Congregation Beth Israel

Story

Congregation Beth Israel is a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Berkeley, California. Established in 1924 as the Berkeley Hebrew Center, it traces its origins to the First Hebrew Congregation of Berkeley, founded in 1909. It was Berkeley's first synagogue and remains its oldest. Lay-led for four decades, it hired its first rabbi, Saul Berman, in 1963.Berman served until 1969, and was succeeded by Yosef Leibowitz, who served for 15 years. During the 1980s and early 1990s Beth Israel was at the vanguard of the baal teshuva movement in Modern Orthodox Judaism.In 1999 the congregation began an $8 million fund-raising campaign to build a new synagogue, a replica of the Przedbórz Synagogue, destroyed in Poland by the Nazis, during the Holocaust in 1942. Difficult economic times restricted fundraising efforts, and instead the congregation completed a more modest structure in 2005., the rabbi was Yonatan Cohen.Early yearsCongregation Beth Israel was established as the Berkeley Hebrew Center at 1630 Bancroft Way, the first, and still-oldest synagogue in Berkeley, California. Though the cornerstone was laid in 1924, the congregation traces its roots back to 1909, when Rabbi Martin Meyer, also rabbi of San Francisco's Congregation Emanu-El, founded the First Hebrew Congregation of Berkeley. From 1913 to 1916 Meyer's disciple Louis Israel Newman served as rabbi. During this period, small groups of Jews would rent space above stores in downtown Berkeley for Shabbat and holiday services. In 1924, under the name "Berkeley Hebrew Center", members of the First Hebrew Congregation of Berkeley built their first permanent home at the corner of Bancroft and Jefferson Streets.