har Sinai Hebrew Congregation
As the great
industrial complex of Trenton began to grow immediately after the Civil War.
By 1850, there were several
churches in the City representing Presbyterian (remember) Princeton was a
Presbyterian Seminary), Methodist (John Asbury had a mission in New Jersey), Baptist,
Roman Catholic, Byzantine Catholic, and other denominations.
New York and Philadelphia have
Jewish communities already two centuries old. Slowly, after the defeat of
liberalism in the German States in 1848-9, German Jews made their way to
Trenton. This trickle formed a core Jewish community where none existed before.
Accordingly, the Har Sinai Cemetery Association, formed on November 19, 1857,
when 11 men met in the home of Morris Singer. They were (besides Singer):
Marcus Marx, Julius Schloss, Issac
Wymann, lgnatz Frankenstein, Lazarus Gottheim, Isaac Singer, Joseph Rice,
Ephraim Kaufman, Marcus Aaron and Gustavus Cane.
Vroom Ave Cemetery
As is common,
the cemetery association a year later committed to building a place of worship.
Its initial religious services were held in private homes; then in rented
quarters.
A September
1858 newspaper item tells us that 52 persons attended New Year's services in
Temperance Hall, then located at the southeast corner of Broad and Front
Streets.
Formal
services Har Sinai Hebrew Congregation building began in 1860.
In 1860, its
trustees were Simon Kahnweiler, Isaac Wymann, Henry Shoninger, Herman
Rosenbaum, Marcus Aaron, Leon Kahnweiler, and David Manko, most of the clothing
merchants. Nearly all German, services and minutes were conducted in Hebrew and
German.
Kahnweiler, a
prominent business figure, tried his hand at several ventures: a brickyard,
vinegar works, grocery store, and real estate. He became Har Sinai's first
president, exercising considerable influence in the new congregation.
Kahnweiler purchased
a Lutheran little brick chapel on the west side of North Montgomery Street,
between Academy and Perry. It was refitted as a temple and dedicated with
appropriate ceremonies on March 23, 1866.
Judge David Naar, an outstanding Jewish
figure at that time, made the dedicatory address. Narr, who now lived in
Trenton Former Mayor of Elizabeth and
Common Pleas Judge of Essex County, a member of the State Constitution
of 1844, owner and publisher of the influential Daily True American, and a
powerful figure in state Democratic councils.
Rabbi Isaac
Lesser, who with Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise then shared the leadership of American
Jewry, also spoke at the dedication. Lesser went on the found the Conservative
movement in the 1880s. Wise established a Reform association in 1873 and a
Rabbinical College in 1875.
There was
some turmoil over the deed’s provenance and the building was sold at Sheriff’s
auction in 1872. Kahnweiler had never deeded the temple to the congregation.
But the deed was unclear and it was sold by the Sheriff.
There was a
heroine, however. Mrs.
Toretta Kaufman, mother of Amelia Block and S.E. Kaufman, both pillars of the
business community, saved the temple building. Through her tireless efforts,
she managed to collect sufficient funds so that by autumn of 1872 the
congregation again owned the Montgomery Street property.
The largest contributor was said to be Joseph Rice, a member, a
leading merchant, and one of Trenton's most respected citizens. He made up the
balance needed after Mrs. Kaufman’s proceeds.
Like the German Jews in New York and Philadelphia, the German Jews
helped their obscurantist, callow Jewish breather when they arrived as
immigrants. Not knowing anything about the language, customs, ways of doing
business, etc., these German Jews instituted charitable societies to assist
them in their new environment.
Har Sinai sold its temple to
Bayard Post, No.8, G.A.R. and in 1903, bought a lot at the southwest corner of
Front and Stockton Streets to erect its second house of worship.
The temple was dedicated on the
evening of October 7, 1904. Soon after, the congregation engaged Rabbi Nathan
Stern, a Reform rabbi. English replaced German in the services.
Governor
Woodrow Wilson gave a memorable address in the building on November 24, 1910.
In February
1922 the Board of Trustees
voted to join the Union of American Hebrew Congregations as a member of the
Reform movement.
Soon after,
the Temple found that its increased school enrollment necessitated a larger
building In 1925 Har Sinai purchased a lot on Bellevue Avenue, then a pretty
barren area, to erect its third house of worship. One of its members, Louis S. Kaplan served as architect. (He also designed
the War Memorial Building.)
The dedication ceremonies took
place September 12 through 16, 1930. Addresses by Rabbi Louis Woolsey of
Philadelphia, Dr. Julian Morgenstern, President of the Hebrew Union College,
and Rabbis Sidney Tedesche and Alexander Lyons of Brooklyn. Julius Schafer was
president, and Rabbi Abraham Holtzberg was in the sixth year of his contract.
Although Har Sinai opened its new
temple doors during the depression years of the 1930s, the congregation managed to carry during difficult economic times.
The temple was completely free of debt when it burned its mortgage on the
evening of November 4, 1945.
Rabbi Holtzberg's spiritual leadership continued for 25-years. Indeed, Dr.
J.M. Schildkraut was president for many of these years.
To commemorate
the Jewish presence on Trenton, an official government plaque was installed at
20 West State Street.
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First Synagogue
Marker |
Inscription. Trenton’s first Jewish organization, Mount Sinai Cemetery
Association, formed on November 19, 1857, later known as Har Sinai Hebrew
Congregation, began regular synagogue services at this site in 1860.
Erected by Har Sinai Temple, Centennial Committee.
Location. 40° 13.228′ N, 74° 45.983′ W. Marker is
in Trenton, New Jersey, in Mercer County. Marker is on West State Street 0.1
miles west of Warren Street, on the right when traveling west. On the
fence in front of the Mary Roebling State Office Building. Marker is at or near
this postal address: 20 West State Street, Trenton NJ 08608, United States of
America.
With the
death of Rabbi Holtzberg, Rabbi Joshua 0. Haberman, from Buffalo, replace his
colleague in 1951.
Rabbi Haberman's rabbinate for the
next eighteen years brought an extensive series of innovations, achievements,
and activities which carried Har Sinai during the fifties and sixties through a
period of unprecedented growth.
A significant addition to the
worship services of Har Sinai took place in 1953 when Cantor Marshall M.
Glatzer joined the Temple staff.
Changes in the religious practices
of the congregation saw the return of the chanting of the Kiddush, skull caps,
and the use of the Shofar instead of a coronet for Rosh Hashanah.
In 1957, Har Sinai celebrated its
Centennial Year—"more than just another celebration", as Centennial
chairman Sidney Goldmann, a member, said in this personal message, but "an
occasion for spiritual rededication, a renewal of one's abiding faith in Judaism".
When Rabbi Haberman answered a
call to serve as Rabbi for Washington
Hebrew
Congregation (one of the most prestigious Temples) in Washington, D.C. in 1969,
Har Sinai called to its pulpit Rabbi Bernard Perelmuter from Erie,
Pennsylvania, who served Har Sinai until June 1982.
In June 1982, Har Sinai welcomed
Rabbi David J. Gelfand to its pulpit from Temple Beth El in Great Neck, New
York. Then, came David Straus and Stuart A. Pollack.
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