Kahal Kadosh Mikveh Israel
Encyclopedia
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
and was founded in the 1740s. It is one of the Oldest synagogues in the United States
Oldest synagogues in the United States
The designation of the oldest synagogue in the United States requires careful use of definitions, and must be divided into two parts, the oldest in the sense of oldest surviving building, and the oldest in the sense of oldest congregation...
. Currently home to a Sephardic
Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...
community originally established by Spanish and Portuguese Jews
Spanish and Portuguese Jews
Spanish and Portuguese Jews are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardim who have their main ethnic origins within the Jewish communities of the Iberian peninsula and who shaped communities mainly in Western Europe and the Americas from the late 16th century on...
, the congregation continues to practice according to the Spanish and Portuguese Sephardic
Sephardic Judaism
Sephardic law and customs means the practice of Judaism as observed by the Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews, so far as it is peculiar to themselves and not shared with other Jewish groups such as the Ashkenazim...
rite
Minhag
Minhag is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism. A related concept, Nusach , refers to the traditional order and form of the prayers...
.
The oldest formal Jewish congregation in Philadelphia, Mikveh Israel counted among its members prominent revolutionary patriots, such as Jonas Phillips
Jonas Phillips
Jonas Phillips was the first of the Phillips family to settle in America. A founder of Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia, Phillips was the father of twenty-two children and the grandfather of Uriah Phillips Levy, the first Jewish Commodore in the United States Navy.-Childhood and emigration:Phillips...
, Haym Solomon
Haym Solomon
Haym Solomon was a Spanish and Portuguese Jew who immigrated to New York from Poland during the period of the American Revolution, and who became a prime financier of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War against Great Britain.-Early years:Descended from Jewish refugees from...
and the illustrious Gratz family. The gracious Rebecca Gratz
Rebecca Gratz
Rebecca Gratz was a preeminent Jewish American educator and philanthropist.Gratz was the seventh of twelve children born to Miriam Simon and Michael Gratz...
, who founded and managed philanthropic and educational institutions devoted to the needs of women and children, Jewish and Gentile, and who is reputed to be the model for Rebecca of York, heroine of Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe is a historical fiction novel by Sir Walter Scott in 1819, and set in 12th-century England. Ivanhoe is sometimes credited for increasing interest in Romanticism and Medievalism; John Henry Newman claimed Scott "had first turned men's minds in the direction of the middle ages," while...
by Sir Walter Scott, was also a congregant.
Early history
The congregation dedicated its first building in 1782. It is estimated that in 1775, the city of Philadelphia had a population of approximately 35,000 of whom 300 were Jewish.Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
was an earlier contributor to its building fund.
Leaders
In 1829, the preeminent Isaac LeeserIsaac Leeser
Isaac Leeser was an American, Ashkenazi Jewish lay minister of religion, author, translator, editor, and publisher; pioneer of the Jewish pulpit in the United States, and founder of the Jewish press of America. He produced the first Jewish translation of the Bible into English to be published in...
became the leader of the synagogue and held that position until 1850. Another prominent hazzan
Hazzan
A hazzan or chazzan is a Jewish cantor, a musician trained in the vocal arts who helps lead the congregation in songful prayer.There are many rules relating to how a cantor should lead services, but the idea of a cantor as a paid professional does not exist in classical rabbinic sources...
, Sabato Morais
Sabato Morais
Sabato Morais was an Italian-American rabbi, leader of Mikveh Israel Synagogue, pioneer of Italian Jewish Studies in America, and founder of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City.- Early years :...
, took over after Leeser. Morais was minister for forty-six years and an outspoken opponent of slavery prior to and during the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. Dr. Abraham Neuman was rabbi from 1927 to 1943. Dr. Neuman was succeeded by David Jessurun Cardozo. The current incumbent is Rabbi Albert E. Gabbai who was elected in 1988.
Buildings
The congregation that became Mikveh Israel first gathered for services at a private home on Stirling Alley which was then between Cherry and Race Streets and Third and Fourth Streets in Philadelphia. When Mikveh Israel built its first synagogue in 1782, its location was moved because of protest that its proposed site next to a church would offend the Dutch Reform ProtestantDutch Reformed Church
The Dutch Reformed Church was a Reformed Christian denomination in the Netherlands. It existed from the 1570s to 2004, the year it merged with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands to form the Protestant Church in the...
congregants. Prominent Philadelphians such as Benjamin Franklin and Robert Morris contributed to its building fund. In September 1782, the congregation dedicated the new building on Cherry Street near Third Street. The building sat 200 persons and had accommodations for the clergy adjoining it.
In 1829 the congregation built an Egyptian Revival synagogue on Cherry Street. Designed by William Strickland
William Strickland
William Strickland may refer to:* William Strickland , English clergyman* William Strickland , credited with introducing the turkey to England, later a Member of Parliament...
it is notable for having been one of the earliest Egyptian Revival buildings in the United States.
The Congregation announced in 1961 that it would return to Center City where it would construct a new building. Dr. Bernard J. Alpers, vice-president of the synagogue, persuaded his friend the Philadelphia architect Louis Kahn
Louis Kahn
Louis Isadore Kahn was an American architect, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935...
to engage in the planning of the new synagogue building. Kahn produced ten design versions between 1961 and 1972 of the new building. However, the Congregation decided that construction and maintenance costs were too high, and the synagogue was never built. A more modest building, shared with the Museum of Jewish History, was dedicated and opened in August 1976. The museum moved to a new building at 5th and Market streets on November 15, 2010. The synagogue is located at 44 North Fourth Street in Center City, Philadelphia, just north of Market Street.
The congregation is also responsible for Mikveh Israel Cemetery
Mikveh Israel Cemetery
Mikveh Israel Cemetery is the oldest Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, although the oldest in the United States is the Second Cemetery of the Congregation Shearith Israel in New York...
, the second oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in the United States.
Relationship with Christ Church
Mikveh Israel and Philadelphia's Christ ChurchChrist Church, Philadelphia
Christ Church is an Episcopal church located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1695 by members of the Church of England, who built a small wooden church on the site by the next year. When the congregation outgrew this structure some twenty years later, they decided to erect a new...
have a long-standing relationship dating from the founding of the synagogue to the present day. The present location of Mikveh Israel places the two congregations as close neighbors.
Christ Church was supportive of Mikveh Israel's first plan to construct a building in the 18th-century. When Mikveh Israel's synagogue burned in 1872, Christ Church contributed funds to the construction of the new building. The congregations have a long standing custom of sharing a fellowship-dinner once a year which alternates between the buildings of the two congregations.
See also
- Jewish American
- Jewish history in the United States (pre-20th century)
- Jewish history in PennsylvaniaJewish history in Pennsylvania-First mention:One of the original thirteen states of the American Union; named after William Penn, who received a grant of the territory from King Charles II in 1681...
- Oldest synagogues in the United StatesOldest synagogues in the United StatesThe designation of the oldest synagogue in the United States requires careful use of definitions, and must be divided into two parts, the oldest in the sense of oldest surviving building, and the oldest in the sense of oldest congregation...