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A Reform Temple in Chicago’s “ghetto”

December 14, 1923
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
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An event of importance in the history of Liberal Judaism in America is the dedication Sunday December 16, of the newly completed Temple Judea in the Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago. This dedication comes as the culmination of a ten year’s struggle to establish a liberal house of worship in the most thickly populated Jewish neighborhood of this city. There are some 75,000 Jews living within the square mile of territory which is called Lawndale, which has been the center of orthodoxy.

The rabbis of the congregation, first Dr. A.J. Messing and after him, Dr. Rudolph I. Coffee, labored sacrficingly for the cause until they were called awayy to other fields. Finally under the leadership of Rabbi Leon Fram, who came to Temple Judea immediately upon his graduation from the Hebrew Union College in 1920, the congregation began to labor anew for the completion of its Temple.

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