Children of Israel

The ever-increasing arrival of Eastern European Jewish immigrants to Youngstown led to dissatisfaction with Rodef Sholom’s lessening of “traditional ritual and customs of orthodox Judaism.” This compelled those unsympathetic with reform temple services to form their own traditional Orthodox congregation. After meeting informally since 1870, a group of mostly Hungarian Jewish immigrants assembled in a rented hall in the Porter Block of West Federal Street on 10 February 1883 and officially organized B’nai Israel Congregation (Children of Israel). This organizational meeting marked the first of many splinter congregations established by divergent Eastern European Jews over the next several decades.[1]

The new Orthodox Children of Israel Congregation erected a place of worship on Summit Avenue between Watt Street and Walnut Street in 1893, adjoining the Hungarian neighborhood. After deeming Rodef Sholom’s butcher shop unsatisfactory, Children of Israel imported kosher meats from Cleveland, thus allowing for strict adherence to dietary laws and assuring access to kosher foods for all its members. Children of Israel’s new location also included a Hebrew School that remained productive for many years. The dominance of the Hungarian Jewish immigrants within the Orthodox congregation led many within the city, both Jew and gentile, to refer to Children of Israel as “The Ungarishe Shul” - Yiddish for Hungarian temple. The Hungarian Jews’ dominance and political ideology created points of friction among its diverse Orthodox constituency.[2]

Differing views toward religious education, Orthodox teachings, cultural traditions, acceptance of American social traditions, and political ideologies fueled each of the successive splits within the Youngstown Jewish community. The divergent ideologies of Messianism and Zionism within Judaism during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries created schisms throughout American Jewish communities. The Hungarian Jewish majority within Children of Israel adhered to Messianic Judaism, which advocated the praying and waiting for a prophetic messiah to appear and establish salvation for the Jewish people. This ideology conflicted significantly with the philosophy espoused by Russian, Polish, and Romanian immigrants who continued to arrive from the pogrom-ravaged areas of Eastern Europe. For the Russian Jewish immigrants, mostly Orthodox in background, Zionism offered the only practical answer to the centuries-old Jewish Diaspora. Zionists believed ardently that Jews were obligated to take matters into their own hands in establishing a homeland for world’s Jews in Palestine. Accusations of disloyalty due to advocacy of a “Jewish nationalism” did not deter American Zionists. As the only Orthodox temple in Youngstown, Children of Israel consisted of a tenuous mix of members adhering to the vastly divergent principles of Messianism and Zionism. [3]

[1] Ozer, Irving E., et al., These Are the Names: The History of the Jews of Greater Youngstown, Ohio 1865-1990 (Youngstown, OH: 1994), 41.

[2] Ibid., 41-43; Youngstown Area Jewish Federation – Jewish Archives JA-600-P, Children of Israel Temple Permanent Category.

[3] Ibid., 43-44; Arthur Hertzberg, ed. The Zionist Idea: A Historical Analysis and Reader (Athenaeum, New York: A Temple Book, 1959); “Valley Jews Have Historian – Center’s Archivist Knows About Their European Origins and Local Affiliations,” Warren Tribune Chronicle, undated clipping, Mahoning Valley Historical Society Jewish Archives Collection; www.jewishvirtuallibrary,org.