Knesseth Israel Congregation | |
---|---|
Religion | |
Affiliation | Orthodox Judaism |
Rite | Nusach Ashkenaz |
Ecclesiastical or organizational status | Synagogue |
Status | Active |
Location | |
Location | 3793 Crosby Drive Mountain Brook, Birmingham, Alabama 35243 |
Country | United States |
Location in Alabama | |
Geographic coordinates | 33°28′03″N86°44′10″W / 33.46750°N 86.73611°W |
Architecture | |
Architect(s) | Jeffrey S. Fowler, Evan Terry Associates |
Type | Synagogue |
General contractor | Birmingham Hallmark Builders |
Date established | 1889 (as a congregation) |
Completed | 2007 |
Website | |
kicong |
Knesseth Israel Congregation (abbreviated as KI) is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue, located at 3793 Crosby Drive Mountain Brook, in Birmingham, Alabama, in the United States. The congregation was formed in 1889. Eytan Yammer, a graduate of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, served as rabbi from 2010 through 2016 and was named by The Forward as one of its 33 most inspiring American rabbis in 2015. [1]
Since 2021, the congregation has been led by lay members.
After incorporating in 1889, [2] : 8 the first building for the congregation was constructed in 1903 at cost of $15,000 on the southwest corner of 17th Street North and 7th Avenue North, [2] : 15 Birmingham at the heart of what was then a Jewish neighborhood populated by immigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe.
In 1955 the congregation moved to a then-remote site at 3225 Montevallo Road in what is now Mountain Brook. [2] : 46 A pillar erected in the yard of the $200,000 synagogue on Montevallo Road (which was considered incomplete, with further plans for a 1200-1500 seat sanctuary) [2] : 49 was intended to serve as the cornerstone of a more permanent building. A second phase, adding a social and recreational wing, was undertaken in 1969. [2] : 61
In May, 1984, then Rabbi Harry (Tzvi) Rosen (who went on to edit Kashrus Kurrents for the Star-K) discovered that one of the torahs had been stolen from the synagogue. While talking with local police about the theft, he received a phone call asking for ransom money to return the torah scroll, at which point the police called in the FBI. While the investigation was ongoing, early the following month the Rabbi received another phone call indicating that the missing torah had been found in a Salvation Army donation bin. [2] : 64–65
Knesseth Israel, facing deteriorating conditions in their synagogue, began moving forward with plans for a new building in 2003, [2] : 155 taking up the suggestion of relocating to the site of the former Our Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church on Overton Road. The congregation hoped to take advantage of the high value of the Montevallo Road property, which faces the Birmingham Country Club golf course, to help finance the move, which brought them within a few blocks of the Bais Ariel Chabad Center and strengthening ties within Birmingham's Orthodox Jewish community. [3] The congregation voted in December 2005 to make the move and raised $5.4 million in donations. Of the nearly 100 families in Knesseth Israel at the time, many walked to Sabbath services so the decision required them to find new homes in the Overton neighborhood straddling Mountain Brook and Cahaba Heights. [4]
The new 18,000-square-foot (1,700 m2) brick building was completed in Fall 2007. On November 11, 2007 the congregation held a celebratory procession to the new building, carrying the congregation's six Torah scrolls. The new facility includes a sanctuary, a smaller chapel, a mikvah for ritual immersion, an outdoor permanent Sukkah structure, offices, classrooms, library, social hall, playground, and two separate kitchens for the preparation of kosher meals. It also features a 50 square foot rose style stained glass window designed and fabricated by local artist Andrea Lucas. [5] [6] Across the street a new house was also built for the KI rabbi.
However, in July 2012 the congregation, faced with debts arising from a disappointing return on their former property (which was only sold after the nationwide collapse of the real estate market during the Financial crisis of 2007–08), put the new Overton Road building up for sale. [7] [8] Birmingham Jewish Federation president Jimmy Filler contacted prominent community members Fred and Brenda Friedman about the possibility of helping the congregation remain in place by purchasing the building. The result was the establishment of the Fred and Brenda Friedman Center for Jewish Life which hosts events and programs for several Jewish organizations while also providing a temporary home for Knesseth Israel. [9]
In 2022, the congregation moved to the present location in Mountain Brook. [10]
In February 2012, an eruv covering two square miles of Mountain Brook and Cahaba Heights was erected by Rabbi Yammer [11] (with the Halachic guidance of Rabbi Yaakov Love). As of January 2015, the congregation has a daily morning Shacharit service in combination with the Chabad Center (Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays at Chabad; Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at KI), regular Shabbat and Holiday services followed by a full kiddush lunch, and Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat services weekly. There is also an education program for young children held on Sunday mornings and multiple weekly adult learning programs.
Elderly members of the Knesseth Israel Congregation appeared in the 1990 music video for "Minyan Man", recorded by Lenny Solomon and Shlock Rock. [12]
The following individuals have served as rabbis:
Ordinal | Office holder | Term begin | Term end | Time in office | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Rev. M. Herman | 1891 | 1891 | 0 year | |
2 | M. Grosberg | 1897 | 1899 | 1–2 years | |
3 | Rev. Rabbi Yasgour | 1904 | 1904 | 0 year | |
4 | J. T. Loeb | 1909 | 1913 | 3–4 years | |
5 | Rev. A. Feinsilver | 1913 | 1918 | 4–5 years | |
6 | Rev. Jacob Mendelsohn | 1918 | 1920 | 1–2 years | |
7 | Solomon Katz | 1921 | 1922 | 0–1 year | |
8 | Rev. David Stein | 1923 | 1924 | 0–1 year | |
9 | Abraham Chaimovitz | 1925 | 1926 | 0–1 year | |
10 | H. A. Laibovitz | 1926 | 1930 | 3–4 years | |
11 | Abraham Bengis | 1930 | 1933 | 2–3 years | |
− | Isadore Sperling | 1933 | 1934 | 0–1 year | Lay leader |
12 | Alex Klein | 1937 | 1941 | 2–3 years | |
13 | Louis Werfel | 1942 | 1943 | 0–1 year | |
14 | Joseph Goldberg | 1943 | 1946 | 2–3 years | |
15 | Jonathan Silberberg | 1949 | 1955 | 5–6 years | |
16 | David Tamarkin | 1955 | 1957 | 1–2 years | |
17 | Seymour Atlas | 1959 | 1962 | 2–3 years | |
18 | Nahum Ben Nathan | 1963 | 1967 | 3–4 years | |
19 | Moshe Stern | 1968 | 1980 | 11–12 years | |
20 | Harry (Tzvi) Rosen | 1980 | 1987 | 6–7 years | |
21 | Reuven Tradburks | 1987 | 1994 | 6–7 years | |
22 | Meir Rosenberg | 1995 | 1997 | 1–2 years | |
23 | Avraham Shmidman | 1998 | 2007 | 8–9 years | |
24 | Karmi Ingber | 2007 | 2009 | 1–2 years | |
− | Eldad Zamir | 2009 | 2009 | 0 years | visiting Rabbi for High Holidays |
25 | Eytan Yammer | 2010 | 2016 | 5–6 years | |
26 | Moshe Rube | 2017 | 2022 | 4–5 years | [13] |
Agudath Israel Etz Ahayem, transliterated from Hebrew to mean the Congregation of Israel Tree of Life, is a Conservative Jewish synagogue located at 3525 Cloverdale Road in Montgomery, Alabama, in the United States.
Partnership minyan is a religious Jewish prayer group that seeks to maximize women's participation in services within the confines of Jewish law as understood by Orthodox Judaism. This includes enabling women to lead parts of service, read from the Torah, serve in lay leadership positions, sit in a more gender-balanced format, and in some cases count as part of a minyan ("quorum") of ten men and ten women. Partnership minyanim began in 2002 simultaneously in New York and Jerusalem, and have now spread to over 30 communities in at least five different countries around the world.
Congregation Sherith Israel,, is an Orthodox synagogue located at 3600 West End Avenue, Nashville, Tennessee, in the United States. The congregation is led by Rabbi Saul Strosberg.
Congregation Beth Israel Abraham Voliner, abbreviated as BIAV, is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located 9900 Antioch Road, in Overland Park, in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area of Kansas, in the United States.
Congregation Beth Israel is a Modern Orthodox synagogue located in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 1903 or 1904, though tracing its roots back to 1857, it is the oldest Orthodox congregation in the New Orleans region. Originally located on Carondelet Street in New Orleans' Central City, it constructed and moved to a building at 7000 Canal Boulevard in Lakeview, New Orleans, in 1971.
The Jewish Center is a Modern Orthodox synagogue on New York City's Upper West Side.
Young Israel Shomrai Emunah (YISE) is an Orthodox synagogue located in Kemp Mill, Montgomery County, Maryland. It was the first Orthodox synagogue established in Montgomery County in 1951. It is also one of the largest Orthodox synagogues in Maryland and is recognized as a key synagogue in the Silver Spring, Maryland area.
Congregation Kol Israel is a historic Modern Orthodox synagogue at 603 St. John's Place in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. It was built in 1928 and is a vernacular "tenement synagogue." It is a small, two story rectangular building faced in random laid fieldstone. It was designed by Brooklyn architect Tobias Goldstone. The western side of its midblock lot overlooks the open cut of the Franklin Avenue Line of the New York City Subway.
Shaarey Tphiloh is a Jewish congregation in Portland, Maine. It says it is the oldest continuously operating synagogue in Portland. The name of the synagogue literally means "Gates of Prayer" in Hebrew.
The Jewish community of Houston, Texas has grown and thrived since the 1800s. As of 2008 Jews lived in many Houston neighborhoods and Meyerland is the center of the Jewish community in the area.
"Minyan Man" is a song composed in 1982 by Victor Shine, also known as the man who found Yosef Shapiro. It tells the fictional story of a traveling Jewish businessman who is looking for a minyan for Shabbat in the small Jewish community of Mobile, Alabama, and serves as the tenth man for a group of nine Jews. The song was popularized as a pop ballad by Lenny Solomon of Shlock Rock in 1987. In 2015, Solomon recorded an a cappella version with The Maccabeats. Two music videos have been produced.
Beit Harambam Congregation is a Sephardi Orthodox synagogue in Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1978, its membership is largely composed of Hebrew-speaking Israeli expatriates. Started as a basement minyan, the congregation purchased a small home in the 1980s, which was subsequently destroyed by arson in 2000. With significant funding from the Philadelphia Jewish community, the building was restored. The synagogue was further expanded with a larger sanctuary and a social hall, completed in 2011.
Alan Abraham Kimche is a British-Israeli Orthodox rabbi and community leader. He was the rabbi of the Ner Yisrael Synagogue in Hendon, London, until his retirement in 2019. He currently works as a teacher, writer, and lecturer in Israel.
Black Jews in New York City comprise one of the largest communities of Black Jews in the United States. Black Jews have lived in New York City since colonial times, with organized Black-Jewish and Black Hebrew Israelite communities emerging during the early 20th century. Black Jewish and Black Hebrew Israelite communities have historically been centered in Harlem, Brooklyn, The Bronx, and Queens. The Commandment Keepers movement originated in Harlem, while the Black Orthodox Jewish community is centered in Brooklyn. New York City is home to four historically Black synagogues with roots in the Black Hebrew Israelite community. A small Beta Israel (Ethiopian-Jewish) community also exists in New York City, many of whom emigrated from Israel. Black Hebrew Israelites are not considered Jewish by the New York Board of Rabbis, an organization representing mainstream Rabbinic Judaism.
Knesseth Israel Congregation ... Among the venerable teachers were ... and Philip Birnbaum.