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B'nai Israel 1894 — B'nai Jacob 1912 — one congregation again in 2019
The second and third congregations: The Jewish community that Achduth Vesholom organized in 1848 was joined, as Eastern European immigration reached Fort Wayne in the 1880s and 1890s, by congregations of the newcomers. The Jewish Federation's timeline dates the founding of B'nai Israel, an Orthodox congregation, to 1894; it disbanded in 1936, its members dividing between the other two congregations. Congregation B'nai Jacob was founded in 1912 and moved to the Conservative movement in 1938; it built a new home in 1955, left that building in 1997, and worshipped for a time at Bittersweet Moors and in the Achduth Vesholom chapel. The community's institutional centre grew up alongside: the Jewish Federation of Fort Wayne, headquartered with the Temple on what is now the Rifkin Campus, where the Madge Rothschild Resource Center also stands.
The union: On 1 July 2019 the members of B'nai Jacob officially joined Congregation Achduth Vesholom, returning Fort Wayne Jewry to a single congregation — one congregation keeping two traditions, Reform and Conservative, on the Rifkin Campus at 5200 Old Mill Road. The Federation describes the result plainly: "Our members are now one congregation with two traditions." The earlier community's commercial footprint — the Nirdlingers, the Wolf & Dessauer department store and their peers — is in the Business record.
Sources:
- Jewish Federation of Fort Wayne, "History" and "Community" (fwjf.org) — B'nai Israel 1894–1936, B'nai Jacob 1912/1938/1955/1997, the 1 July 2019 union, the Rifkin Campus institutions.
- Indiana Jewish Heritage Initiative, Compiled Jewish Heritage Initiative: Allen County History — the Eastern European immigration of the 1880s–90s behind the new congregations.
- Congregation Achduth Vesholom, "Our Story" — the merged congregation's own account.