Lifelong Racine resident Max Gordon says that it was simply by chance that his Jewish family settled in Racine, rather than Chicago, where his grandfather originally intended to go.
Arriving in the late 19th century, Gordon said his grandfather only got off the train in Racine “because he saw the sign for the Chicago Rubber Clothing company,” and mistook the stop for the larger city to its south.
Though he realized his error, Gordon said, his grandfather decided to stay.
It was around this same time that many Jews began arriving in the area, according to Gordon, sparking the sudden growth of a Jewish community that had been “developing slowly over a long period of time.”
The Racine community will celebrate 150 years of Jewish history with a special service at Beth Israel Sinai Congregation on Saturday, Aug. 15.
The celebration will feature a special guest appearance by Rabbi Capers Funnye and his choir. Funnye is the spiritual leader of the mostly African American Chicago synagogue, Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation.
The service, which will be led by former Beth Israel Sinai students, will include an adult bat mitzvah. Federal, state, and local leaders have been invited to the celebration, which will include representatives from the American Zionist Movement. A Kiddush will follow.
Though Beth Israel Sinai is currently the only the synagogue in Racine, that was not always the case, according to Gordon, who worked to compile a history of the city’s Jewish roots while working as a Sunday school teacher at the shul in the late 1970s.
Gordon said the first Jew is recorded as having arrived in the city in 1850. A clerk of the city council, his name was listed as “I. Harmon.”
“Little by little, other Jews came, though there were periods where there were none,” Gordon said.
In 1899, the first congregation, which was Orthodox, was formed in the city. Consisting of 10 families, it met in individual homes. But it wasn’t long, said Gordon, until “a rift developed between generations,” and a Reform synagogue, Sinai, was created in 1915.
Finally, in 1921, the city’s Conservative congregation, Beth Israel, was formed. In 1925, it hired Rabbi Aaron Cohen, the city’s first full-time rabbi.
Soon, however, Beth Israel leaders realized they could not afford to pay Cohen so the rabbi worked with Sinai and “negotiated a merger between the two synagogues,” Gordon said.
The number of members continued to increase, then decrease again around the time of the Depression, Gordon said, but after World War II, the community reached its peak, and there were 300 member families.
Long-time member Ruth Hulbert, originally from Green Bay, moved to Racine with her husband in 1939.
“It has always meant a great deal to us to be involved with Jewish matters,” said Hulbert, who served as president of the synagogue’s Sisterhood for some time. In addition, her husband was synagogue president and her two daughters were both married there.
“My friends and I were very involved with the temple in our younger years,” she said, working on a variety of fundraising activities, including selling baked goods and organizing community dinners to support the synagogue’s kitchen.
“It was an exciting and vibrant time to be involved,” said Hulbert, during the time that the temple “experienced a great deal of growth,” and was an “important part of the city itself.”
In 1953, the congregation moved into a new larger building on 10th and Main Streets in Racine, and that is where it remains today. It continued to thrive, said Gordon, until the 1970s, when the community began to dissipate.
As older people retired and moved away, and children went to college, he said, membership declined. However, the synagogue has again experienced slight growth, and temple now has approximately 50 families, according to its current spiritual leader, Rabbi Martyn Adelberg.
Though smaller, Gordon described the congregation as “very enthusiastic. These are not just members in name. They come, and they help. Our adult education sessions and dinners are well-attended.”
Adelberg hopes that the sesquicentennial event will draw positive attention to his congregation, which aims to add around 30 more families in the coming months.
According to synagogue president Joshua Bloom, the congregation is increasing its visibility by engaging with the wider community, collaborating with other organizations and welcoming new families to the area.
Bloom knows about being new to the community. When he moved to the city from Chicago in 1988, he was “made to feel part of the family very quickly.”
“This congregation is inviting, welcoming, warm, and enthusiastic,” Bloom said.
Both of his daughters had their bat mitzvah services at the synagogue. “Rabbi Adelberg did an excellent job of tutoring my daughters” in preparation, he said, and they received plenty of attention during their studies.
That personal attention is part of what Adelberg considers the high quality of Beth Israel Sinai. The six students at its Hebrew school receive “private tutoring, all year round,” he said.
The synagogue is also working to be appealing to everyone, regardless of which stream of Judaism they identify with.
Adelberg said the synagogue describes itself as intentionally non-denominational, choosing to “downplay emphasis on the streams of Judaism.”
Instead, the synagogue focuses “on all of the best in Jewish tradition. We want to emphasize what we have in common versus our differences, yet respect those differences.”
“We welcome interfaith families and we welcome more traditional families.”
Newer members Jeff Collen, his wife, and two daughters, moved to Racine just over two years ago, from Cumberland, Md. Collen, who works at the YMCA, and whose wife is also involved with non-profit organizations, says “my wife and I are community people and we always hope we can make a difference wherever we are.”
“As a family, we are excited to be able to celebrate 150 years of Racine’s Jewish community,” said Collen. “We hope we can be a part of making sure that our Jewish community continues to exist and be a part of Racine for another 150 years.”
For more information about the synagogue or to RSVP for the service, by Aug. 5, call the synagogue office at 262-633-7093. You can also visit their Web site, www.bethisraelsinai.org.
A Milwaukee writer, Erin Cohen is a former assistant editor at The Chronicle.
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