Temple Sinai (officially the First Hebrew Congregation of Oakland) is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue located at 2808 Summit Street (28th and Webster Streets) in Oakland, California, in the United States. Founded in 1875, it is the oldest Jewish congregation in the East San Francisco Bay region.
Its early members included Gertrude Stein and Judah Leon Magnes, who studied at Temple Sinai's Sabbath school, and Ray Frank, who taught them. Originally traditional, the temple reformed its beliefs and practices under the leadership of Rabbi Marcus Friedlander (1893–1915). By 1914, it had become a Classical Reform congregation. That year the current sanctuary was built: a Beaux-Arts structure designed by G. Albert Lansburgh, which is the oldest synagogue building in Oakland.
The congregation weathered four major financial crises by 1934. From then until 2011, it was led by just three rabbis, William Stern (1934–1965), Samuel Broude (1966–1989), and Steven Chester (1989–2011).
In 2006 Temple Sinai embarked on a $15 million capital campaign to construct an entirely new synagogue campus adjacent to its current sanctuary. Groundbreaking took place in October 2007, and by late 2009 the congregation had raised almost $12 million towards the construction. As of 2015, Temple Sinai had nearly 1,000 member families. The rabbis were Jacqueline Mates-Muchin and Yoni Regev, and the cantor was Ilene Keys. The synagogue has two emeritus rabbis, Samuel Broude and Steven Chester.
Early years Founded in 1875 as the First Hebrew Congregation of Oakland, Temple Sinai is the oldest synagogue in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area.Olitzky and Raphael (1996), p. 54.Bibel (2009). It grew out of Oakland's Hebrew Benevolent Society, which had been organized in 1862 by eighteen merchants and shopkeepers from several foreign countries—predominantly Polish Jews from Poznań.See Olitzky and Raphael (1996), p. 54 and Rosenbaum (2009), p. 66. Although Hebrew Benevolent Societies typically ceased operations upon the founding of a synagogue, Oakland's was unusual in continuing to function independently for a number of years (the two groups did not merge until 1881).Kahn (2002), p. 237.
By 1876, the congregation had purchased land on the south side of 14th and Webster streets; however, due to a severe recession in California at the time, the congregation did not construct a building until 1878. The wooden structure, with Moorish Revival elements and onion domes, was completed at a cost of around $8,000 (today $).See Kahn (2002), p. 240, Isaac (2009), p. 15 and Rosenbaum (1976), p. 7.
Services were initially traditional, following the Polish rite. Men and women sat separately, but the mehitza separating them was soon done away with. In 1881 the new president, David Hirschberg, led a campaign to modernize, and convinced a small majority to introduce a number of reforms, including the addition of a mixed choir of Christians and Jews and organ music, and the removal of the requirement for a minyan. Traditionalists—who mostly came from the Hebrew Benevolent Society—objected and withdrew, forming their own Orthodox minyan, which eventually became Oakland's Congregation Beth Jacob.Rosenbaum (2009), pp. 66–67.
Levy, Sessler eras: 1881–1892 In 1881, the congregation hired Oakland's first rabbi, Meyer Solomon Levy. Born in England in January 1852 and raised there, he was the son of Rabbi Solomon Levy of Borough Synagogue in London.American Jewish Year Book Vol. 5, p. 75. Meyer Solomon Levy had been ordained in England as an Orthodox rabbi before he was twenty, and moved to Australia as a young man.See Rosenbaum (2009), p. 66, Rosenbaum (1987), p. 22 and Isaac (2009), p. 15. An early supporter of Zionism,Rosenbaum (1987), p. 22.Rosenbaum (2009), p. 108. he had served as a rabbi in Melbourne before moving to California in 1872 or 1873, where he served as the rabbi of Temple Emanu-El (then Bickur Cholim) in San Jose. Levy was paid $100 a month (today $), and donated a percentage to the poor.Isaac (2009), p. 15.
Levy came into conflict with Oakland's public schools, which refused to excuse Jewish students on High Holy Days. He petitioned that they be excused, but the superintendent and district went even further, and directed teachers not to schedule examinations for those days. Although sensitive to the needs of the members, Levy was more observant than his congregants, which also led to conflict. He accepted the reforms of shortening the Shabbat services, and facing the congregation (rather than the ark) during prayer, but he successfully resisted attempts to adopt Isaac Mayer Wise's 1885 "Minhag America" Prayer-Book.See Rosenbaum (2009), pp. 66 and 108, Rosenbaum (1987), p. 23 and Olitzky and Raphael (1996), p. 54
Although traditional in some ways, Levy was progressive in others. "Deeply affected by the enlightened spirit of his day", according to historian Fred Rosenbaum, he "delivered lectures with titles such as 'Progress of Science' and, while at the First Hebrew Congregation, he invited Oakland's Unitarian minister to give a series of talks at the synagogue. Levy in turn was well received at the Unitarian Church, where he spoke on the theory of evolution."
In 1885, the synagogue burned down, although the Torah scrolls were saved by a congregant who entered the burning building to retrieve them. Levy made prodigious efforts to raise funds for a new building, traveling as far away as Vancouver. The synagogue's female members also raised significant funds through a "Grand Fair". Their combined efforts were successful, and by 1886 a new building had been erected at 13th and Clay streets.See Rosenbaum (1987), p. 23, Olitzky and Raphael (1996), p. 54 and Isaac (2009), p. 15. The structure had "Moorish elements inspired by Isaac Mayer Wise's Plum Street Temple in Cincinnati".
The tensions between liberal-minded members and the traditional Levy were never resolved, and in 1891, the rabbi moved to San Francisco's Congregation Beth Israel. That year the women of the congregation formed the Ladies Auxiliary (Temple Sisterhood), whose initial mandate was to assist the work of the synagogue's Sunday school, and increase its enrollment.Voorsanger (1916), pp. 66–67.
During Levy's tenure, the synagogue had several congregants who were famous, or would become so. Ray Frank, the first Jewish woman to preach formally from a pulpit in the United States, settled in Oakland around 1885, and taught Hebrew Bible studies and Jewish history at First Hebrew Congregation's Sabbath school,Rosenbaum (1987), p. 21.Rosenbaum (2009), p. 121. where she was superintendent.Taylor and Weir (2006), p. 90. Her students there in the 1880s included Gertrude Stein, later to become a famous writer, and Judah Leon Magnes, who would become a prominent Reform rabbi.Rosenbaum (2009), pp. 67–68. Magnes's views of the Jewish people were strongly influenced by First Hebrew's Rabbi Levy, and it was at the building on 13th and Clay that Magnes first began preaching—his bar mitzvah speech of 1890 was quoted at length in The Oakland Tribune.Rosenbaum (1987), p. 23.
Morris Sessler succeeded Levy as rabbi in 1892. He had served at Congregation of the Sons of Israel and David in Providence, Rhode Island, from 1887 to 1892.Olitzky and Raphael (1996), pp. 54–55.See Landman (1942), Vol. 8, p. 260 and Landman (1943), Vol. 9, p. 17. His tenure lasted only six months, as "his ideas did not harmonize with those of the congregation".According to Olitzky and Raphael (1996), pp. 54–55. Rosenbaum (1976), p. 45 writes similarly "A Rabbi Sessler of Providence, Rhode Island, succeeded him but lasted only six months in the Golden State; we know only that 'the ideas of the people here did not harmonize with his'." He became rabbi of Congregation Gates of Prayer in New Orleans that same year, where he served until 1904.Lachoff and Kahn (2005), p. 96.
Friedlander, Franklin eras: 1893–1919
The congregation hired Marcus Friedlander of Congregation Baith Israel in Brooklyn, New York in 1893. Soon after he was hired, California experienced another economic downturn, which hurt the finances of members of the congregation. The congregation sold its property at 13th and Clay (which had become the heart of the business district) in 1895, and moved to a less expensive location at the northwest corner of 12th and Castro streets, and renovated the building there in 1896.Olitzky and Raphael (1996), p. 55. Over 500 people, both Jews and non-Jews, were sheltered in the building for days after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.Rosenbaum (2009), p. 173. The synagogue had 95 members by 1907,At the time only male heads of households were counted as members. with annual revenues of $6,000 (today $).American Jewish Yearbook Vol. 9, p. 132.
Friedlander and former congregation president Abraham Jonas persuaded the congregation to introduce a number of significant reforms in the service: they first adopted the Jastrow prayer book, and later the Reform movement's Union Prayer Book (though in a revised, less radical version published specifically for First Hebrew, and authorized by the Central Conference of American Rabbis).Wachs (1997), p. 125. By 1908, the congregation had eliminated the second day of Rosh Hashanah, and few men wore head coverings in the service, and by 1914 the congregation had moved completely to the radicalism of "Classical Reform".
In 1910, First Hebrew bought a lot on Telegraph Avenue at Sycamore Street, near 26th Street, for $28,000 (today $), and sold its property at 12th and Castro for the same amount. The congregation, however, decided not to build there. In 1912 it found a better location, and purchased its current site at 28th and Webster for $12,050 (today $).See Voorsanger (1916), pp. 66–67 and Olitzky and Raphael (1996), p. 55. Groundbreaking took place on October 26, 1913, and the building was completed there in 1914 at a cost of $100,000 (today $).Isaac (2009), p. 35. Fourteen thousand dollars (today $) of the costs were raised by the Ladies Auxiliary, which also purchased a new Austin pipe organ for the sanctuary at a cost of $5,000 (today $).Palmer (2008), p. 7. The new building was called "Temple Sinai", and thereafter the congregation itself became known as "Temple Sinai", although it retained the official name of "First Hebrew Congregation of Oakland".The name of the congregation is "First Hebrew Congregation of Oakland". The name of the current synagogue building is "Temple Sinai". See Olitzky and Raphael (1996), p. 55, Temple Sinai Bylaws, October 2006, Articles 1 and 2, and History of Temple Sinai (1875–2009), Temple Israel website.