Our Past - "Hats Off"

One of the entertainment pieces for a program celebrating our Temple’s history was titled, “Hats Off.” It was a most appropriate name, because originally the wearing of head covering was banned in the Sanctuary. The founders of our Temple were part of the wave of German immigration into the United States that began in 1848. That migration brought with it German Jews, as well as Gentiles, who were imbued with a spirit of liberalism and a desire to break with many of their customs and beliefs. Our community, together with other Jewish communities around the country, sought to create a new Judaism with its antecedents in the German Reform movement, but nevertheless was uniquely American as well as Jewish, ultimately culminating in the creation of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Hebrew Union College. In its first 75 years, Temple Beth-El seems to have typified the Reform movement in America – vibrant, progressive, proud of its past while attempting to imbue its religion with the philosophy of rationalism and the goal of improvement of the world, a goal seen by the early Reform movement as a response to the ethical challenge placed upon us by our prophets.

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