Congregation Beth Israel (Asheville, North Carolina)

Congregation Beth Israel (Hebrew: בית ישראל‎) is an independent, traditional egalitarian Jewish congregation, located at 229 Murdock Avenue in Asheville, North Carolina. Founded in 1899 as Bikur Cholim, it was an Orthodox breakaway from Asheville's existing synagogue. It hired its first full-time rabbi in 1909, opened a religious school in 1911, and acquired its first building, which burnt down in 1916, in 1913.

For similarly named synagogues, see Beth Israel.
Beth Israel
Religion
AffiliationJudaism
LeadershipRabbi: Justin Goldstein[1]
President: Ali Climo[2]
StatusActive
Location
Location229 Murdock Avenue,
Asheville, North Carolina,
 United States
Geographic coordinates35.613793°N 82.551731°W / 35.613793; -82.551731
Architecture
Completed1969[3]
Website
bethisraelnc.org

The congregation completed its second building in 1924, affiliated with Conservative Judaism in 1949, and changed its name to Beth Israel in 1950. It completed construction of its current building in 1969, and renovated it in 2018.

Robert Cabelli joined as rabbi in 2006, and was succeeded by Justin Goldstein in 2014. As of 2019, Goldstein was the congregation's rabbi.

Early history

Significant Jewish immigration to Asheville, North Carolina began in 1880, when the railroad link to Asheville was completed. The community founded Asheville's oldest synagogue, Beth HaTephila, as a "conservative" congregation in 1891, before the Conservative movement was formally founded.[3] By 1899, however, some members of the Jewish community felt Beth HaTephila was not traditional enough, and eight of them founded Bikur Cholim as an Orthodox alternative.[3][4][5] Bikur cholim is Hebrew for "visitation of the sick";[6] the name was used in recognition of the many people who came to Asheville to recuperate from tuberculosis.[7]

The congregation worshiped in a number of locations; for a period, weekly services were held in the Masonic Temple, while High Holiday services were held at the Church Street Odd Fellows Hall. Membership grew very slowly, and the congregation went through a series of rabbis whose terms were generally short. The congregation frequently had no rabbi at all, and High Holiday services were often led by lay members.[3][6][8] Solomon Schechter came to Asheville in 1904 to assist in executing a merger of Beth HaTephila and Bikur Cholim, but the negotiations fell through.[4][8]

First full-time rabbi, first building

In 1909, Louis Londow was hired as the congregation's first full-time rabbi, though he had to open a grocery store to make ends meet.[3][9] Londow had been considered the "spiritual leader" of the congregants since 1897 (before Bikur Cholim had been formally incorporated), when two of the founding members, S.H. Michalove and B. Zageir, had brought him to Asheville from Baltimore.[8] Described as "a model of civility", he "was known to remove his hat whenever he got a phone call from a woman".[9] Londow served until 1912, and was succeeded as rabbi by Ellis Fox, though Londow stayed in Asheville to run his store.[3][10]

The congregation opened a Talmud Torah school in 1911.[3] That year the congregation also purchased a lot on South Liberty Street for $1000 (today $27,000), and began construction of a synagogue building.[8] Construction took four years, but services were held in the partially constructed building starting with High Holiday services in 1912.[11] That year, just before Rosh Hashanah, Bikur Cholim's building burned down.[4][6][11] The total cost had been more than $11,000 (today $258,000), of which insurance covered only $3000.[11] A replacement building (in the same location) was not completed until 1924;[4][6][12] its sanctuary had seating for approximately 80 worshipers.[13]

A group broke away from Bikur Cholim in 1916, forming the Anshei Yeshurun congregation.[4][6] Fox left to become the rabbi of Beth HaTephila in 1917, and was succeeded by Lazarus Lehrer and then D. Hechtor.[3][14] The members of Anshei Yeshurun rejoined Bikur Cholim in 1921, and the following year a Ladies' Auxiliary (now a Sisterhood) was formed; one of its duties was to bring chicken soup to Jewish patients in Asheville's tuberculosis sanatoria.[6][15] Londow served again as spiritual leader in the 1920s;[3] other rabbis included Scharfman, Goodcovitz, Kaplivitz, S. Wrubel, G. Berkman, D. Wachfogel, L. Leifer, R. Meier, and J. Seidler.[14]

Events since 1940

The synagogue continued to experience difficulty keeping Orthodox rabbis in a small Southern city;[3] it had fourteen different spiritual leaders from 1899 to 1949,[16] and seven from 1940 to 1953.[3] For a number of years the congregation had been moving away from its previous traditionalism, using English (as well as Hebrew) in the prayers, and having mixed seating for men and women.[16] In 1949, it formally affiliated with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism;[14][17] that year the rabbi was Martin Kessler.[14] Kessler had come to Bikur Cholim from England in 1948 to serve as rabbi; although the congregation liked him, his wife was not happy in Asheville, so they left in 1949.[16]

Bikur Cholim changed its name to Beth Israel in 1950.[17] In the 1950s, the congregation also voted to shorten its Shabbat morning service and start it two hours earlier at 8:00am, so that worshipers could open their stores after services;[3] this change was reversed in the 1970s.[16]

Alexander Gelberman joined Beth Israel as rabbi in 1956, and stayed until August 1964, when he moved to lead a synagogue in Oak Ridge Tennessee.[18] The following November Samuel A. Friedman joined as spiritual leader.[18] Friedman had previously served for over 20 years as rabbi of Congregation B'nai Israel in Wilmington, North Carolina.[18]

In response to rumors that the area around the Liberty Street synagogue was slated for urban renewal, Beth Israel purchased a lot at the corner of Norwood and Murdock Avenues in 1959.[19] The Asheville Development Commission purchased the synagogue property on Liberty Street in the 1960s.[6] After a major fundraising campaign, Beth Israel constructed its current synagogue building at 229 Murdock Avenue in 1969, dedicated by then-rabbi Samuel Friedman.[3][6][20] The old property eventually became a parking lot of a Best Western hotel.[7] Membership grew steadily throughout the 1980s and 1990s, from 70 families in 1980, to 100 in 1990, to almost 200 in 1999.[6][19] The rabbi at that time was Shmuel Birnham.[21]

Around 2014, Beth Israel disaffiliated from the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, becoming an independent congregation. According to synagogue members, this action was taken primarily because the congregation disagreed with the Conservative movement's then limited acceptance of same-sex couples and interfaith families.[22]

Robert Cabelli joined as rabbi in August 2006.[23] Cabelli had worked as a neurobiologist, research scientist, and professor before being ordained at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and joining Beth Israel.[1] By 2009, membership remained at 200 families.[3][5]

Justin Goldstein joined as rabbi in January of 2014.[24] Born and raised near Chicago, he attended Hampshire College where he produced an original translation and commentary of most of the Book of Genesis. Goldstein was ordained in 2011 by the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies.[1]

In 2015, the congregation began working on plans to renovate the building at 229 Murdock. In the fall of 2017 they temporarily moved locations to the basement of Congregation Beth HaTephila while the building was being renovated, and returned to 229 Murdock in December 2018.[25] Membership had fallen to 150 families.[26]

Notes
  1. About Rabbi Goldstein, Beth Israel website.
  2. CBI Leadership Team, Beth Israel website.
  3. Asheville, North Carolina, Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities.
  4. History of Jewish Asheville, One Jewish Asheville website.
  5. History, Beth Israel website.
  6. McGee (May 5, 1999).
  7. Rudow.
  8. 1899-1949 Congregation Bikur Cholim 50th Anniversary, p. 13.
  9. Neufeld (2007), p. 108.
  10. 1899-1949 Congregation Bikur Cholim 50th Anniversary, p. 2.
  11. 1899-1949 Congregation Bikur Cholim 50th Anniversary, p. 14.
  12. 1899-1949 Congregation Bikur Cholim 50th Anniversary, p. 15.
  13. Beth Israel Synagogue Centennial, p. 10.
  14. 1899-1949 Congregation Bikur Cholim 50th Anniversary, p. 16.
  15. Beth Israel Synagogue Centennial, p. 7.
  16. Beth Israel Synagogue Centennial, p. 8.
  17. According to Asheville, North Carolina, Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities. History, Beth Israel website states that both changes happened in 1951, but 1899-1949 Congregation Bikur Cholim 50th Anniversary, p. 16, published in 1949, indicates that Beth Israel was Conservative at that time, and Beth Israel Synagogue Centennial, pp. 6,8 says the affiliation with the United Synagogue happened in 1949 and name was changed in 1950.
  18. Beth Israel Synagogue Centennial, p. 9.
  19. Beth Israel Synagogue Centennial, p. 3.
  20. Congregation Beth Israel website.
  21. Beth Israel Synagogue Centennial, p. 1.
  22. Hunt (2017).
  23. The Menorah, Vol. 66 No. 10, July – August 2006, p. 19.
  24. Eder (2014).
  25. Follow our Renovations, Beth Israel website.
  26. Congregation Beth Israel, One Jewish Asheville website.

References
  • Congregation Beth Israel website. Accessed December 25, 2011:
  • 1899-1949 Congregation Bikur Cholim 50th Anniversary, M2008.03.06.1 in the Congregation Beth Israel Papers, Special Collections & University Archives, Ramsey Library, University of North Carolina at Asheville, 1949. Accessed February 26, 2019.
  • Beth Israel Synagogue Centennial, M2008.03.06.2 in the Congregation Beth Israel Papers, Special Collections & University Archives, Ramsey Library, University of North Carolina at Asheville, 1999. Accessed February 26, 2019.
  • Eder, Hank. Beth Israel's New Rabbi Justin Goldstein, Oh! Woman magazine, Vol. 13 No. 6, June 2014. Accessed February 26, 2019.
  • Hunt, Max. The changing faces of faith, Mountain Xpress, December 21, 2017. Accessed February 26, 2019.
  • Asheville, North Carolina, Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities. Goldring / Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life. Accessed December 25, 2011.
  • McGee, Melani (May 5, 1999). "Celebrating a century", Mountain Xpress.
  • Neufeld, Rob (2007). A Popular History of Western North Carolina: Mountains, Heroes & Hootnoggers, The History Press.
  • Congregation Beth Israel, One Jewish Asheville website. Accessed February 25, 2019.
  • History of Jewish Asheville, One Jewish Asheville website. Accessed December 25, 2011.
  • Rudow, Deborah Miles. "A Brief History of the Asheville Community Center", Asheville Jewish Community Center website. Accessed December 25, 2011.
  • "The Menorah" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-04-26. (2.09 MB), Vol. 66 No. 10, Congregation Beth HaTephila, July – August 2006.
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