Temple Israel (Dayton, Ohio)

What was later to become Temple Israel was originally formed as a Hebrew Society in 1850 by twelve Jewish men under the leadership of Joseph Lebensburger, a German Jew and first permanent Jewish resident of Dayton. The Society met daily for prayers in rented rooms: first above a shop in the old Dayton Bank Building (which was later the Steele High School, and has since been demolished) near Monument and Main Streets, and later in larger quarters in a building next to the Cooper building, a block south on Main Street. It also hired its first Torah reader, a "Mr. Wendel", in 1854. It moved to larger facilities, first near First and Main Streets in 1860, and then, in 1863, to the northeast corner of 4th and Jefferson Streets. There Kehillah Kodesh B'nai Yeshurun purchased for $1,500 (today $) its first owned premises, the building of a Baptist church whose congregation was moving to Main Street. The structure required "extensive remodeling", and Lebensburger, as building chairman, led the campaign to raise the necessary $9,000 (today $). Funds came not only from the membership but also from non-Jewish members of many local societies, including the Odd Fellows and Masons. Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise assisted B'nai Yeshurun's then–religious leader Rev. Mr. Delbanco with the dedication of what became "the seventh congregation-owned Jewish House of Worship in Ohio." ==Move to Reform, and early rabbis==

Influenced by Wise, the congregation implemented many reforms in its services. In 1861 they adopted Wise's Minhag America prayer book. In that same decade they added an organ, did away with the prayer shawl, and started a religious school. In the 1870s the congregation removed yahrzeit candles from the sanctuary, and added family pews and a mixed choir (men and women together). In 1873 B'nai Yeshurun was one of the first thirteen founding members of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC), now Union for Reform Judaism. By 1889 B'nai Yeshurun had outgrown its original cemetery, and the congregation purchased on West Schantz Avenue in Oakwood. Oakwood was a "restricted community"; Jews were not allowed to reside or own stores there. According to Leonard Spialter, president of the Dayton Jewish Genealogical Society, "if you were dead, you could be buried in Oakwood, but if you were alive, you couldn't live there". Relatives began moving those buried at the Rubicon cemetery to the new "Riverview Cemetery", including Lebensburger, who had died by this time. This process was not completed until 1967. In its first forty years the congregation had a series of generally short-tenured religious leaders. These included Delbanco (1862–63), Moses Bauer (1863–64), L. Liebman (1864–67), Abraham Blum (1868–69), Leon Leopold (1870–72), Ben Weil (1872–76), Ephraim Fischer (1876–81), Godfrey/Gottheil Taubenhaus (later rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim of Brooklyn, New York) (1881–85), and Israel Saenger (1885–89). During this period the membership also transformed from immigrant-born to native-born. In 1881 the congregation's "language of record" was changed from German to English, and in 1889 the synagogue hired its first American-trained rabbi, Max Wertheimer. A graduate of Wise's Hebrew Union College, Wertheimer had been born in Germany to Orthodox parents. He was popular with the congregation, and Dayton's Christian community highly respected him. Non-Jews attended his Friday evening sermons, and he in turn was a guest speaker at many Dayton churches. ==First and Jefferson building, and David Lefkowitz as rabbi==

In 1893 the congregation sold its building at 4th and Jefferson, and constructed a new one at First and Jefferson. in 1938 David Max Eichhorn wrote that "Mary Baker Eddy herself financed Wertheimer's study". Held in "high regard" by the membership, Later president of the CCAR, Lefkowitz was also anti-Zionist. He was one of the prominent Jewish signatories of a petition presented in 1919 by United States Congressman Julius Kahn to President of the United States Woodrow Wilson who "asserted their wish not to see Palestine 'either now or at any time in the future' become a Jewish state." In 1942, he was one of the founders of the American Council for Judaism, "the only American Jewish organization ever formed for the specific purpose of fighting Zionism and opposing the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine." During Lefkowitz's tenure, the synagogue building was severely damaged by the Great Dayton Flood of 1913. In 1920, Lefkowitz moved to Temple Emanu-El, Dallas's largest and oldest synagogue. ==Salem and Emerson building==

Samuel S. Mayersberg succeeded Lefkowitz as rabbi. He was "known for his oratorical skills and his crusades for moral and police reforms in Dayton". His major goal during his ministry was to acquire larger premises outside downtown Dayton, which was realized in 1927 During his tenure, membership increased to 200 families. Ten years later, however, in a 1939 article in The Christian Century, he argued that Jews should celebrate Christmas. In his view, Christians were now more liberal and celebrated "the inherent humanness and universalism" of Christmas, rather than any specifically Christian doctrine. Stating that his children had been deprived of the holiday's pleasures, Witt asserted that Judaism was already a syncretic religion, and that celebrating the holiday was an ecumenical act which did not indicate that he was "thereby drawn even by the breadth of a hair nearer to the worship of an ecclesiastical Christ". He concluded by asking "Is it neither treason of Jew nor triumph of Christian but partnership of Jew and Christian in the making of a better world in which the Christ can have part only by energizing and perpetuating and hallowing the partnership?" During Witt's tenure, Dayton experienced an influx of Jewish immigration, and the original German-Jewish constituency of the congregation became more diverse. Family membership reached 500 by 1945. ==New sanctuary during Selwyn Ruslander's tenure==

Following Witt's retirement in 1947, Selwyn D. Ruslander succeeded him. In 1942, during World War II, he took a leave of absence from the UAHC to volunteer for the armed forces as a U.S. Navy chaplain. Greenstein joined Jacksonville, Florida's Congregation Ahavath Chesed as rabbi in 1973, and served there until 1995. ==The move to Riverside Drive, led by P. Irving Bloom==

P. (Paul) Irving Bloom joined as rabbi in 1973. At Temple Israel he reformed the services and introduced Bar and Bat Mitzvah classes for adults. During his tenure, in 2000, the congregation celebrated its Sesquicentennial, with a number of "religious, cultural, social and social action programs" throughout the year. Gruber also served on the steering committee for the UAHC Department of Jewish Family Concerns from 1995 to 2002, working on "the inclusion of people with disabilities and special needs". Gruber moved to Central Synagogue of Nassau County in Rockville Centre, New York in 2002, and Michael Remson served as interim rabbi. ==Recent events==

David M. Sofian joined as Rabbi in 2003. A graduate of Hebrew Union College and the University of Missouri, Sofian had served as assistant rabbi at Temple Emanuel in Worcester, Massachusetts, at Temple Shaarai Shomayim in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and at Emanuel Congregation in Chicago, before coming to Temple Israel. Karen Bodney-Halasz, a graduate of Northwestern University, joined as Religious School Director in 2003 and became Director of Education in 2005. After her rabbinic ordination in June 2007, she became Rabbi-Educator. Sofian retired in 2014, IIlene Bogosian was hired as interim senior rabbi and Bodney-Halasz was elevated to associate rabbi. After an eight-month search process, the temple's search committee unanimously recommended Bodney-Halasz become the next senior rabbi. The temple's board of directors approved that recommendation in January 2016, making Bodney-Halasz Temple Israel's first female senior rabbi. She officially took over July 1. ==Notes==