Temple Beth Israel (Bergen County, New Jersey)
Encyclopedia
Temple Beth Israel is a Reconstructionist
Reconstructionist Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism is a modern American-based Jewish movement based on the ideas of Mordecai Kaplan . The movement views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization. It originated as a branch of Conservative Judaism, before it splintered...

 synagogue
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 at 34 West Magnolia Avenue in Maywood, New Jersey
Maywood, New Jersey
Maywood is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 9,555.Maywood was incorporated as a borough on June 29, 1894, from portions of Midland Township, based on the results of a referendum held that day, at the height of the...

. It is the only synagogue in Maywood, and the only Reconstructionist synagogue in the region, with a membership drawn from 22 communities.

Established in 1928, the congregation moved to its current location, a former church, in 1931. The building it purchased was the former Maywood Christian Association Church, constructed in 1901. Built in the Shingle-style
Shingle Style architecture
The Shingle style is an American architectural style made popular by the rise of the New England school of architecture, which eschewed the highly ornamented patterns of the Eastlake style in Queen Anne architecture....

, the structure combined both stone and shingles. It also included "Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

 features, such as tracery
Tracery
In architecture, Tracery is the stonework elements that support the glass in a Gothic window. The term probably derives from the 'tracing floors' on which the complex patterns of late Gothic windows were laid out.-Plate tracery:...

 windows". The congregation added an extension to the building in 1952 which included meeting and school rooms, and an additional sanctuary. The sanctuary is decorated with the Hebrew dictum "Know before Whom you stand for You are with Me", adapted from Berakhot 28b
Berakhot (Talmud)
Berachot is the first tractate of Seder Zeraim, a collection of the Mishnah that primarily deals with laws relating to plants and farming...

.

Originally Conservative
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...

, in the 1990s Beth Israel was faced with declining membership and a building that needed significant capital investment. To help address these issues the membership decided to move to the Reconstructionist movement in 1997. By 2001 the congregation had 65 member families.

In the 2000s the congregation realized that of its six Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...

 scrolls, two were not kosher, and the rest needed repair. They decided to give away the non-kosher ones, repair and sell one of the kosher scrolls, and use the proceeds to fix the remaining three.

Though too small to support a full-time rabbi, Beth Israel has had several part-time rabbis in the 2000s, who are generally at the synagogue two weekends a month. These have included Michael Rothbaum, who was succeeded by Michal Woll (a former biomedical engineer, a mechanical engineer, and physical therapist) in 2006. Woll was succeeded in turn by Jarah Greenfield in 2007.

Beth Israel participates in the "High Holiday Open Seats Campaign", a New York and New Jersey program of Reconstructionist synagogues "which connects people to congregations with extra space on the High Holidays." , the rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...

 was Greenfield and the cantor
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...

was Lois Kittner.

External links

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