History

Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Emes, now known as Kane Street Synagogue, is Brooklyn's oldest Jewish congregation that still serves the community in which it was founded. The story is told that 12 Jewish settlers from the Netherlands and, having grown weary of rowing across the East River each Friday to celebrate Shabbat in Manhattan, established Congregation Baith Israel in March, 1856.

Services for this small band of settlers were first held in rented quarters at 155 Atlantic Street (now Atlantic Avenue). By 1862, the growing congregation erected a sanctuary at the corner of State Street and Boerum Place. In 1905, the Congregation moved to its present home on Kane Street, a beautiful Romanesque Revival structure built in 1855. Prior to 1905, the structure had been the the home of the Middle Dutch Reform Church, and, later, the Trinity German Lutheran Church.

In 1908, Congregation Baith Israel merged with Talmud Torah Anshei Emes, then located at 140 DeGraw Street, thereby establishing Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Emes. The rabbi at the time of the merger and for 60 years thereafter, was Rabbi Israel Goldfarb. He is best known for his compilation of Jewish music for schoolchildren, The Jewish Songster, and for composing the melodies to "Shalom Aleichem" and to "Magein Avot" which are sung in nearly every Ashkenazi synagogue in North America. One of Israel Goldfarb's "bar mitzvah boys" remembers not only his rabbi's liturgical compositions but also his "fine baritone voice." That was Aaron Copland, who was called to the Torah as a bar mitzvah in this congregation, in this building, in 1913. Aaron's father, Harris, was president of the congregation for several years. On November 14, 2004, Kane Street presented a concert of Aaron Copland's music in the sanctuary where he celebrated his Bar Mitzvah in 1913. (Read an article that appeared in The Forward about this historic musical event.)

After a period of prosperity lasting through the 1920s, the membership of the Congregation began to dwindle as the neighborhood changed. By the early 1960s, it seemed as if the Congregation would shortly be disbanded. But a small group of newcomers from among the brownstoners then moving into the Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill areas discovered the congregation, and slowly it has enjoyed a renaissance, regaining both its vitality and its size. In the 1970s, the congregation restored its beautiful Neo-Gothic sanctuary, which is included in the AIA Guide to New York City.

By the 125th anniversary in 1981, membership had reached approximately 125 families and singles. Today the congregation serves 280 family and individual members. The Congregation also has a long history of community service. In the early years, it participated in the establishment of the Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charities and was a charter member of the United Synagogue of America. The congregation is still active in the community with such projects as the resettlement of Russian immigrants, helping to provide meals and beds to the homeless, and conducting monthly Shabbat visits to the Cobble Hill Nursing Home.

In June 2004, a safe containing documents from the synagogue's earliest days was opened, providing a rare glimpse into the daily life of a synagogue in the middle years of the 19th century. Articles about the historic opening of our safe appeared in the New York Jewish Week and The New York Times.The Kane Street Synagogue is a vibrant, growing congregation, traditional in its form, but modern in its outlook in matters such as equality for women in the synagogue. Today, as always, it is a lively center of prayer, study and good deeds.

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