The Hebrew Orthodox Congregation and Sons of Israel: South Bend's First Congregations

Jewish settlement from the late 1840s · Hebrew Orthodox Congregation organized 1887 · Sons of Israel organized 1900 · William Street synagogue dedicated 8 June 1902 · listed in the National Register of Historic Places 25 June 2013

Arrival: Jews settled in South Bend in the late 1840s and 1850s, most of them of German origin. The National Register nomination for the Sons of Israel Synagogue names among the first settlers Theo Seixas, Meyer and Moses Livingston, Abraham Hanauer, A. Barth, Jacob Mish, Samuel and Moses Adler, Dan and David Holland, and David Pollock. Henry Barth opened a clothing store in 1847; Seixas moved to the city in 1857, Hanauer in 1859, and the Livingston brothers opened a dry-goods business in 1860. By 1878 the Jewish population stood at about 125.

Before a congregation: The community's first Jewish organization was a burial society. In 1859 Henry Barth, Abraham Hanauer, Theo Seixas, Henry Goodman, and Meyer Livingston founded the Hebrew Society of Brotherly Love and laid out a burial ground on the west side of Niles Avenue between Crescent and Cedar Streets. Twenty-two people were buried there before the Singer Corporation bought the ground for parking in 1883; the bodies were moved to Rose Hill Cemetery in 1884.

The first congregation, 1887: The Hebrew Orthodox Congregation, the city's first Jewish religious organization, was formed in 1887. The Federation's 125th-anniversary history of the congregation prints its Articles of Association, dated 7 February 1887 and recorded that day at the St. Joseph County Recorder's office: ten members associated for religious worship according to the Hebrew faith, to provide a place of worship, and to provide for the burial of the dead. The congregation met at the home of Louis Feldman at 720 West Division Street, later Western Avenue. The National Register nomination calls it "the origin for several congregations that formed after 1900 based on their interpretation of Jewish law."

The split of 1900: The nomination gives the fullest account of what followed. In April 1900, twenty-two Russian and Polish members withdrew from the Hebrew Orthodox Congregation and formed a new congregation, Sons of Israel, led by David Hurwich, its first president, with Peter Cohen and Hyman Kaplan. The Hebrew Orthodox Congregation's own rabbi, Rabbi Altfield, left with them and became the new congregation's rabbi, and a women's organization, the Daughters of Israel, formed at about the same time. The new congregation raised $1,800 and bought a lot on South William Street the same year, in the heart of the Jewish neighborhood — the blocks bounded by Western Avenue, Monroe, Taylor, and William Streets, where the nomination counts two kosher meat markets on Division (Western) Avenue between 1914 and 1943 and two kosher bakeries on Chapin Street from 1921 to about 1960. A National Park Service summary compresses this history into the statement that the Hebrew Orthodox Congregation "built the Sons of Israel Synagogue in 1901"; the nomination's own narrative, followed here, is of a separate congregation formed by the 1900 withdrawal. The newcomers were part of a larger wave: Russian and Polish immigration in the late 1890s and early 1900s raised South Bend's Jewish population to about 1,200 by 1912.

The William Street synagogue:(Some later summaries date the building simply 1901, from its cornerstone, and one says it was first used for the High Holidays that year.) It is a Romanesque Revival building with Polish Brick Gothic influence, of orange brick, designed by the South Bend firm of Freyermuth & Maurer and built by the Indiana Lumber & Manufacturing Company. The cornerstone is carved 1901; a block bearing the congregation's name in Hebrew and Star of David finials mark the front; inside, a balcony separated men and women in worship, a mikveh stood in the basement, and the ark stood on the east wall.

Rabbis and middle years: Rabbi Max Altfield led Sons of Israel for twenty-five years; he had been born in Niemstadt, Lithuania, in 1866, came to the United States in 1888, and lived at 527 South William Street. Rabbi Moses Feiwell, born in Russia in 1867, followed and led the congregation until his death, reported in the South Bend News-Times of 1 December 1933. Rabbi Irving Meiser of Chicago was installed in 1934. The congregation celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1951 with a special service and a dinner attended by some 200 people at the LaSalle Hotel, and published a fiftieth-anniversary booklet.

Decline, renaming, and closing: Membership fell as families left South Bend, a decline the Michiana Jewish Historical Society ties in part to the 1963 closing of Studebaker. In 1982 the congregation became Reconstructionist and took the name B'Nai Yisrael. The nomination and the National Park Service date the end of services and the congregation's closing to 1990; the Michiana Jewish Historical Society's page on the building says services stopped in 1991; and a 2003 letter by Mendel Piser, quoted by the Historical Society, dates the congregation's end to about 1993, when its artifacts were distributed — its yahrzeit plaques now hang in Sinai Synagogue, its Torah scrolls were given out, and one Torah was donated with the ark to the Historical Society, the ark later being used by Temple Beth-El during a chapel renovation.

The building after the congregation: The accounts of the building's ownership chain differ in their dates, and the record is printed here as each source gives it. The New York Times reported that the building, unused by a congregation after 1991, was donated to the Indiana Landmarks Foundation in 1991, that the foundation sold it in 2005 to Chris Wood, who briefly lived in it, and that the city bought it in 2007 for $130,000; the Jewish Federation had hoped to move the building to its campus, and the History Museum had weighed making it a museum of religion. The state historical marker erected at the building in 2014 says instead that the building was deeded to Indiana Landmarks in 2003, that Indiana Landmarks holds historic covenants on it, and that the city assumed ownership in 2012; the Michiana Jewish Historical Society says it became city property in 2001. The Park Service account agrees on the 2005 sale as a private residence, the city's purchase for $130,000, and a period of neglect after plans to move it or make it a museum fell through. In 2012 Andrew Berlin, owner of the city's minor-league baseball team, bought the synagogue and funded a renovation of about $1 million. The ballpark's left-field wall was torn down and the fence pushed out around the building, and the former synagogue reopened during the 2012 season as the team's gift shop; it remains the South Bend Cubs Team Store, the Cubs Den, inside Four Winds Field at Coveleski Stadium. The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on 25 June 2013, under Criteria A and C.

The Hebrew Orthodox line continues: The parent congregation went on separately. In 1906 it bought the building at 720 West Division Street where it had first met, worshipping on the second floor and renting the first floor to the Rev. Louis Feldman for a kosher meat market. In 1913 it bought land and a building on Taylor Street, and built a new synagogue there — the Federation's history dates its construction to 1922, while the National Register nomination describes a brick synagogue built in 1923 on South Taylor Street and says that building is now home to a Missionary Baptist church. The Federation's history and a Hamodia synagogue supplement instead record that the Taylor Street synagogue was badly damaged by fire — a suspicious fire, described as suspected arson — on 14 July 1970, when the 83-year-old congregation had shrunk from some 200 families at its height to a few dozen, barely a minyan, and held makeshift services in the charred building. A small group of members, among them Nathan Lerman and the Schulman brothers, kept it alive; Gerald Lerman donated land on High Street, and a new synagogue was built and opened there in 1971. The congregation celebrated its 125th anniversary with a dinner at the High Street synagogue on 13 May 2012, with Rabbi Meir Bulman as its rabbi. It worships today at 3207 South High Street (a Hamodia supplement gives the new building's address as 3100 High Street), with daily and Sabbath minyanim and the South Bend Kollel housed in its building; current directories differ on its rabbi, Notre Dame's places-of-worship listing naming Rabbi Meir Bulman and the South Bend Torah Life directory naming Rabbi Yosef Chaim Danziger.

Sources:

1. National Register of Historic Places nomination, Sons of Israel Synagogue (ref. 13000427), National Park Service gallery — settlement, the 1859 burial society, the 1887 congregation, the 1900 split, the building's construction, dedication, rabbis, and 1982 renaming and closing.
2. National Park Service, "Sons of Israel Synagogue" article — population figures, first synagogue built in the city, the 2005 sale, the city's purchase, and the 2012 renovation into the team store.
3. Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley, Our Community News, April 2012, Hebrew Orthodox Congregation 125th-anniversary history — the 1887 Articles of Association, the Division Street and Taylor Street buildings, the 1970 fire, and the 1971 move to High Street.
4. Michiana Jewish Historical Society, "Sons of Israel Synagogue" page and Substack account of the B'Nai Yisrael artifacts (citing Mendel Piser's letter of 18 August 2003) — the 1991 end of services, the city's ownership, and the distribution of plaques and Torahs.
5. Historical Marker Database, marker 76400, Sons of Israel Synagogue marker text (erected 2014) — the 2003 deed to Indiana Landmarks and the city's 2012 assumption of ownership.
6. New York Times account of the building's preservation (reprinted at andrewberlin.com) — the 1991 donation, the 2005 and 2007 sales, and the proposed moves.
7. City of South Bend, Miami Hills Neighborhood Plan (2020) — the congregation's 1887 start and 1971 move to High Street; Hamodia synagogue supplement — the arson account and the 3100 High Street address; South Bend Torah Life, Torah Institutions directory — the congregation and Kollel today.