Neither fight nor flight: Urban synagogues in postwar Philadelphia

Journal of Urban History

Volumn 32, Issue 6, 2006, Pages 791-812

  Stanger Ross, Jordan ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA   (Canada)

Author keywords

Geography; Jewish; North Philadelphia; Synagogues; Urban decline

Indexed keywords

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; POST-WAR; RELIGION; URBAN HISTORY;

NORTH AMERICA; PENNSYLVANIA; PHILADELPHIA; UNITED STATES;

EID: 33747180371     PISSN: 00961442     EISSN: 15526771     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0096144205284400     Document Type: Article

References (80)

1. Most of the major works on recent urban change discuss local institutions but do not make them the subject of extended analysis. See Arnold R. Hirsch, Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago, 1940-1960, rpt. edn. (Chicago, 1983), 171-211; Thomas J. Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (Princeton, 1996), 112-114; and Lizabeth Cohen, A Consumer's Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America (New York, 2003), 173-191 and 267-274.
2. Gerald Gamm, Urban Exodus: Why the Jews Left Boston and the Catholics Stayed (Cambridge, MA, 1999); Abraham J. Karp, "Overview: The Synagogue in America - A Historical Typology," and Paula E. Hyman, "From City to Suburb: Temple Mishkan Tefila of Boston," in Jack Wertheimer, ed., The American Synagogue: A Sanctuary Transformed (New York, 1987), 1-34 and 185-205.
3. Francine Parnes, "A Synagogue Steeped in Harlem History Defies the Odds, but Still Struggles to Survive," New York Times, November 1, 2003, sec. A, p. 12; Ruth Dancyger, The Temple, One Hundred and Fifty Years, 1850-2000 (Cleveland, OH, 1999); A. Nathan Abramowitz, Rabbi of Tifereth Israel, Washington, interview by author, Spring 2004; Friends of the Plum Street Temple, Our National Historic Landmark: Our Plum Street Synagogue Must be Preserved (Cincinnati, OH, c1980); Buffalo's Houses of Worship, Christy Anne May, ed., 59 min. (WNED, Buffalo, 2002, videocassette); and Rabbi Harvey J. Fields, "Temple Not Moving," Los Angeles Times, June 13, 1996, p. 8.
4. See David P. Varady, "Wynnefeld: Story of a Changing Neighborhood," in Murray Freidman, ed., Philadelphia Jewish Life, 1940-2000 (Philadelphia, 2003), 101-111; and Samuel Z. Klausner and David P. Varady, "Synagogues without Ghettos" (Unpublished technical report, Philadelphia: Center for Research on the Acts of Man, University of Pennsylvania, 1970).
5. Sydney H. Schwartz, "Changing Styles of Synagogue Life," in Freidman, ed., Philadelphia Jewish Life, 147-149.
6. Murray Friedman, "Introduction: The Making of a National Jewish Community," in Friedman, ed., Jewish Life in Philadelphia, 1830-1940 (Philadelphia, 1983), 7-7; and Rakhmiel Peltz, "It Used to Be Like Jerusalem: Portal to the City and Enduring Jewish Community," in Gail F. Stern, ed., Traditions in Transition: Jewish Culture in Philadelphia 1840-1940 (Museum Catalogue, Philadelphia, 1989), 48.
7. The Jewish Chatauqua Society, the Mercantile Club, Dropsie and Gratz Colleges, and the Jewish Publication Society were located using Polk's-Boyd's Philadelphia Directory (Philadelphia, 1926).
8. Mikveh Israel Record, December 1962, Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia; and Edwin Wolf and Maxwell Whiteman, The History of the Jews of Philadelphia: From Colonial Times to the Age of Jackson (Philadelphia, 1975).
9. Hebrew Union College Report, Minutes, May 6, 1946, Board of Trustees, Rodeph Shalom Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
10. Robert Gregg, Sparks from the Anvil of Oppression: Philadelphia's African Methodists and Southern Migrants, 1890-1940 (Philadelphia, 1993), 22-27.
11. Martha Lavell, Commission on Human Relations, "Philadelphia's Non-White Population, 1960, Report No.1, Demographic Data," (Philadelphia, 1961).
12. Commission on Human Relations, "The Housing of Negro Philadelphians" (Philadelphia, 1953); Nancy Kleniewski, "Neighborhood Decline and Downtown Renewal: The Politics of Redevelopment in Philadelphia, 1952-1962," (Ph.D. dissertation, Temple University, 1981), chap. 3; and Carolyn Adams et al., Philadelphia: Neighborhoods, Division, and Conflict in a Postindustrial City (Philadelphia, 1991).
13. Gregg, Sparks from the Anvil of Oppression, 58; Richard R. Wright, Jr., The Negro in Pennsylvania: A Study in Economic History (New York, 1969), 85.
14. Matthew J. Countryman, "Civil Rights and Black Power in Philadelphia, 1940-1971" (Ph.D. dissertation, Duke University, 1998), 130-131 and chap. 3.
15. Countryman, 227-228, 248-264, 354-373; see also Thomas J. Sugrue, "Affirmative Action from Below: Civil Rights, the Building Trades, and the Politics of Racial Equality in the Urban North, 1945-1969," Journal of American History 91, no. 1 (June 2004): 145-173.
16. Lenora E. Berson, Case Study of a Riot: The Philadelphia Story (New York, 1966); and Murray Freidman and Carolyn Black, "An Ambivalent Alliance: Blacks and Jews in Philadelphia, 1940-1985," in Freidman, ed., Philadelphia Jewish Life, 83-100.
17. Philadelphia Address Telephone Directory, 1950 and 1969.
18. Diane A. King, William B. Lakritz, and Saul L. Wachs, "A Generation of Learning: Jewish Education in Philadelphia, 1940-1980," in Freidman, ed., Philadelphia Jewish Life, 164-166.
19. Map derived using "Membership List: Congregation Mikveh Israel, February 1963," Folder "Mailing List - Groundbreaking," Box "Move to the Mall, 1976," Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia.
20. Indication of the ongoing financial difficulty of the congregation recurs in almost every meeting of the board of trustees in this period. For examples, see Minutes, April 3, 1952; February 16, 1953; January 31, 1954; June 6, 1967; and March 19, 1968, Board of Trustees, Mikveh Israel, Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia.
21. Minutes, November 8, 1953, Board of Trustees, Mikveh Israel, Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia. For the first mention of relocation, see Minutes, March 5, 1952, Board of Trustees, Mikveh Israel, Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia.
22. Minutes, November 8, 1953, Board of Trustees, Mikveh Israel, Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia.
23. United States Census of Population and Housing, Tract Level Data, Philadelphia, 1950, 1960, University of Pennsylvania Library Web extract, http://www.library.upenn.edu/datasets/philadelphia.html, accessed in June 2003.
24. Report attached to Minutes, November 8, 1953, Board of Trustees, Mikveh Israel, Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia.
25. Mikveh Israel Record, September, 1957, Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia. Recent historical research suggests that contrary to the opinion of the leaders of Mikveh Israel, suburbia and traditional practices could be compatible. See Etan Diamond, And I Will Dwell in Their Midst: Orthodox Jews in Suburbia (Chapel Hill, 2000).
26. Report attached to Minutes, November 8, 1953, Board of Trustees, Mikveh Israel, Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia.
27. Minutes, February 8, 1954, Board of Trustees, Mikveh Israel, Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia. Unfortunately, the Mikveh Israel board minutes between 1954 and 1959 were stolen in the 1960s and never were recovered.
28. Minutes, February 25, 1959, Board of Trustees, Mikveh Israel, Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia.
29. Minutes, October 4, 1959, Board of Trustees, Mikveh Israel, Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia.
30. Minutes, September 14, 1960, and May 25, 1960, Board of Trustees, Mikveh Israel, Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia.
31. Minutes, November 6, 1960, Board of Trustees, Mikveh Israel, Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia.
32. Minutes, December 19, 1967, and March 19, 1968, Board of Trustees, Mikveh Israel, Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia. There is some confusion about the location of the lot under discussion in 19In the board minutes, discussion involves a lot at the intersection of Fifth and Locust Streets, to the south of the actual site where Mikveh Israel finally would build. It is not clear when attention shifted to the present site between Market and Arch on Fourth Street. In Ruth Sarner's 1993 reconstruction of these events, she makes no mention of the Fifth and Locust lot, indicating that from the outset, the synagogue pursued the lot it presently occupies. See Ruth Sarner, "Chai: The First Eighteen Years of the National Museum of American Jewish History" (National Museum of American Jewish History Archives, Philadelphia).
33. Kleniewski, "Neighborhood Decline and Downtown Renewal," 84-86.
34. Minutes, May 24, 1961, Board of Trustees, Mikveh Israel, Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia. On Louis Kahn's experience in Philadelphia urban renewal, see John F. Bauman, Public Housing, Race, and Renewal: Urban Planning in Philadelphia, 1920-1974 (Philadelphia, 1987), 73, 100, 104, 114, and 175.
35. Ada Louise Huxtable, "Designs for American Synagogues, Philadelphia Project by Louis Kahn is Shown Recent Building Models at Jewish Museum," New York Times, October 5, 1963, p. 17-17; quoted in Mikveh Israel Record, November 1963, Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia.
36. Minutes, December 10, 1970, Board of Trustees, Mikveh Israel, Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia.
37. Discussion with member, fall 2001.
38. Minutes, December 10, 1970, Board of Trustees, Mikveh Israel, Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia.
39. Minutes, December 10, 1970, Board of Trustees, Mikveh Israel, Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia.
40. Minutes, August 18 and January 19, 1971, Board of Trustees, Mikveh Israel, Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia.
41. Letter from Ruth Sarner to the congregation, February 6, 1973, Folder "Building Committee," Box "Move to the Mall, 1976," Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia; handwritten note about Kahn, author unknown, Folder "Building Committee," Box "Move to the Mall, 1976," Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia.
42. Letter from Ruth Sarner to the congregation, February 6, 1973, Folder "Building Committee," Box "Move to the Mall, 1976," Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia.
43. Letter written by Ruth Sarner and Raymond Leopold marked for "press release," circa June 1970, Folder "Building Committee," Box "Move to the Mall, 1976," Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia.
44. Letter from Ruth Sarner to congregation, October 16, 1973, Folder "Building Committee," Box "Move to the Mall, 1976," Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia. In the final sentence, Sarner evokes the meaning of the synagogue's Hebrew name, Mikveh, meaning hope.
45. Mikveh Israel Board of Trustees Minutes, October 16, 1974.
46. Mikveh Israel Board of Trustees Minutes, April 10, 1973; September 4, 1973; and October 16, 1974.
47. Minutes, July 9, 1974, Board of Trustees, Mikveh Israel, Mikveh Israel Archives, Philadelphia.
48. "KKMI Sale and Lease Agreement, 9/4/75," Folder "Construction Loan 9/4/75," National Museum of American Jewish History Archives, Philadelphia.
49. Ruth Sarner, "Chai: The First Eighteen Years of the National Museum of American Jewish History," 5; "Construction Loan Agreement, September 4, 1975," Folder "Construction Loan 9/4/75," National Museum of American Jewish History Archives, Philadelphia.
50. Ruth Sarner, "Chai: The First Eighteen Years of the National Museum of American Jewish History," 6-7.
51. United States Census of Population and Housing, Tract Level Data, Philadelphia, 1940, University of Pennsylvania Library Web extract, http://www.library.upenn.edu/datasets/philadelphia.html, accessed in June 2003.
52. "Membership Statistics," 1955, Martin M. Alsher Papers, Folder 140, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
53. The total membership in 1955 included 1,433 households.
54. Minutes, December 13, 1942; October 22, 1946; and January 10, 1950, Board of Trustees, Rodeph Shalom, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
55. Minutes, October 13, 1941, Board of Trustees, Rodeph Shalom, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia; "R.S. Youth Forum Membership List, 1953-1954," Folders 151-154, Box MMA4, Martin M. Alsher Papers, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
56. "Congregation Rodeph Shalom and Keneseth Israel Operating Statement of Income and Profit and Loss Fiscal Year Ended May 31, 1948" and "Congregation Rodeph Shalom and Keneseth Israel Assets and Liabilities, May 31, 1948," Folder 27, Box P/01, Arthur Magaziner Papers, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
57. Minutes, February 10, 1941, and March 10, 1941, Board of Trustees, Rodeph Shalom, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
58. Minutes, May 9, 1946, Board of Trustees, Rodeph Shalom, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
59. "Some Members of Rodeph Shalom Identified with Philadelphia District, Health and Welfare Council," Folders 151-154, Box MMA4, Martin M. Alsher Papers, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
60. Minutes, March 6, 1947, Board of Trustees, Rodeph Shalom, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
61. Letter from Sydney Markey to Rabbi David Wice, May 15, 1951, Folder Correspondence 20, Box MMA1, Martin M. Alsher Papers, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
62. Minutes, June 9, 1941, Board of Trustees, Rodeph Shalom, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
63. Minutes, September 8, 1941, Board of Trustees, Rodeph Shalom, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
64. "Congregation Rodeph Shalom and Keneseth Israel Assets and Liabilities, May 31, 1948," Folder 27, Box P/01, Arthur Magaziner Papers, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
65. Minutes, September 23, 1946, Board of Trustees, Rodeph Shalom, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
66. Minutes, January 13, 1947, Board of Trustees, Rodeph Shalom, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
67. Minutes, January 13, 1947, Board of Trustees, Rodeph Shalom, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
68. Minutes, January 13, 1947, Board of Trustees, Rodeph Shalom, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
69. Minutes, January 13, 1947, Board of Trustees, Rodeph Shalom, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
70. "Discussion of Majority Report," Folder 25, Box P/01, Arthur Magaziner Papers, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
71. These issues are touched on in almost every board meeting in this twenty-one-month period. See especially Minutes, October 20, 1947; January 6, 1948; February 28, 1948; April 20, 1948; October 26, 1948; February 9, 1948; May 17, 1949; and August 24, 1949, Board of Trustees, Rodeph Shalom, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
72. Letter from J. Solis Cohen to Mr. J.J. Herd, June 8, 1949, Folder 34, Box P/01, Arthur Magaziner Papers, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
73. Letter from Abe Wexelblatt to Board of Trustees, Rodeph Shalom, January 20, 1949, Folder 29, Box P/01, Arthur Magaziner Papers, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
74. Letter from Henry Glass to Board of Trustees, Rodeph Shalom, July 20, 1949, Folder 29, Box P/01, Arthur Magaziner Papers, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
75. Shelley Kapnek Rosenberg, Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, 150 Years (Elkins Park, PA, 1997), 23-23.
76. "Congregation Rodeph Shalom and Keneseth Israel Assets and Liabilities, May 31, 1948," Folder 27, Box P/01, Arthur Magaziner Papers, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia; Letter from David Wienberg to Rabbi David Wice, May 8, 1951, Folder Correspondence 20, Martin M. Alsher Papers, Rodeph Shalom Records, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Philadelphia.
77. Discussions with Ida Pomerance, Mikveh Israel, and Honey Harris, Rodeph Shalom, August 2003.
78. Jeffrey S. Gurock, "The Orthodox Synagogue," Leon A. Jick, "The Reform Synagogue," and Jack Wertheimer, "The Conservative Synagogue," in Wertheimer, ed., The American Synagogue, 37-149; and Sydney H. Schwartz, "Changing Styles of Synagogue Life," 149-151.
79. See David L. Varady's discussion of Beth David in "Wynnefield: Story of a Changing Neighborhood," 106, in Friedman, ed., Philadelphia Jewish Life.
80. For a broader discussion of the benefits of urban renewal in Philadelphia, see Bauman, Public Housing, Race, and Renewal and Kleniewski, "Neighborhood Decline and Downtown Renewal.