The Baltimore Hebrew Congregation is making elaborate plans for the celebration of its one hundredth anniversary on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, January 31, February 1 and February 2, 1930. The program will include religious services, a pageant and an exhibition of historical and art relics.
The congregation, which is the largest that worships in Baltimore today, received the first charter granted a Jewish organization by the State of Maryland and was the first to build a synagogue. Nidche Yisroel-“The Scattered of Israel”-was its original name, and its members a century ago worshipped in a room above a grocer’s shop.
In 1837, seven years after the founding, the congregation bought a whole building on land donated by Levi Benjamin, one of the five charter electors. Three years later its first rabbi, the Rev. Abraham Rice, came to take charge. Early in his pastorate the first reforming group split of f and founded the present Har Sinai Congregation.
In 1845 the first synagogue was built on Lloyd Street by the Baltimore flock, where members from Richmond. Washington, Norfolk. Frederick, Md and Cumberland, Md., came on festivals to worship. The temple was larged in 1860.
Later when the congregation introduced feminine voices in the choir, 22 of the patriarchs were so disturbed about this departure from orthodoxy that they left the congregation and formed the Chizuk Amuno Congregation, now one of the largest in the city.
In 1891 the greatly depleted congregation of only 38 members raised $150,000 and built the present temple at Madison Avenue and Robert Street. Its membership soon increased and the congregation joined the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and decided to worship without hats.
In 1915 its first American-born rabbi, the Rev. Morris S. Lazaron, came to take charge of the congregation. Rabbi Lazaron still is there, and the membership has trebled in the last 15 years.
The erection of a synagogue house across from the temple where forty-three young people’s clubs meet, was the next step. This houses a school where, among other things, modern Hebrew is taught by a Palestinian. Four hundred children attend. A sisterhood of 800 members, the largest in the city, and also a brotherhood, meet there.
Help ensure Jewish news remains accessible to all. Your donation to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency powers the trusted journalism that has connected Jewish communities worldwide for more than 100 years. With your help, JTA can continue to deliver vital news and insights. Donate today.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
