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TEMPLE BETH EL

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congregation was shaken by the death
of its first rabbi from cholera in the
summer of 1854. Rabbi Liebman Adler
took his place on the recommendation
of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise of
Cincinnati, the founder of American
Reform Judaism.

Rise In Reform

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Two years under Rabbi Adler brought a
shift in Beth El's ideology. In 1856, the
congregation adopted a new constitu-
tion and bylaws that reflected the
American Reform philosophy, replacing
the Orthodoxy many in the congrega-
tion had brought with them from
Germany. Three years later, Isaac Mayer
Wise preached at Beth El, an event that
gained Detroit national recognition.
On the eve of the Civil War, Beth El
purchased its first building, a French
Methodist Episcopal Church on Rivard
Street. Shortly thereafter, Rabbi Adler
left Detroit to take a pulpit in
Chicago. Rabbi Abraham Laser took
over, inaugurating a 15-year period in
Beth El's history when no rabbi
stayed with the congregation
more than three years.
Adding to this upheaval was
the resignation of 17 of the 40
members. They had become
increasingly uncomfortable with
the changes Reform ritual had
brought to the congregation.
This schism resulted in the
founding of Congregation
Shaarey. Zedek, whose religious
philosophy embraced the
Orthodox path that Beth El had left.
In 1862, Beth El reaffirmed its
Reform status in its new constitution.
Other actions included replacing
Orthodox books with Rabbi Wise's
Minhag America, introducing a three-
year cycle of Torah readings, abolish-
ing aliyot (calling up to the Torah),
not requiring men to wear tallit
(prayer shawls) at services, permitting
men and women to sit together at
services, retaining the mixed choir

and music, and introducing the confir-
mation of boys and girls at Shavuot.
When the next building was dedicat-
ed in 1867, the structure was called a
"temple" and from then on the congre-
gation was known as Temple Beth El.
The sixth rabbi took his place in the
Beth El pulpit in 1869. Rabbi
Kaufmann Kohler maintained the con-
gregation on its Reform path, but he is
noted more for his work after he left
Detroit. It was Rabbi Kohler who con-
vened the Pittsburgh Platform in 1885;
parts of this platform still influence
Reform Judaism today. He was also
president of Hebrew Union College
from 1903 to 1921.
In 1871, Emanuel Gerechter suc-
ceeded Kohler as rabbi. From Prussia (a
region of Germany), Rabbi Gerechter
nevertheless replaced the German of the
religious school with English. One lis-
tener hailed his sermons (in English) as

W

e of the Reform school of Judaism,
whose privilege it has been to live in this
land most blessed of God, have long
seen in America the Jew's
land of destiny. Building
upon the old foundations,
yielding never so little of
the principles fundamen-
tal to Judaism, but filling
the old faith with a new
spirit and adapting our
forms to the spiritual
needs of a new day, we
have developed a phase of
Judaism indigenous, as it were, to this
soil, which has in it more of the intensi-
ty and the strength and the character of
the old faith than any form of that
nerveless, back-boneless Conservatism
that, in the Old World, bends and
scrapes before governments and reli-
gions..."
Rabbi Leo M. Franklin,
March 17, 1914

.

From page 6, left to right: Sarah and
Isaac Cozens' house in Detroit, Beth
El's original meeting place (1850);
Michigan Supreme Court Judge Henry
Butzel, 18th congregational president;
sanctuary in the Beth El building at
Woodward and Gladstone, the last
designed by Albert Kahn for the congre-
gation.
This page, left to right: Rabbi B.
Benedict Glazer and Eleanor Roosevelt
(1954); Ray and Ruth Einstein on
vacation with Rabbi Leo and Hattie
Franklin (c. 1930); after services at the
building at Woodward and Gladstone
(c. 1922).
Opposite page, left to right: Sisterhood
sewing room prior to World War I;
Young Peoples' Society dance (early
1950s).
'exemplars of dullness."
Notable during the antebellum peri-
od was a decline in members' religious
activity, despite the well-educated quali-
ty of its numerous rabbis and the
growth of the congregation (from 23 in
1861 to 70 families by 1870). By the
time Rabbi Heinrich Zirndorf left
Temple Beth El in 1884, attendance at
services was remarkably low.

Americans First

The Jews of Temple Beth El in the last
two decades of the 19th century were
concerned with becoming "American."
The majority of the membership (79
percent) counted itself in the profes-
sional class by 1878.
Samuel and Simon Heavenrich, for
example, had formed a clothing busi-
ness in 1863. By 1871, they owned a
large building, employed more than
350 people, and were grossing over
$500,000 per year. Less than 20 years
after arriving from Germany, Magnus
and Martin Butzel's clothing firm
employed 425 workers. By 1878, Julius
Freund was a millionaire as a result of
his real estate transactions.
In 1876, English was used in the
new constitution and bylaws; in that