Anshe Emeth

Disagreements concerning Children of Israel’s strict preservation of all Orthodox traditions and new administrative policies regarding the religious education program commenced soon after the establishment of Emanu-El’s Talmud Torah. As Eastern European Jewish immigrants assimilated eagerly to American society, they soon resisted several Orthodox traditions still prevalent within Children of Israel’s weekly services and High Holiday celebrations. Divisions within Children of Israel during the early decades of the twentieth century demonstrate the internal organizational battles concerning degrees of retention and assimilation evident throughout established congregations. For many, Rodef Sholom’s reform services dismissed too many religious traditions while Children of Israel retained too strict an interpretation of primitive old-world customs. Thus, a group of eastern European Jews yearned for a balance that the newly organized, Zionist-dominated, Emanu-El Congregation did not meet.[1]

For example, the Orthodox custom of separate seating for men and women during temple services (mechitzah) frustrated many within Children Israel who argued that the practice had “no real foundation in the Talmud or the Torah.” For newly assimilated Jewish immigrants, ethnic traditions and old-world religious customs needed to be removed in order to accommodate their new liberal and democratic society. The fact that the assimilated Jewish immigrants were coincidentally the more affluent members of the congregation created another point of contention. Congregants who relocated to the North side of the city near Wick and Crandall Parks argued for a relocation of the temple due to the continued “deterioration” of the neighborhoods near the shul on Summit Avenue. Children of Israel’s support of Emanu-El’s Talmud Torah (Hebrew Institute) in place of its own religious program provided the final reason for a second split from Children of Israel within a fifteen-year span.[2] 

On 1 October 1919, the Fish, Frankle, Schwartz, Rand, Feldman, Shagrin, Friedman, and Isenberg families met and organized a new congregation, “orthodox in ritual but conservative in nature.”[3] Eleven days later the group selected the name Anshe Emeth Congregation (Men of Truth) and affiliated with the United Synagogue of America. By January 1920, the new congregation purchased property north of Downtown at the intersection of Park and Elm Streets at the southeastern corner of Wick Park. Almon Max Frankle, the first president of Anshe Emeth, led the congregation’s thirty-seven families in fundraising efforts aimed at the construction of a school, social rooms, and a sanctuary. A community center constructed in 1922 served as a temporary synagogue until the completion and dedication of the Anshe Emeth Temple in March 1928. The location of the Anshe Emeth Temple away from the center of the city also paralleled Rodef Sholom’s move from Fifth and Lincoln Avenues to Elm and Woodbine directly across from Wick Park in 1915.[4]   

Almon Max Frankle illustration. Acc. No. JA89-560P-41. MVHS Collections.

1927 Cornerstone Laying Program; Acc. No. JA89-560P-11, MVHS Collections.

Illustration of Proposed Temple, Acc. No. JA89-560P-41, MVHS Collections.

The Mahoning Valley Historical Society educates and promotes an interest in the history of the Mahoning Valley by collecting, preserving, and developing material representative of the people who have inhabited the region.

Website Copyright 2008 ©  Mahoning Valley Historical Society

Website hosting  by Directed Technologies, Inc.