HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN NIAGARA FALLS

Niagara Falls Gazette, May 17, 1954, Page 6-A

Judaism in Niagara Falls has been distinguished by well known local names and some known nationally.
The first Jewish organization was orthodox but later became the reformed Temple Beth El. It was started in 1961 or 1862, when a few families gathered at each other's homes on High Holy Days. This group, combined with others, bought a cemetery tract for people of the faith in Riverdale.
Names of these founders, familiar today, include Henry Elbe, Max Brooks, Samuel Cohn, David Oppenheim, Marcus Silberberg, Samuel Hirsch, Solomon Schwartz, and the four Einstein brothers, Moses, Samuel, Abraham and Feis.
During the 1870s the small group met at a hall above Silberberg's store, Main St. and Ontario Ave. A Sabbath school was instituted with the help of Dr. Samuel Falk, Temple Beth…Buffalo. Early teachers were Sarah, Moses, and Louis Silberberg.
Even in the 1870s members were active in B'nai Brith, then a benevolent order. There was also another lodge, Independent Order of Free Sons of Israel.
In 1887 temple rooms were established at the new Silberberg Building in Main Street. That year the temple became affiliated with the reformed Union of American Hebrew Congregations. First ministers were students of the Hebrew Union College. Some of these men and some who served later went on to become national Jewish leaders.
Today's leading American Jew, Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver – top American leader in establishing the Jewish state – led services here in 1916, Rabbi Barnett Brickner, who will become president of Central Council of American Rabbis in June, also served here.
Others who officiated during High Holy Days here are Rabbi Benjamin Friedman, who left here to become a World War I Army chaplain and is now in Syracuse; Rabbi Solomon Fineberg, author of several books on race relations, and Abraham Fineberg, now in Toronto as Rabbi of the largest temple in Canada.
The Congregation was incorporated in 1905 and the present temple was dedicated in October 1915. One of the memorable events in the Temple's history was the burning of the mortgages on ….14, 1923, when Dr. Julius Morganstein, president of Hebrew Union College, spoke.
One of the modern leaders in the group is its president, Abraham Weil, who has served in that office for an aggregate of nearly 30 years.
The larger conservative Jewish temple here, Temple Beth Israel, started with ten families in 1898. It was incorporated as a religious corporation on Nov. 17, 1905. This small band met, respectively, at Mayle Hall in Third Street, the Crick Building, Falls and Third, and at the home of Louis Wisbaum, 419 Main St.
Temple Beth Israel's present home in Cedar Avenue was built in 1911 and at about the same time land was bought to form the Cemetery Beth Israel, Military Road. At that time there were only 22 members. It has grown to today's membership of 168 families.
Early members were Abraham Atlas, Moses Boff, Isaac Traub, Frank Pierce, Ely Ureles, Samule Kurtzman, and Philip Paltrovitch. Members who have served as president of the Temple through the years include Joseph Goldstein, Felix and Benjamin Gellman, Hyman Silbergeld, Simon Dimet, Eugene Lunken and William Nimmelman.
Franklin C. Wisbaum, secretary of the organization, started in that office in his late teens and has served constantly for 30 years.