Big Changes at the Kane Street Synagogue
Cobble Hill, Nov. 24, 2003 - Shalom: Come next fall, the community and educational center of the Kane Street Synagogue will be a new and improved, four million dollar, three-story-high facility, waiting to greet visitors with open doors and a warm welcome.
Synagogue members, spiritual leaders and historians joined forces to break ground on the Sol and Lillian Goldman Educational Center at 236 Kane Street, during a special “Resetting the Stone” ceremony in celebration of one of Cobble Hill’s outstanding worship landmarks, which serves approximately 260 family and individual members.
Borough President Marty Markowitz was among a distinguished roster of area dignitaries, who watched as Dr. Amy Goldman – daughter of late members and benefactors Sol and Lillian Goldman – placed a commemorative box in the wall and reset the first stone.
The Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust contributed one million dollars to the extensive makeover project. When completed in autumn 2004, it will include a three-story community facility with a connecting corridor to the existing sanctuary, which currently features an historical timeline exhibition by students in the Kane Street Hebrew School.
The contents of the commemorative box tell the story of Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Emes from 1856 to present day. Among its rare items are news clippings about the 1855 groundbreaking of the sanctuary, originally built for the Middle Reformed Protestant Dutch Church and later occupied by the Trinity German Lutheran Church.
Another clipping reports about the 1862 groundbreaking of Baith Israel’s prior home, the Boerum Synagogue, the first synagogue constructed in Brooklyn.
Polishing Up on Elbow GreaseAt the groundbreaking, approximately 20 children and adults donned old clothes and polished up on the elbow grease to spruce up the construction site. Under the direction of graphic designer David Grupper, the group painted a cartoon on the wooden fence in front of the future educational facility, depicting youngsters rebuilding the original 1855 edifice. The artist’s drawing is included in the commemorative box.
Renewed InterestThe renovation has renewed interest in prior generations. Families, whose parents and grandparents belonged to the synagogue as far back as 1905, have returned to share their stories. At a recent Sunday morning family workshop, Trustee and Renewal Committee Co-Chair Carol Levin “sprinted through the house of worship’s 147-year history,” assisted by a timeline and the contents of the commemorative box. During the session, says Levin, students and teacher signed their names on a parchment-like scroll, which was then included in the metal container.
Historical CongregationCongregation Baith Israel Anshei Emes is the oldest Jewish congregation in Brooklyn which still serves the community in which it was founded.
According to lore, 12 Jewish settlers from Bavaria, the Netherlands and Portugal grew weary of rowing across the East River each Friday to celebrate Shabbat in Manhattan and so 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, it relocated to its present home on Kane Street. Three years later, Congregation Baith Israel merged with Talmud Torah Anshei Emes, then located at 140 DeGraw Street, and established Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Emes.
The rabbi at the time of the merger – and for 50 years thereafter – was Rabbi Israel Goldfarb. The spiritual leader is best known for his compilation of Jewish music for school children, “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.
(This article was original published by the Brooklyn Heights Courier on Nov. 24, 2003)
