Early Activities
By 1903 the synagogue was well established on Rivington Street, and, due to its capacity and prominence, was often the site of significant or mass meetings. In April 1903 a service to honor the memory of Reform rabbi and Zionist leader Gustav Gottheil was held there, and a similar service was held for Theodore Herzl the following year. At the latter service, which was boycotted by Orthodox rabbis, Herzl was not eulogized, nor was his name mentioned.
The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (UOJCA) held its third annual convention at the synagogue in June 1903, attended by around 100 delegates, and presided over by the organization's president, Rabbi Henry Pereira Mendes. The most important resolutions adopted at that meeting were one which deprecated the granting of a get (religious divorce document) to—or allowing subsequent re-marriage by—people who had not first obtained a civil divorce, and the request that congregations with mostly foreign-born members "secure an English-speaking rabbi for the benefit of their American-born English-speaking children". Pereira Mendes spoke in favor of the creation of a committee to bring victims of the Kishinev pogrom to the United States, and against a proposal by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) that the Jewish Sabbath be moved to Sunday. Pereira Mendes also announced that the UOJCA would "unite" with the UAHC and other national "religious, philanthropic, or educational" Jewish organizations in Washington "to discuss the subjects of vital concern to Judaism and Jews", while rejecting the proposition that "the main topic of the discussion at the first congress shall be the immigration problem."
At the meeting Albert Lucas also spoke out strongly against attempts by Christian groups to proselytize Jewish children in nurseries and kindergartens. Ostensibly to combat this proselytization, in 1903 the congregation was one of several New York City synagogues that allowed Lucas the use of its premises for free religious classes, "open to all children of the neighborhood".
In December 1905 a mass meeting was held at the synagogue to protest massacres of Jews in Russia and mourn their deaths, and the congregation donated $500 to a fund for the sufferers. In March 1909 Orthodox groups held meetings there to organize opposition to the constitution and make-up of Judah Leon Magnes's Kehilla, an overarching organization intended to represent all of New York's Jews, which lasted until 1922. A mass meeting of local residents and businessmen to combat Lower East Side gangsters was held at the synagogue in 1913.
The Rivington Street synagogue was also a preferred venue for airing issues relevant specifically to Romanian-American Jews. In 1905 it was the site of New York City's only memorial service honoring United States Secretary of State John Hay, who had worked on behalf of oppressed Jews in Romania. In 1908, the synagogue hosted a meeting of over 30 religious organizations representing Romanian-American Jews, at which the formation of a federation of those organizations was proposed, and again in 1916 hosted a similar meeting of "two hundred delegates representing thirty-five organizations ... to plan incorporation of the American League of Rumanian Jews". At the latter meeting steps were taken to raise $1,000,000 (today $21 million) for oppressed Jews in Romania, and to campaign for their "equal rights and their emancipation from thralldom".
The congregation carried out extensive charity campaigns during the Passover season; by 1905 the congregation was distributing wagon-loads of matzos to poor Jews so they could celebrate the holiday. By 1907–1908 membership had risen to 500 (up from 160 in 1900), the Talmud Torah had 250 students, and the synagogue's annual revenues were $25,000 (today $620,000). The congregation ran into financial difficulties of its own in 1908, and in October of that year raised funds by selling a number of its Torah scrolls in a public auction.
Members who would become famous included George Burns and Bucharest-born Edward G. Robinson, who had his Bar Mitzvah there in 1906. Robinson would later laugh that his propensity for taking the stage was demonstrated when he gave the longest Bar Mitzvah speech in the history of the congregation—"but the men sat still and listened".
In 1911 First Roumanian-American celebrated its ten-year jubilee at the synagogue. Guest speakers included United Synagogue of America president Solomon Schechter, Congressman Henry M. Goldfogle, and the principal speaker was William Jay Gaynor, then Mayor of New York City.
Membership had grown to 350 families by 1919. The congregational school held classes daily, and had 4 teachers and 300 students. The American Jewish Year Book listed the synagogue's rabbi as Abraham Frachtenberg, a well-known cantor.
Read more about this topic: First Roumanian-American Congregation
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