Stephen Wise Free Synagogue | |
---|---|
Religion | |
Affiliation | Reform Judaism |
Ecclesiastical or organisational status | Synagogue |
Status | Active |
Location | |
Location | 30 West 68th Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York 10023 |
Country | United States |
Location in Manhattan, New York City | |
Geographic coordinates | 40°46′26″N73°58′45″W / 40.7739°N 73.9791°W |
Architecture | |
Type | Synagogue |
Date established | 1907 (as a congregation) |
Groundbreaking | 1940 |
Completed | 1949 (dedicated in honor of Rabbi Wise) |
Website | |
swfs |
Stephen Wise Free Synagogue is a Reform Jewish synagogue at 30 West 68th Street in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. The congregation was the first of multiple "free synagogue" branches in the early 20th century.
In 1905, Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise then serving a congregation in Portland, Oregon, was under consideration as Rabbi of Temple Emanu–El in New York City, but withdrew his name after learning that his sermons would be reviewed in advance by the synagogue's board of trustees. In January 1906, The New York Times published a letter from Rabbi Wise that stated that the demands placed on him raised the "question whether the pulpit shall be free or whether the pulpit shall not be free, and, by reason of its loss of freedom, reft of its power for good." The Times noted that Wise planned to head to New York to "organize and lead an independent Jewish religious movement." [1]
Within months of this letter, Rabbi Wise started work toward a "free synagogue" holding services at the Hudson Theater on West 44th Street and on the Lower East Side. At a meeting on April 15, 1907, Henry Morgenthau Sr. told the more than hundred assembled at the Hotel Savoy that "The Free Synagogue is to be free and democratic in its organization; it is to be pewless and dueless." [2] [3]
In 1910, the congregation's 500 members celebrated Rosh Hashanah at Carnegie Hall, and a number of brownstones were purchased on West 68th Street in 1911 as the site of a permanent home for the synagogue. Branches of the Free Synagogue were started in the Bronx, Washington Heights, Flushing, and Westchester County in New York, and Newark in New Jersey, from 1914 to 1920. [2]
Rabbi Wise served as the congregation's religious leader from his founding of the congregation in 1907 as the "Free Synagogue" until his death on April 19, 1949. Wise designated Rabbi Edward E. Klein as his successor. At a meeting of the congregation in May 1949, members voted unanimously to incorporate Rabbi Wise's name into the formal name of the congregation. [4]
Rabbi Klein served as the compass for the synaguoge from 1949 until 1981, and as Rabbi Emeritus until his death in July 1985. [5] His work at SWFS first started while he was in Rabbinical training. After his ordination he was invited to serve as Assistant Rabbi under Stephen Wise. Social Activism guided by ethics proved him to be a community minded voice who strongly believed in equality and social inclusion. In 1973 he choose to share his pulpit with the first female Assistant Rabbi in the US, Rabbi Sally Priesand. A portion of his papers (1920–1981) can be found in The Rabbi Edward Klein Memorial Library at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue. [6]
Rabbi Sally Priesand, America's first ordained female rabbi, began serving in 1972, the same year she was ordained. Her attention to the congregation extended far beyond her speeches. She was very active in the Hebrew School and paid attention to how she would be shaping a new generation of youth while Assistant, and eventually Associate Rabbi. When Rabbi Klein had a stroke in 1978, she led this house through his return to the pulpit in his wheelchair on September 30, 1978. She left the following year when larger politics prevented her from leading the congregation herself. Rabbi Brickner soon arrived from Washington, DC. [7] [8]
Rabbi Balfour Brickner led the congregation from 1980 to 1992. During his leadership Brickner used the pulpit to speak out against US policies in Central America and with the South African Apartheid regime, and spoke out for the rights of Palestinians. He brought a more participatory service and made himself more accessible to members of the congregation. [9]
Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, former Executive Director of the Association of Reform Zionists of America/World Union for Progressive Judaism, North America, became senior rabbi in 2004. [10]
The synagogue created the Westchester Hills Cemetery of the Free Synagogue in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York in 1919 when it acquired the northern portion of the non–sectarian Mount Hope Cemetery, which had been created in the 19th century. There are some 1,500 individual grave sites, a Community Mausoleum with 138 crypts, and other mausoleums for individuals and families. [11]
Westchester Hills is the interment site of John Garfield, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Judy Holliday, Billy Rose, Lee Strasberg, David Susskind, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and of members of the Barricini, Guggenheim, Tisch, and Millstein families. [11]
Stephen Samuel Wise was an early 20th-century American Reform rabbi and Zionist leader in the Progressive Era. Born in Budapest, he was an infant when his family immigrated to New York. He followed his father and grandfather in becoming a rabbi, serving in New York and in Portland, Oregon. Wise was also a founding member of the NAACP.
The Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion is a Jewish seminary with three locations in the United States and one location in Jerusalem. It is the oldest extant Jewish seminary in the Americas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism. HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, Ohio, New York City, Los Angeles, and Jerusalem. The Jerusalem campus is the only seminary in Israel for training Reform Jewish clergy.
The Jewish Institute of Religion was an educational establishment created by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise in 1922 in New York City. While generally incorporating Reform Judaism, it was separate from the previously established Hebrew Union College. It sought to train rabbis "for the Jewish ministry, research, and community service." Students were to serve either Reform or traditional pulpits.
Sally Jane Priesand is America's first female rabbi ordained by a rabbinical seminary, and the second formally ordained female rabbi in Jewish history, after Regina Jonas. Priesand was ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion on June 3, 1972, at the Plum Street Temple in Cincinnati. After her ordination she served first as assistant and then as associate rabbi at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City, and later led Monmouth Reform Temple in Tinton Falls, New Jersey from 1981 until her retirement in 2006. She is featured in numerous books including Rabbis: The Many Faces of Judaism and Fifty Jewish Women who Changed the World.
Congregation Emanu-El of New York is the first Reform Jewish congregation in New York City. It has served as a flagship congregation in the Reform branch of Judaism since its founding in 1845. The congregation uses Temple Emanu-El of New York, one of the largest synagogues in the world.
The Westchester Hills Cemetery is at 400 Saw Mill River Road in Hastings-on-Hudson, Westchester County, New York, approximately 20 miles north of New York City. It is a Jewish cemetery, and many well-known entertainers and performers are interred there. It was founded by the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in 1919 when the synagogue acquired the northern portion of the Mount Hope Cemetery.
Ammiel Hirsch is an American Reform rabbi and attorney. He is the senior rabbi of Stephen Wise Free Synagogue and former executive director of the Association of Reform Zionists of America/World Union for Progressive Judaism, North America. In 2018, The Jerusalem Post named him among “The 50 Most Influential Jews of the Year.” In 2016, City & State New York magazine praised him as “the borough's most influential voice” for Manhattan's more than 300,000 Jews, and, in 2015, the New York Observer named him among “New York’s Most Influential Religious Leaders.” He has written two books: "The Lilac Tree: A Rabbi's Reflections on Love, Courage, and History" (2023) and "One People, Two Worlds: A Reform Rabbi and an Orthodox Rabbi Explore the Issues That Divide Them" (2003), which he co-authored with Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Reinman.
Congregation Beth Elohim, also known as the Garfield Temple and the Eighth Avenue Temple, is a Reform Jewish congregation and historic synagogue located at 274 Garfield Place and Eighth Avenue, in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City, New York, in the United States.
The Isaac M. Wise Temple, commonly called the Wise Temple, is an historic Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue located in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the United States. The congregation's historic Plum Street temple was erected in honour of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, who was among the founders of Reform Judaism in the United States. The temple building was designed by prominent Cincinnati architect James Keys Wilson and its design was inspired by the Alhambra at Granada.
Temple Emanu-El is a Reform Jewish synagogue located at 8500 Hillcrest Road, in Dallas, Texas, in the United States. Chartered as the Jewish Congregation Emanu-El in 1875, it was the first Reform congregation in North Texas, and is the largest synagogue in the South.
Central Synagogue is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue at 652 Lexington Avenue, at the corner of 55th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The current congregation was formed in 1898 through the merger of two 19th-century synagogues: Shaar Hashomayim and Ahawath Chesed. The synagogue building was constructed from 1870 to 1872 for Ahawath Chesed. As of 2014, Angela Buchdahl is Central's senior rabbi.
Balfour Brickner, a leading rabbi in the Reform Judaism movement, was rabbi emeritus of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan when he died.
Rabbi David Eli Stern is the senior rabbi at Temple Emanu-El of Dallas, the largest synagogue in the South/Southwest United States and the third-largest in the Union for Reform Judaism. He was selected as the 26th most influential rabbi in America by Newsweek magazine in 2008 and the 30th most influential in 2009. Rabbi Stern graduated with high honors from Dartmouth College, earned his M. A. in Jewish education from the Rhea Hirsch School of Education at HUC-JIR Los Angeles, California in 1988, and was ordained from HUC in 1989.
Rabbi Jonah Bondi Wise was an American Rabbi and leader of the Reform Judaism movement, who served for over thirty years as rabbi of the Central Synagogue in Manhattan and was a founder of the United Jewish Appeal, serving as its chairman from its creation in 1939 until 1958.
Stephen Wise Temple is a large Reform Jewish congregation in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the United States. Founded in 1964 by the late Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin, with 35 families, the congregation grew rapidly. At various times in its history it has been stated to be the largest, or one of the largest, Jewish congregations in the world, at one time having a membership of approximately 3,000 families, six rabbis, two cantors and two cantorial interns, and four schools on three campuses. As of 1994, it was the second-largest synagogue in the United States. The congregation was founded as the Stephen S. Wise Temple, in honour of Stephen Samuel Wise; and 2014 it was renamed as the Stephen Wise Temple.
The Free Synagogue of Flushing is a progressive Reform Jewish congregation and historic synagogue located at 41-60 Kissena Boulevard in Flushing, Queens, New York City, New York, in the United States. The synagogue's establishment is based on the free synagogue movement, started by Stephen Samuel Wise. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
Louis Israel Newman, was an American Reform rabbi, and author. While working in New York City, Newman later became a member of the Zionist Revisionist movement. He worked as a rabbi in San Francisco, Berkeley, New York City, and Waltham, Massachusetts. Newman was known for his progressive views, his involvement in the Zionist Revisionist movement, and his prolific writing, which included books on Jewish history, theology, and identity.
Maurice H. Harris served as rabbi of Temple Israel of Harlem for almost fifty years.
Louise Wise was a Jewish-American artist and social worker. Her husband was Rabbi Stephen S. Wise.
Isaac S. Moses was a German-born Jewish-American rabbi.