Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities - Gainesville, FL
Overview
In the early 1850s, the small settlement of Hogtown Creek was chosen by local landowners as the new site for the fledgling Alachua County’s seat. The location, selected for its proximity to the proposed east-west Florida Railroad route, was intended as a hub for market and trade. When the time came to choose a name, a meeting was called and Mr. William R. Lewis, who wanted the town named for himself, and William Turner, who wanted the land named for an Indian War general by the name of Gaines, quarreled over what to call the new county seat. After “the speaking, the picnic, some near fist fights, [and] some political vote swapping on location and name,” Turner won out and Gainesville was named. The city was established in 1854, the same year that Florida became a state, and was incorporated in 1869, after a stint as a Confederate Commissary.
In the year of Florida’s admission to the Union, there were fewer than 100 Jews living in the state, and Gainesville’s population reflected these numbers. From the arrival of Moses Endel in the mid 1860s to the beginning of the 20th century, the Jewish population fluctuated between a dozen and two dozen individuals. Yet early in their residency Jewish families formed a close-knit business community and developed organized religious life. By 1872 the families had established a Jewish cemetery. In 1924, after years of worshiping together, a synagogue for Congregation B’nai Israel was completed and dedicated. The mid- to late 20th century ushered in change to Gainesville with the Great Depression, changing agricultural economy, Civil Rights, and the growth of the University of Florida.
In the year of Florida’s admission to the Union, there were fewer than 100 Jews living in the state, and Gainesville’s population reflected these numbers. From the arrival of Moses Endel in the mid 1860s to the beginning of the 20th century, the Jewish population fluctuated between a dozen and two dozen individuals. Yet early in their residency Jewish families formed a close-knit business community and developed organized religious life. By 1872 the families had established a Jewish cemetery. In 1924, after years of worshiping together, a synagogue for Congregation B’nai Israel was completed and dedicated. The mid- to late 20th century ushered in change to Gainesville with the Great Depression, changing agricultural economy, Civil Rights, and the growth of the University of Florida.
Early Jewish Community
Gainesville’s location in Alachua County is significant to its place in Florida Jewish history. In 1822, four years after Florida became a United States territory, Moses Elias Levy, a Moroccan-born Jew, immigrated to St. Augustine. Upon arrival, Levy purchased 52,900 acres of land under the Arredonda Grant. This land was located in what would become Alachua County in 1824 and included the present site of the University of Florida. Levy used another tract of land from this purchase for Pilgrimage Plantation, an intended utopian refuge for Jewish immigrants, located in present-day Micanopy. Levy relied on slave labor to cultivate sugar, while also becoming a well-known voice advocate for gradual emancipation. His son, David Levy Yulee, became the first Senator of Florida, and the first Jew elected to the House of Representatives.
Levy’s dreams for Jewish settlement in Alachua County proved unsuccessful by the time of his death in 1854. Yet twelve years later the area saw the start of a sustained wave of Jewish migration, beginning with the arrival of Moses and Matilda Endel. Moses was a Prussian-born immigrant, while Matilda was born in Scotland, and together they settled in the new railroad town between 1865 and 1866, after Moses’ discharge from the Confederate Army in Virginia. With them, they carried Gainesville’s first Torah.
By 1871 there were two dozen Jews living in Gainesville, twelve of them part of the the Pinkhusson family. In 1872, twenty-year old Abraham Pinkhusson died and was buried “along a cowpath some distance from the nearest road.” Five months later, Pincus Pinkhusson and Gerson Joseph, another Jewish community member, purchased an acre of land at the site of Abraham’s grave for $20 and founded the Gainesville Jewish Cemetery that same year. Moses and Matilda Endel, who died in 1892 and 1900, are buried in the cemetery.
In the 1880s Gainesville’s Jewish population shrank significantly when all twelve Pinkhussons left town. During this era the city’s population grew, reaching 1,400 by the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and 3,000 by the beginning of the 1900s. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, several new Jewish families moved into Gainesville, creating an influx of Jewish-owned businesses.
Levy’s dreams for Jewish settlement in Alachua County proved unsuccessful by the time of his death in 1854. Yet twelve years later the area saw the start of a sustained wave of Jewish migration, beginning with the arrival of Moses and Matilda Endel. Moses was a Prussian-born immigrant, while Matilda was born in Scotland, and together they settled in the new railroad town between 1865 and 1866, after Moses’ discharge from the Confederate Army in Virginia. With them, they carried Gainesville’s first Torah.
By 1871 there were two dozen Jews living in Gainesville, twelve of them part of the the Pinkhusson family. In 1872, twenty-year old Abraham Pinkhusson died and was buried “along a cowpath some distance from the nearest road.” Five months later, Pincus Pinkhusson and Gerson Joseph, another Jewish community member, purchased an acre of land at the site of Abraham’s grave for $20 and founded the Gainesville Jewish Cemetery that same year. Moses and Matilda Endel, who died in 1892 and 1900, are buried in the cemetery.
In the 1880s Gainesville’s Jewish population shrank significantly when all twelve Pinkhussons left town. During this era the city’s population grew, reaching 1,400 by the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and 3,000 by the beginning of the 1900s. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, several new Jewish families moved into Gainesville, creating an influx of Jewish-owned businesses.
Early Jewish Merchants
The Singer family, 1925. State Archives of Florida.
By the 1880s Gainesville served as a market center for the surrounding rural region, where farmers, especially sharecroppers, produced cotton and vegetables. Towards the end of the 19th century, the citrus and phosphate industries provided an additional source of agricultural prosperity. The railroad drew the development of new towns along its route and Gainesville became an export hub.
In the early 20th century, Jewish families often migrated to Gainesville because they knew an established merchant who was already there. Jewish merchants in Gainesville supported the endeavors of new arrivals who were looking to open their own businesses. Willie Sobel moved to Gainesville after a man he knew in his Russian village, Moses Edelstein, started a business in town. Sobel worked for Edelstein before establishing his own dry-goods store. After Willie Sobel launched his own business, his half-brother Sam Singer moved with their mother from New York to Gainesville. Sam also worked for Edelstein, and then with his brother, before opening his own store in Lake Butler, approximately thirty miles away. Sam Singer married Sadie Gilmore, from Georgia, in 1916, and they lived for about a year in Lake Butler before relocating to the larger town of Gainesville. They ran a store in Gainesville that “maintained sufficiently” until 1946, when it began to suffer financially. The Mazos and Rabinowitz families, relatives of the Singers on Sadie’s side, also owned businesses in Gainesville.
Marcus Endel, one of Moses and Matilda Endel’s five children, ran the Endel Brothers General Department Store in downtown Gainesville from 1885 to 1907. The Endel’s store was situated only a few blocks from the site of the Commercial Hotel, which was run by Mary Cohen Dzialynski from 1896 to 1902. The Dzialynskis are the “longest known continuing Jewish family in Florida,” Phillip D. Dzialynski having arrived in Jacksonville in 1850. Dzialynski was not the only woman running a business in Gainesville. In fact, women often worked alongside their husbands in family shops. One later example is that of Joe and Faye Silverman, who opened the Collegiate Men’s Shop in 1935. In 1961, the Silvermans moved their shop across the street, and Faye and her daughters ran the business as a women’s department store.
Jewish merchants balanced religious observance with the well-being of their businesses, especially as it involved Shabbat. Some, like Meyer Mazos, closed his store on Shabbat, which caused “financial hardship," since Saturday was the most popular day for members of the surrounding farming communities to shop in Gainesville. Other stores stayed open on Saturdays, but closed for the High Holidays. A 1905 article in the Gainesville Sun explained that Jewish stores would close at 6 o’clock Friday evening and remain closed through Monday in observance of Rosh Hashanah. Jewish merchants placed signs in their shop windows explaining length and purpose of closure to their majority non-Jewish clientele.
Although Gainesville entered the 20th century with a strong agricultural economy, several factors affected the success of these industries in the early 1900s. The boll weevil and a series of disastrous freezes decimated cotton and citrus crops; the phosphate industry suffered with the end of World War I; and the Florida economic crisis of the 1920s adversely affected the prosperity of the region. Just a few years later, the onset of the Great Depression brought additional hardship to Jewish merchants. During this era some Jewish families ran boarding houses and served meals to students at the University of Florida. The University grew steadily even as economic changes hit other sectors of the community, and higher education became a driving force in the city’s changing culture.
In the early 20th century, Jewish families often migrated to Gainesville because they knew an established merchant who was already there. Jewish merchants in Gainesville supported the endeavors of new arrivals who were looking to open their own businesses. Willie Sobel moved to Gainesville after a man he knew in his Russian village, Moses Edelstein, started a business in town. Sobel worked for Edelstein before establishing his own dry-goods store. After Willie Sobel launched his own business, his half-brother Sam Singer moved with their mother from New York to Gainesville. Sam also worked for Edelstein, and then with his brother, before opening his own store in Lake Butler, approximately thirty miles away. Sam Singer married Sadie Gilmore, from Georgia, in 1916, and they lived for about a year in Lake Butler before relocating to the larger town of Gainesville. They ran a store in Gainesville that “maintained sufficiently” until 1946, when it began to suffer financially. The Mazos and Rabinowitz families, relatives of the Singers on Sadie’s side, also owned businesses in Gainesville.
Marcus Endel, one of Moses and Matilda Endel’s five children, ran the Endel Brothers General Department Store in downtown Gainesville from 1885 to 1907. The Endel’s store was situated only a few blocks from the site of the Commercial Hotel, which was run by Mary Cohen Dzialynski from 1896 to 1902. The Dzialynskis are the “longest known continuing Jewish family in Florida,” Phillip D. Dzialynski having arrived in Jacksonville in 1850. Dzialynski was not the only woman running a business in Gainesville. In fact, women often worked alongside their husbands in family shops. One later example is that of Joe and Faye Silverman, who opened the Collegiate Men’s Shop in 1935. In 1961, the Silvermans moved their shop across the street, and Faye and her daughters ran the business as a women’s department store.
Jewish merchants balanced religious observance with the well-being of their businesses, especially as it involved Shabbat. Some, like Meyer Mazos, closed his store on Shabbat, which caused “financial hardship," since Saturday was the most popular day for members of the surrounding farming communities to shop in Gainesville. Other stores stayed open on Saturdays, but closed for the High Holidays. A 1905 article in the Gainesville Sun explained that Jewish stores would close at 6 o’clock Friday evening and remain closed through Monday in observance of Rosh Hashanah. Jewish merchants placed signs in their shop windows explaining length and purpose of closure to their majority non-Jewish clientele.
Although Gainesville entered the 20th century with a strong agricultural economy, several factors affected the success of these industries in the early 1900s. The boll weevil and a series of disastrous freezes decimated cotton and citrus crops; the phosphate industry suffered with the end of World War I; and the Florida economic crisis of the 1920s adversely affected the prosperity of the region. Just a few years later, the onset of the Great Depression brought additional hardship to Jewish merchants. During this era some Jewish families ran boarding houses and served meals to students at the University of Florida. The University grew steadily even as economic changes hit other sectors of the community, and higher education became a driving force in the city’s changing culture.
Jewish Life
While Gainesville operated as a significant market hub, it was also an important religious hub for the small number of Jews that lived in Alachua County. Though the county’s population had reached 32,000 at the end of the 20th century, Jews were a tiny minority. For communities where numbers were too small to form a minyan, Gainesville was the travel destination for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. In a 1995 oral history, David Singer recalls a non-ordained lay person, Frank Grossman, who was a cantor at the Congregation for twenty-years, acting as Rabbi for these occasions in the early 20th century. Services were conducted in private homes or rented spaces, such as the Masonic Lodge.
In 1921 B’nai Israel was officially incorporated and members started a fundraising campaign to build a synagogue. The building, located at Southwest 2nd Terrace and Southwest 2nd Place, was finished and dedicated in 1924. At the time of incorporation, a local funeral home donated a cornerstone for the intended building, listing the names of the congregation’s trustees. A dispute over the order of names caused Abraham and Villa Buns, who had managed the cemetery since 1919, to split from the congregation. The Buns family formed their own congregation, which was called Buns Shul and comprised mainly of University of Florida students who also partook in kosher meals at their home. As a result of this split, the cemetery and synagogue did not merge trustees until 1946, after the death of Abraham Buns in 1943. Villa Buns, Abraham’s wife, died in 1960, leaving most of her estate to the Gainesville Jewish Cemetery.
In the early years, B’nai Israel remained small, and University students helped to form a minyan for the congregation. During World War II, Rabbis started coming through Gainesville to serve students at the University of Florida Hillel. During this time, B’nai Israel made arrangements, through B’nai Brith, to employ the services of these visiting Rabbis. In the 1930s the Daughters of Israel, an early version of the B’nai Israel Sisterhood, was formed, and in 1933 they founded the congregation’s first religious school.
Members were varied in their observance of traditional religious practices. David Singer, who grew up in the 1920s and 1930s in Gainesville, remembers a cousin having a Bar Mitzvah but recalls that he and his brother did not. While some families kept kosher, to do so was a challenge, given that the closest kosher butcher was 75 miles away in Jacksonville. Families could order meat to be shipped to Gainesville on a Greyhound bus, but risked the ice melting too quickly in the Florida heat. Some families kept kosher in the home, while eating non-kosher foods out of the home; some only kept kosher for the holidays; and some abandoned the tradition entirely.
20th century Gainesville Jews were both included and excluded. While barred from some social events, they were part of community organizations, such as the Freemasons, and members of community sports teams. Even when included, non-Jews still noticed their Jewishness. In 1925 there was still a bar on Jews joining non-Jewish fraternities. A mid-century article in a Gainesville newspaper, reflecting on a particularly stand-out football game, referred to Duddy Singer as a “fleet-footed little Jewish quarterback.”
The 1919-1920 edition of the American Jewish Year Book lists Gainesville’s Jewish population at 61. The city’s total population at that time was around 10,000. As the University grew so would the Jewish community, with Jews from other parts of the state and country spurring steady population growth.
In 1921 B’nai Israel was officially incorporated and members started a fundraising campaign to build a synagogue. The building, located at Southwest 2nd Terrace and Southwest 2nd Place, was finished and dedicated in 1924. At the time of incorporation, a local funeral home donated a cornerstone for the intended building, listing the names of the congregation’s trustees. A dispute over the order of names caused Abraham and Villa Buns, who had managed the cemetery since 1919, to split from the congregation. The Buns family formed their own congregation, which was called Buns Shul and comprised mainly of University of Florida students who also partook in kosher meals at their home. As a result of this split, the cemetery and synagogue did not merge trustees until 1946, after the death of Abraham Buns in 1943. Villa Buns, Abraham’s wife, died in 1960, leaving most of her estate to the Gainesville Jewish Cemetery.
In the early years, B’nai Israel remained small, and University students helped to form a minyan for the congregation. During World War II, Rabbis started coming through Gainesville to serve students at the University of Florida Hillel. During this time, B’nai Israel made arrangements, through B’nai Brith, to employ the services of these visiting Rabbis. In the 1930s the Daughters of Israel, an early version of the B’nai Israel Sisterhood, was formed, and in 1933 they founded the congregation’s first religious school.
Members were varied in their observance of traditional religious practices. David Singer, who grew up in the 1920s and 1930s in Gainesville, remembers a cousin having a Bar Mitzvah but recalls that he and his brother did not. While some families kept kosher, to do so was a challenge, given that the closest kosher butcher was 75 miles away in Jacksonville. Families could order meat to be shipped to Gainesville on a Greyhound bus, but risked the ice melting too quickly in the Florida heat. Some families kept kosher in the home, while eating non-kosher foods out of the home; some only kept kosher for the holidays; and some abandoned the tradition entirely.
20th century Gainesville Jews were both included and excluded. While barred from some social events, they were part of community organizations, such as the Freemasons, and members of community sports teams. Even when included, non-Jews still noticed their Jewishness. In 1925 there was still a bar on Jews joining non-Jewish fraternities. A mid-century article in a Gainesville newspaper, reflecting on a particularly stand-out football game, referred to Duddy Singer as a “fleet-footed little Jewish quarterback.”
The 1919-1920 edition of the American Jewish Year Book lists Gainesville’s Jewish population at 61. The city’s total population at that time was around 10,000. As the University grew so would the Jewish community, with Jews from other parts of the state and country spurring steady population growth.
Mid to Late 20th Century: The University Grows
Jewish students outside Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity house, 1934. State Archives of Florida.
Gainesville was chosen as the site for the University of Florida in 1905, the result of a merger between East Florida Seminary and Florida Agricultural College in Lake City. The University began with 102 students and 15 faculty members—all male and all white. Beginning in 1947, women were allowed to attend, and in 1958 George H. Stark became the first African-American student to successfully enroll at the University.
Gainesville’s B’nai Brith founded the Hillel Foundation at the University of Florida in 1937. It was the first Hillel in the state of Florida. Jewish fraternities emerged, including Pi Lambda Phi, which was predominately Jewish from 1925 until the end of World War II, and Tau Epilson Phi. Tau Epilson Phi was founded in the late 1920s and occupied a house on fraternity row that included a dining room equipped to seat 100 people. In 1954, Faye Silverman founded the Delta Kappa Chapter of the Delta Phi Epilson sorority. Jewish students in fraternities and sororities participated in other aspects of campus life, such as sports, music, and student government.
The growth of the University and accompanying medical school were major factors in Gainesville’s Jewish population growth. Fraternity documents show a large number of Jewish students coming from South Florida communities such as Tampa, Miami and Palm Beach, as well as other states. The influx of Jews from other communities occasionally created tension with Gainesville’s established Jewish community. When the university chose not to renew a Jewish professor’s contract, he cited anti-Semitism as a possible reason and reached out to the Gainesville Jewish community. Since the professor had not been involved with them previously, they chose not to intercede. At the same time, adjusting to a North Florida setting could be jarring for South Florida Jews, who often came from larger Jewish communities. In 1987, former U.S District Judge Sydney Arnowitz, a Key West native, told the Miami Herald, “I never knew what [anti-Jewish] prejudice was until I went to college in Gainesville. That was a rude awakening.” In a set of 2007 remarks by Debbie Wasserman Schultz at the Jewish Museum of Florida, the Long Island-born Florida Representative described a freshman classmate at the University of Florida telling her she was the first Jew they had ever met.
Anti-semitism was not the only prejudice present in Gainesville. The KKK “roared” in the city, and Jews, though occasionally barred from other aspects of white, Christian society, were generally seen as white. Leon Singer, David Singer’s older brother, recalls his father, Sam, being asked to join the Klan, despite being a Jew. He describes how they told him, “Sam you are a special Jew,” and how Sam Singer declined. In segregated Gainesville, the mid-century Jewish population usually lived in middle-class, white neighborhoods.
By the 1950s the members of B’nai Israel felt the need for a larger space and a full-time Rabbi. In 1959, a building campaign began, with the purchase of land at Northwest 16th Avenue. The education building was finished in 1962 and until the 1970s was used only for religious school and programming, while the previous location was used as a sanctuary. In 1980 the congregation broke ground for the second stage of building, adding on a sanctuary and social hall. In 2003 a school administration wing was added as well. In the early 2000s the original building that housed B’nai Israel was torn down, though the original cornerstone and donor plaque was saved and is now stored in the foyer of the Northwest 16th Avenue location.
By 1960 the Jewish population of Gainesville had grown to 210 residents, and by 1973-1974, an estimated 700. In 1997 there were 1,600 Jewish residents in Gainesville and by 2007 the University had a Jewish student population of 5,500, the largest of any public university in the United States. Notable University of Florida Jewish alumni include Samuel Proctor and Tybel Burman. Samuel Proctor was a 1941 graduate and the director of the University of Florida’s first Oral History Program. Proctor taught in Gainesville for half a century and was an advisor of Tau Epilson Phi. Tybel Burman was raised in Orlando and retired with her husband to Gainesville in 1964. An accomplished jeweler, fashion consultant, and art collector, she joined the Department of Anthropology at the age of 69, and contributed to the creation of the first scholarship for Women’s Studies at the University of Florida.
Gainesville’s B’nai Brith founded the Hillel Foundation at the University of Florida in 1937. It was the first Hillel in the state of Florida. Jewish fraternities emerged, including Pi Lambda Phi, which was predominately Jewish from 1925 until the end of World War II, and Tau Epilson Phi. Tau Epilson Phi was founded in the late 1920s and occupied a house on fraternity row that included a dining room equipped to seat 100 people. In 1954, Faye Silverman founded the Delta Kappa Chapter of the Delta Phi Epilson sorority. Jewish students in fraternities and sororities participated in other aspects of campus life, such as sports, music, and student government.
The growth of the University and accompanying medical school were major factors in Gainesville’s Jewish population growth. Fraternity documents show a large number of Jewish students coming from South Florida communities such as Tampa, Miami and Palm Beach, as well as other states. The influx of Jews from other communities occasionally created tension with Gainesville’s established Jewish community. When the university chose not to renew a Jewish professor’s contract, he cited anti-Semitism as a possible reason and reached out to the Gainesville Jewish community. Since the professor had not been involved with them previously, they chose not to intercede. At the same time, adjusting to a North Florida setting could be jarring for South Florida Jews, who often came from larger Jewish communities. In 1987, former U.S District Judge Sydney Arnowitz, a Key West native, told the Miami Herald, “I never knew what [anti-Jewish] prejudice was until I went to college in Gainesville. That was a rude awakening.” In a set of 2007 remarks by Debbie Wasserman Schultz at the Jewish Museum of Florida, the Long Island-born Florida Representative described a freshman classmate at the University of Florida telling her she was the first Jew they had ever met.
Anti-semitism was not the only prejudice present in Gainesville. The KKK “roared” in the city, and Jews, though occasionally barred from other aspects of white, Christian society, were generally seen as white. Leon Singer, David Singer’s older brother, recalls his father, Sam, being asked to join the Klan, despite being a Jew. He describes how they told him, “Sam you are a special Jew,” and how Sam Singer declined. In segregated Gainesville, the mid-century Jewish population usually lived in middle-class, white neighborhoods.
By the 1950s the members of B’nai Israel felt the need for a larger space and a full-time Rabbi. In 1959, a building campaign began, with the purchase of land at Northwest 16th Avenue. The education building was finished in 1962 and until the 1970s was used only for religious school and programming, while the previous location was used as a sanctuary. In 1980 the congregation broke ground for the second stage of building, adding on a sanctuary and social hall. In 2003 a school administration wing was added as well. In the early 2000s the original building that housed B’nai Israel was torn down, though the original cornerstone and donor plaque was saved and is now stored in the foyer of the Northwest 16th Avenue location.
By 1960 the Jewish population of Gainesville had grown to 210 residents, and by 1973-1974, an estimated 700. In 1997 there were 1,600 Jewish residents in Gainesville and by 2007 the University had a Jewish student population of 5,500, the largest of any public university in the United States. Notable University of Florida Jewish alumni include Samuel Proctor and Tybel Burman. Samuel Proctor was a 1941 graduate and the director of the University of Florida’s first Oral History Program. Proctor taught in Gainesville for half a century and was an advisor of Tau Epilson Phi. Tybel Burman was raised in Orlando and retired with her husband to Gainesville in 1964. An accomplished jeweler, fashion consultant, and art collector, she joined the Department of Anthropology at the age of 69, and contributed to the creation of the first scholarship for Women’s Studies at the University of Florida.
21st Century
Jewish life in Gainesville has changed dramatically since Levy’s unsuccessful Jewish resettlement dreams and the arrival of the Endel family in Alachua County. The population has transitioned from a close-knit community of Jewish business owners, navigating an agricultural-market hub, to a rapidly growing community of Jews, often affiliated with the University of Florida and arriving from out-of-state or other parts of Florida. In 1984 a portion of the Gainesville Jewish population established Temple Shir Shalom, a Reform congregation, and in 1991 Shir Shalom opened a second Jewish cemetery within the pre-existing Forest Meadows Cemetery. In 1991 the B’nai Israel Sisterhood raised funds to expand the original Gainesville Jewish Cemetery, which sits on the corner of E University and Waldo Road. Between 2009 and 2010 the B’nai Israel congregation worked to install a Holocaust Memorial in the cemetery. Today the University has its own Jewish Studies program, and is the site of the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica, the largest collection of judaica in the Southeast.
Not everything has changed, though. An organized Jewish life and a sense of community have characterized the Gainesville Jewish community since Moses and Matilda Endel arrived with the first Torah. As of 2018, B’nai Israel is still going strong, with Rabbi David Kalman servicing 300 “member units,” and the congregation boasts an active Sisterhood, religious school, regular services, and an annual Jewish Food Festival.
Not everything has changed, though. An organized Jewish life and a sense of community have characterized the Gainesville Jewish community since Moses and Matilda Endel arrived with the first Torah. As of 2018, B’nai Israel is still going strong, with Rabbi David Kalman servicing 300 “member units,” and the congregation boasts an active Sisterhood, religious school, regular services, and an annual Jewish Food Festival.