Har Sinai Hebrew Congregation

Har Sinai Hebrew Congregation

Trenton, NJ

Arthur L. Finkle

The first Jewish immigrants to the United States were Sephardic Jews that were fleeing persecution by Portuguese rulers in Brazil, around 1654. The previous rulers of Brazil, the Dutch, were known for their religious tolerance, but the Portuguese were characterized by their intolerance for other religions. Two years after the first American-Jew put his foot on North American soil, the first Jewish congregation was established in the Dutch Colony of New Amsterdam, which was later re-named New York. Twenty-one years later, another congregation was established in Newport, Rhode Island.

They were mostly Sephardic and German Jews totaling only 1,500 by 1790. Some came and stayed from the Yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia in 1799. Others somehow made to Trenton as a mid-point between Philadelphia and New York City.

Daniel Nunez appears in a 1722 court record as town clerk and tax collector for Piscataway Township and justice of the peace for *Middlesex County. Perth Amboy, on the *Trenton-Philadelphia road, was a center for Jewish and other merchants from the time it became the capital of East Jersey in 1685. Among the early prominent settlers in the state was David Naar, who was active at the state constitutional convention in 1844, became mayor of Elizabeth in 1849, and purchased the Trenton True American newspaper in 1853.

The earliest evidence of Jews in Trenton is evidence in the mention of the Naar family. This Sephardic (Spain/Portugal) family, traveled to Brussels, then to Amsterdam. Moses Naar after a stay in Amsterdam arrived in the Dutch colony of Curacao in the West Indies after 1815.  The first Europeans to see the island were members of a Spanish expedition in 1499. The Spaniards enslaved most of the indigenous population and forcibly relocated the survivors to other colonies where workers were needed. The island was occupied by the Dutch in 1634. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the island changed hands among the British, the French, and the Dutch several times. Stable Dutch rule returned in 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic wars, when the island was incorporated into the colony of Curaçao and Dependencies.

Entrenched as a merchant, David sent his son David the U. S. for schooling. Thereafter Moses, himself arrive the U.SA. as a result of a slave rebellion. Somehow, the family would up in New Jersey. Indeed, David Naar became the Mayor of Elizabeth, NJ and later became a judge; Then, he moved to the state capitol, Trenton, where he owned and operated one of the two large Trenton newspapers, The Trenton True American, founded in 1801  was under his ownership from 1853-1913.

                                  Figure 2  Trenton True American Building, 14 N. Warren St.

David was active in the popularizing public education and was a member of the Washington Market Association, the farmer’s and commercial market for Trenton.

When the first synagogue formed in 1883, David Naar proudly became a member of Har Sinai Hebrew Congregation.

After David Naar’s demise, his sons, Moses D. Naar  and Joseph L. Naar tool over operation until the newspaper’s demise in 1913. Joseph, as his father,  was also active in poi9ltics. He came  Secretary to the Governor 1881 and attended as a delegate at the New Jersey Constitutional Convention 1884.

Devin Naar, a current professor and genealogist traced  his family history of which one which one branch involved David Naar, the owner of the State Gazette one of two Trenton newspapers. He was also the Mayor of the city of  Elizabeth, a Judge and a leader in the Jewish community.

His sons, Moses D. and  Joseph L. continued as editors until the demise of the newspaper.

The other branch of the family remained in Portugal as Marranos until the end of the 16th Century. Between the end of the 16th Century and about 1620, this branch of the Naar family remained for some time primarily in St. Jean de Luz and Rouen, France, and Antwerp, Belgium. By about 1620, many members of this branch had settled in Amsterdam. Here, like the Salonika Naars, this branch reverted back to the open practice of Judaism. In pursuit of their trade activities, Naars moved from Amsterdam to Hamburg by about 1630, to Curaçao in the then Netherlands Antilles by about 1660, and to London by about 1830. From Curaçao, during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, Naars spread to locations such as St. Thomas (where Judge David Naar was born), Venezuela, Colombia, Suriname, Haiti, Jamaica, and the United States. Naars also came to the United States from London during the early 20th Century. By the 1920's, three groups of Naars lived on the east coast of the United States, originating from Salonika (New York/New Jersey), Curaçao/St. Thomas (New York/New Jersey), and London (Boston/New York).

Podmore addresses the existence of a family tree. In recounting David Naar's fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1870, he states that "From the roof of the arch [in the assembly room] hung the genealogical tree of the Naars, dating back to the time of the discovery of America by Columbus."  

http://www.jewishgen.org/jhscj/genealogy.html; Podmore Community Messenger, 1925

German Jews

German Jews settled in Trenton, the state capital, in the 1840s, the most prominent among them being Simon Kahnweiler, a merchant and manufacturer. His brothers followed shortly thereafter: Leon and Emanuel. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_

Sidney Goldman wrote the 1840s bought additional German Jewish families to the area: Dannenburg, Kahn, Schoninger, Frank and Mankos. The 1850s gave us the names: Goldberg, Rosenblatt, Samler, Weinberg, Lowenstein, Solomon, Bohn and others. See Sidney Goldman

Eventually, these German Jews incorporated the Mt. Sinai Cemetery Association was incorporated in the town in 1857 and Har Sinai Congregation held its first service in 1858. 

German-Jewish Immigration – 1820-1880

This section will explore the initial immigration of German Jewish immigrants to Trenton from 1820 to 1880; its business acumen, its founding Jewish institutions, its business success and it assistance to their later arriving Russian brethren.

In 1814-15, the majority of German Jews sought refuge in the United States coming from a region in the throes of political and economic changes following the Congress of Vienna in 1814-15.

Accounting for only a tiny pro­portion of the overall German migration to the United States (2 to 3 percent of the more than 1.2 million Germans who arrived between 1820 and 1855, settling in urban areas and applied their skills to commerce; not agriculture. Single male migrants predominated among Jews, whereas German Gentiles were more likely to travel as families.  See Jonathan D. Sarna and Jonathan Golden The American Jewish Experience through the Nineteenth Century: Immigration and Acculturation, Stephen Birmingham; Scott Spector, http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/judaism.htm

German Jews began to trickle in the United States to seek economic opportunity and to escape religious persecution. The aim was to become emancipated; not assimilated.

In 1848-39, liberal revolutions broke out all over Europe. The new middle class desired increased political freedom, liberal state policies, democracy, nationalism, and freedom from censorship. Some middle class elements wanted better working conditions.

Street demonstrations of workers and artisans in Paris, France, from February 22 through 24, 1848 resulted in the fall of the government. King Louis Philippe of France fled to Britain.

In Germany there were also rumblings of revolution with demonstrations on March 13, 1848, in Vienna, Austria, leading to a shake-up in the cabinet. Fearing the fate of France, some monarchs in Germany (there were 39 Principalities in the old Holy Roman Empire) accepted some of the demands of the revolutionaries, at least temporarily, in order their authority.

German Jews, seeing a lost cause, began to immigrate in larger numbers out of Germany, particularly form the Palatinate, Austria, Prussia, Saxony, The Rhineland and Greater Poland.

Many Jews fled Bavaria, not from political revolution but the specter of religious revolution.

These German Jews were able products of the Enlightenment. Indeed, nowhere else in modern history did Jews contribute so massively and significantly to the general culture. From Moses Mendelssohn to Marx and from Freud to Einstein, Jewish contributions to secular German thought were both wide-ranging and profound. In fact, it is hard to imagine what contemporary civilization would look like had it not been for the cultural products of these and a striking number of other less celebrated, but variously remarkable thinkers

Business Acumen

Peddling attracted recent Jewish immigrants because it required only a small amount of capital to start and could be accomplished extensively on credit. The trade was particularly well suited to the young unmarried men who made up a large proportion of immigrants.

Merchants such as Cincinnati's Kuhn family regularly hired Jewish males to peddle shirts; Levi Strauss, a peddler in San Francisco, was supported initially by his family. Ambitious peddlers moved up the career ladder as they accumulated capital: pack peddlers graduated to wagon peddlers to store owners.

Being highly mobile, peddlers were perceived as less committed than were stationary merchants to the communities that served as their home base.

The store owners and peddlers were retailers, thus avoided direct competition with Americans. Wholesaling and retailing split along ethnic lines. The more capital-intensive wholesaling sector was dominated by native whites along with a few Jews, all of them male. In contrast, retailing remained much more open to diverse groups such as Jews.

In such a situation, writes sociologist Roger Waldinger, "rather than attempting to quell business growth among the newcomers, the established groups, which benefit from their patronage, will be more likely to respond in an adaptive way."' The Dun Credit agency's extensive reports on Jewish retailers suggest that native-owned wholesalers dealt freely with Jewish retailers. Rowena Olegario,

"That Mysterious People": Jewish Merchants, Transparency, and Community in Mid-Nineteenth Century America, The Business History Review, Vol. 73, No. 2 (Summer, 1999), pp. 161-189. Published by: The President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3116239.  Accessed: 11/05/2012 15:28

There were concerns among the Americans (white)about these Jewish merchants. Although German Jews were generally successful in business, they did not show transparency in their lending and buying practices (instead involving themselves with family or German Jewish connections). Another concern reflected the stereotype of the wandering Jew that did not stay in any community too long.

As these businesses flourished during the Civil War period and after, Americans accepted these German Jews as equal in the spirit of competitive capitalism.

In the 1840’s with more German Jews and a smattering Dutch, English, Polish, Lithuanian, Hungarian and French Jews, the American Jewish community began to develop Indeed, these immigrants built synagogues with ordained European-trained Rabbi’s. See Jonathan D. Sarna

American Jewry, as it came of age, sought cultural independence, turned away from Germany, although German Jewiosh influence continued for several years.  See Meyer.

Financiers

There were established European Jewish financial houses that opened a branch in New York: "... Oppenheimers, The Speyer Bank,

Many German Jews, having gained enormous success in the retail business became financiers Kun, Loeb, Lehman Brothers, August Belmont & Co., J. & W. Seligman & Co., Lehman Brothers, Goldman, Sachs & Co., Kuhn Loeb & Co. (Warburg) Jacob Schiff’s father was a conduit to the European Rothschild brokers.

A good example is the life of financier, Joseph Seligman  (1819–1880) who  lived in northern Bavaria, Germany. At fourteen, Seligman attended the University of Erlangen. Three years later (1836), he decided to immigrate to American because his father’s family wool business was failing.

Germany by 1816 had experienced three waves of Jewish migration. Jews in small towns and villages migrated to urban areas. Indeed, in 1816, 7% of German Jews lived in these; 50-years, later, 50%.  The second wave was the movement of Jews from the East (Poland, Russia) in pursuit of economic opportunity to avoid rampant anti-Semitism. The third wave involved Joseph Seligman who joined other in their voyage to America to seek their fortune.

Seligman initially settled in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, near Hazelton, PA. Located in the Pocono Mountains, it was a coal town and railroad town in nowheresville. . He worked as a cashier/clerk for Asa Packer (later a United States congressman).

Using his savings from work, Seligman began peddling (jewelry, knives, smaller goods), door to door in rural Pennsylvania.  After saving $500, Seligman was able to send to Germany for his brothers William and James, who joined him in peddling.

Seligman’s firm made a number of successful investments. During the American Civil War, Seligman was responsible for aiding the Union by disposing of a large sum of $200,000,000 in bonds. He also owned a factory making uniforms.

After the war, Seligman opened a financial house.  Seligman's business is creating, delivering, and managing investment products and services of the highest quality for individuals and institutions. Ours is a service business, and rendering meaningful client service

President Ulysses S. Grant, who had befriended  Jesse Seligman when he was a First Lieutenant near Watertown, New York, offered Joseph Seligman the post of United States Secretary of the Treasury, which he declined, possibly due to shyness.

In 1877, President Rutherford Hayes asked Seligman, and a number of other New York bankers, to structure a refinancing of the war debt. Each banker submitted a plan, but Secretary of the Treasury accepted Seligman's plan as being the most practical.

No one from Trenton became a financier. However, they did peddle and owned numerous clothing stores.

Religious Contribution

In the nineteenth century, these German Jews, saw some of their Sephardi brethren completely assimilating. They feared proselytizing,  a mission of some Christian sects.

They managed to change some of its practices to make Judaism ‘ American’ (Protestant).

Charleston, SC led the way by creating the breakaway "Reformed Society of Israelites for Promoting True Principles of Judaism According to Its Purity and Spirit." This was America's first Reform congregation, with an abbreviated service, vernacular prayers, and regular sermons.

Meanwhile, communal leaders, led by a Traditionalist German-Jewish religious leader, Isaac Leeser, adopted some of the Reform practices, such as Sunday schools, hospitals, the religious press, charitable societies, with the proviso that its Jews observe the all the commandments.

Leeser published an Anglo-Jewish translation of the Bible; founded the Jewish Publication Society and edited a Jewish periodical, The Occident and American Jewish Advocate, which attempted in its pages to unite the diverse voices of the American Jewish community and which also fought anti-Semitism.

In the 1970’s Isaac Meyer Wise, an organization genius forged an organization, The Union of American Hebrew Congregations and a seminary, Hebrew Union College. This was the first seminary to ordain Rabbi’s in American, which like their Protestant predecessors had difficulty attracting educated clergy to American pulpits. Wise also began the publication, The Israelite.

It should be noted that, although Trenton’s Har Sinai did not join the Reform movement until 1922, they adopted many of the Reform practices and held their services in the German vernacular.

 Jonathan D. Sarna and Jonathan Golden The American Jewish Experience through the Nineteenth Century: Immigration and Acculturation, http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/judaism.htm

Although the  State Gazette newspaper reported a Passover celebration in Trenton  on April 30, 1856. Trenton’s first Jewish organization was the Har Sinai Cemetery Association, formed in 1857. Prior to the beginning of the Har Sinai Hebrew Congregation, which was the outgrowth of the cemetery association, religious services were held in the homes of individuals.

In September of 1858, fifty-two people attended services held in Temperance Hall.  

Formal services, regularly conducted, began in Trenton about 1860. Meetings were held in the old Chancery Building which stood on the site of the Trenton Trust Building, West State Street and Chan­cery Lane.

At a meeting held on July 22, 1860, the congregation decided formally to incorporate and the following were elected trustees: Simon Kahnweiler, Isaac Wymann, Henry Shoninger, Herman Rosenbaum, Marcus Aaron, L. Kahnweiler and David Manko. For many years the services were conducted in German and Hebrew only.

In 1865 Simon Kahnweiler, first president, purchased a small Lutheran chapel on North Montgomery Street. In 1866, dedication ceremonies featured the Rabbi. D. Frankel, of Philadelphia, Rabbi Isaiah Gotz and Rabbi Reuben Straus. Judge David Naar delivered the dedicatory address. Rabbi Isaac Lesser, a liberal traditional Rabbi, who would be the founder of the Jewish Conservative Movement, Rev. Jacob Frankel, only of the Jewish Chaplin’s appointed by Pres. Lincoln, also attended.  Meanwhile, communal leaders, led by the Traditionalist Jewish religious leader of Philadelphia, Isaac Leeser, emulated and adapted Protestant benevolent and education techniques--Sunday schools, hospitals, the religious press, charitable societies, and the like--in order to strengthen Judaism in the face of pressures upon Jews to convert. Among other things, Leeser produced an Anglo-Jewish translation of the Bible, founded a Jewish publication society, and edited a Jewish periodical, The Occident and American Jewish Advocate, which attempted in its pages to unite the diverse voices of the American Jewish community. He also rallied his community to respond to incidents of anti-Jewish persecution around the world.

In 1872, due to a flaw in the deed, this real was re-sold at auction. Nonetheless, Mrs. Toretta Kaufman, mother of S. E. Kaufman, convened a fund to re-purchase the property which she did later on. Joseph Rice made up the balance needed of the raised contributions.

In 1877, these Jews founded Chevra Bikkur Cholim, "for the mutual relief of the sick and the burial of the dead."

In July 1903 the congregation sold the little temple on Montgomery Street to the G.A.R., a civil war organization.  Their next building was at corner of Front and Stockton Streets. Dedicated on October 7, 1904, the building was dedicated, its officers were Sigmund Baron, president; Abraham Siegle, vice-president; Louis Cohen, treasurer; and Jonas D. Rice, secretary.

Similar to the experience of German Jews assisting their Russian breathern in New York and other large cities, the established and cultured German Jews did indeed, help the newly arrived Russian. But they did not travel in the same social circles.

Religious Institutions

               Har Sinai

As the great industrial complex of Trenton began to grow immediately before 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 has 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, Isaac Wymann, lgnatz Frankenstein, Lazarus Gottheim, Isaac Singer, Joseph Rice, Ephraim Kaufman, Marcus Aaron and Gustavus Cane.

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 them 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 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. Naar, 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 1880’s. Wise established a Reform association in 1873 and a Rabbinical College in 1875.

There was some turmoil over deed’s provenance and the building was sold at Sheriff’s auction in 1872. Kahnweiler evidently had never deeded the temple to the congregation. But the deed was unclear and is 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.

As 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 of 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 serving as architect. (He Also designed the War Memorial Building.)

In 1929, Rabbi Abram Holtzberg was the spiritual leader. Others serving as officers were M. Lessler, Simon Rosenberg, Israel Goldvogel, Morris Ungerleider, Mr. Wagenheim, Mr. Schomberg, Mr.Kahn, Joseph Gabriel, L. Weiss, Mr. Bloch, Nathan Rosenau, Louis B. Michelson, Nathan Stern, Harry K. Jacobs, Joel Blau and Jacob Goldstein.

The material embodied here is in the main abridged from articles published by Mr. Harry J. Podmore in the Community Messenger and Har Sinai Hebrew Congregation, 2012.

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.

Figure 32 Har Sinai's Famous Sanctuary

Although Har Sinai opened its new temple doors into the depression years of the 1930's, 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.

By Gary Nigh, November 16, 2007
First Synagogue Marker

Inscription. Trenton’s first Jewish organization, Mount Sinai Cemetery Association, formed 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, of 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.

See Appendix B for all Jewish Cemeteries

Posted 36 minutes ago by Art Finkle

Labels: Har Sinai Hebrew Congregation