page_title: Temple Israel (Dayton, Ohio)
section_title: First and Jefferson building, and David Lefkowitz as rabbi
hierarchical_section_title: Temple Israel (Dayton, Ohio) / First and Jefferson building, and David Lefkowitz as rabbi
caption_attribution_description: English: Synagogue in Dayton, Ohio
context_page_description: Temple Israel is a Reform congregation located at 130 Riverside Drive in Dayton, Ohio. Formed in 1850, it incorporated as "Kehillah Kodesh B'nai Yeshurun" in 1854. After meeting in rented quarters, the congregation purchased its first synagogue building, a former Baptist church at 4th and Jefferson, in 1863. Strongly influenced by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, it rapidly modernized its services, and, in 1873, was a founding member of the Union for Reform Judaism.
  The congregation sold its existing building in 1893, and constructed a larger one at First and Jefferson, later severely damaged by the Great Dayton Flood of 1913. In 1927, the congregation moved to still larger, multi-purpose premises at Salem and Emerson Avenues, outside downtown Dayton, and began to use the name "Temple Israel", adding a new sanctuary to the building in 1953. Temple Israel moved to its current building in 1994.
  Synagogue membership grew steadily for over 100 years, from 12 families in 1850 to 150 in the early 1900s, 200 by 1927, and 500 by 1945, peaking at 1,100 in the 1960s. By 1995, however, membership was down to 800 families.
context_section_description: In 1893 the congregation sold its building at 4th and Jefferson, and constructed a new one at First and Jefferson. Wise again assisted with the dedication.
  Wertheimer's wife died young, leaving him with two small children. This tragedy made him question his faith; in 1899 he resigned from the congregation, resigned his membership in the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), and, in 1900, converted to Christian Science; in 1938 David Max Eichhorn wrote that "Mary Baker Eddy herself financed Wertheimer's study". Wertheimer later became a Baptist.
  David Lefkowitz was hired as rabbi in 1900, when the congregation comprised around 150 families. Born in Eperies, Hungary in 1875, he had emigrated to the United States with his widowed mother and two brothers around 1881. Due to financial difficulties, he and one brother grew up in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York, where he later worked to help pay for his schooling. A graduate of both the College of the City of New York and the University of Cincinnati, he was ordained at Hebrew Union College in 1900. Held in "high regard" by the membership, Lefkowitz was also "an active force in Dayton's civic and interfaith activities" and an "ambassador of the Jewish Community to the Dayton area". He was the first president of the Dayton chapter of the Red Cross and served on its executive board, and also served as president of the Humane Society.
  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. Lefkowitz was "in charge of one of the districts outside the flooded area". There he assisted around 28,000 refugees in finding shelter, and "established a bread line to feed them". However, his suggestion that the congregation move to a larger building in a new location outside downtown Dayton, while taken seriously, was not acted on.
  Membership had grown to 206 families by 1919. The congregational school held classes twice a week, and had 8 classes, 10 teachers, and 140 students. That year the synagogue's total income was $10,000 (today $145,000). In 1920, Lefkowitz moved to Temple Emanu-El, Dallas's largest and oldest synagogue.
caption: Synagogue building at First and Jefferson, damaged by the Great Dayton Flood of 1913.
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