A Jewish Gem of the South: Temple B'nai Israel in Natchez

Natchez, MS. Temple B'nai Israel. H. A. Overbeck, architect, 1905. Postcard, Souvenir Post Card Company, New York, William A. Rosenthall Collection, College of Charleston. 

Natchez, MS. Temple B'nai Israel. H. A. Overbeck, architect, 1905. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2016

A Jewish Gem of the South: Temple B'nai Israel in Natchez
by Samuel D. Gruber 

Last weekend I had the great pleasure of spending many hours over three days in the sanctuary of the temple B'nai Israel in Natchez, Mississippi, one of the loveliest and most comfortable Jewish spaces in the South. built more than a century ago, the room still works well for Shabbat services and as a meeting hall for a modest-sized conference such as the just-concluded Annual Meeting of the Southern Jewish Historical Society (SJHS). I was last at the Temple in 1992 - and it seemed then that the place was about the close, the small congregation disappears. But remarkable the stalwarts held on, and the now even smaller congregation remains devoted to the building, its history and the traditions and memories it embodies. But still it is scheduled to close - sometime soon - and transition has has been planned now for decades into a musuem and cultural center administered by the Institute of Southern Jewish Life (ISJL). Unfortunately, the decade of diminished capabilities have taken their tool and the building needs work. ISJL will need to raise considerable funds to ensure this Jewish gem will last another century.

Inside rows of very comfortable curved pews following the new 20th-century preference for wider seating (for wider bottoms?) and sloping backs, sweep across the broad interior. All seating is good, with excellent sight lines to the bimah and Ark and a sense of closeness no  matter how far. This same modern version of the old "broad-house' synagogue design was being pursued elsewhere about the same time - notably at the much larger Isaiah Temple designed by Dankmar Adler and built 1998-1900 in Chicago.

Natchez, MS. Temple B'nai Israel. H. A. Overbeck, architect, 1905. Sanctuary. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2016

Natchez, MS. Temple B'nai Israel. H. A. Overbeck, architect, 1905. Sanctuary. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2016

You can get a great 360 degree view of the sanctuary at 
http://www.synagogues360.org/synagogues.php?ident=united_states_035

B'nai Israel is especially loved for its brilliantly color and patterned windows, and its classical style Ark of dazzling white marble.

Natchez, MS. Temple B'nai Israel. H. A. Overbeck, architect, 1905. Sanctuary windows. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2016

Natchez, MS. Temple B'nai Israel. H. A. Overbeck, architect, 1905. Sanctuary window. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2016

B'nai Israel is one of a group of related classical style synagogues erected across Mississippi shortly after the turn of the 20^th century. I've written before about the rise of Classicism as the "brand" style of the Reform Movement at the turn of the 20th-century, but as I've been researching the this and similar building for the up-coming on-line exhibit Synagogues of the South for the College of Charleston, I've adopted a slightly more nuanced view.

After all, the leap in design from the previous Temple, which burned down in 1903 is not so great as in the case where classical style Temple radically replaced earlier Moorish style ones (as in Atlanta, GA and Birmingham, AL). H. A. Overbeck, who had already designed a synagogue in Dallas prepared plans for the new structure. The cornerstone for the present building was laid in July, 1904, and the building was dedicated March 25, 1905, with Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise of Cincinnati and over 600 others in attendance.

Natchez, MS. Temple B'nai Israel. H. A. Overbeck, architect, 1905. Portico detail. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2016

Natchez, MS. Temple B'nai Israel. H. A. Overbeck, architect, 1905. South side, former terracotta or stucco medallion now missing. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2016

The synagogue is designed as a tight block on a high foundation. A protruding porch, which serves as a small entryway-vestibule is reached by a slight of steps from the street, flanked by two pairs of tall smooth ionic columns set on pedestals, close to the facade. The entrance atop the steps and between the columns is a big arched doorway. The columns support and entablature and a pediment, and these dominate the building’s outward appearance. Inside, a small dome on a high drum sits over the sanctuary which is subtly lit through its high-quality stained windows that punctuate the building’s sides.

The sanctuary has a seating capacity of 450. The centerpiece of the building is a magnificent ark of Italian marble, located right under the new organ (listed on the National Register of Historic Organs) now, which congregants played at most services. With an additional balcony over the entrance (presumably for extra seating), the temple was built to house an ever growing congregation. The building is a testament to the wealth and prominence of Natchez’s Jewish community at the time. And yet, by 1907, B’nai Israel had reached its peak size with 145 members.

Stay tuned for some more posts about this building and the time, style and challenges it represents.
 

Natchez, MS. Temple B'nai Israel. H. A. Overbeck, architect, 1905. Balcony over entrance. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2016

Natchez, MS. Temple B'nai Israel. H. A. Overbeck, architect, 1905. Organ loft over Ark.. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2016

Read more at :lhttp://www.isjl.org/mississippi-natchez-temple-bnai-israel-encyclopedia.html

USA: Presidents and Synagogues

USA: Presidents and Synagogues
by Samuel D. Gruber

Today is election day in the United States and you can be assured that whoever wins, there will one or more visits to synagogues during the next administration. This is a long tradition. President George Washington visited the Touro synagogue in Newport, RI, in 1781, but not for a Jewish service, but for a town meeting. 

In the United States, Ulysses S. Grant was the first president to attend a synagogue functioning as a house of worship (the dedication of Washington, D.C.'s  Adas Israel in 1876). Since then it has been customary for presidents to visit synagogues – either as part of their election campaigns or for important occasions when in office.

In the spirit of the day, I mention just a few such memorable moments. Readers can feel free to mention others.

At Adas Israel, Grant attended he three-hour dedication service on June 9, 1876, becoming the first president to attend a synagogue service  He also contributed $10 to the building fund. Read an account of Grant's visit to Adas Israel here.

In 1898 President William McKinley attended the cornerstone laying of Washington Hebrew Congregation at 8th & I Streets, NW.  then on April 20, 1900, President McKinley attended the Passover Sabbath evening service at the Congregation Bnai Jeshurun, in Paterson, NJ, built by his friend Nathan Bernert.

William Howard Taft visited Rodef Shalom in  Pittsburgh, PA in May 1909. (I've written about this earlier - read about it here).

 

In 1952, President Harry S. Truman laid the cornerstone of Washington Hebrew Congregation, which was dedicated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1955. According to the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington, Eisenhower mused that it is incumbent upon his office that he should attend “such a great and significant event in the lives of one part of the great faiths that have made this country what it is, to pay his respects to that faith and to this event and to the people who have made it possible.” Read President Eisenhower’s entire dedication speech.

On Dec 28, 1963, Lyndon Johnson visited Agudas Achim (and his old friend Jim Novy) in  Austin, Texas, after having postponed an intended visit for the dedication during the same trip in which President Kennedy was assassinated. 

More recently, presidents make a point of visiting synagogues at home and abroad. George W. Bush visited the restoration of the Choral Synagogue in St. Petersburg, Russia on May 27, 2002. In 2005, President  Bush toured the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue just prior to a major event celebrating 350 years of Jewish life in North America. Read President Bush’s remarks. 

In 2011, former President Bill Clinton visited the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue for a wedding. Read about the visit in The Washington Post.

Barack Obama has been to shul at least three times during his administration. He visited the synagogue in Stockholm, Sweden, on Sept. 4, 2013. President Obama honored Raoul Wallenberg’s memory in his remarks at the Synagogue. Two months later attended a synagogue in Dallas.  Oboma spoke at Adas Israel in Cleveland Park (Washington, DC) n 2105, about the Iran nuclear deal.  Before the presidency, the Obama;s used to live across the street from Temple Isaiah in Chicago, and frequently attended events there.

USA: North Suburban Synagogue Beth El, a Percival Goodman Designed "Jeweled Crown" in Highland Park, Illinois

Highland Park, IL. North Suburban Synagogue Beth El. Entrance. Percival Goodman, architect of sanctuary, 1964; Bernheim and Kahn, architects of entryway, 1980s. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2016.

 

Highland Park, IL. North Suburban Synagogue Beth El. Sanctuary. Percival Goodman, architect, 1964. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2016.

USA: North Suburban Synagogue Beth El, a Percival Goodman Designed "Jeweled Crown" in Highland Park, Illinois
by Samuel D. Gruber

[14 July 2016. n.b. this post has been corrected to reflect the contribution of architects Bernheim and Kahn in the late 1980s]

When in the Chicago area recently I had the chance to visit for the first time the North Suburban Synagogue Beth El (NSSBethEl) in Highland Park, Illinois.  The congregation was founded in 1947, and after opening a new school building in 1953, built a community center and auditorium, where services were held beginning in 1957.  Only then did work begin for a purpose-built sanctuary, and this was designed by Percival Goodman and begun by 1962.
(Read history of the congregation here). Additions have been made to the complex in the years since, including a new and attractive entrance in the 1980s.

Dedicated in 1964, the fine and distinctive building, referred to as "a jeweled crown" because of its shape and decoration, is too little known in the world of synagogue architecture, and certainly has been overshadowed by its near-contemporary neighbor, the North Shore Congregation Israel by Minoru Yamasaki. NSSBethEl, however, surely ranks among the best designed and best preserved synagogues of the 1960s. In addition to its architecture, it houses an impressive ark, menorah and other metalwork by Ludwig Wolpert.

NSSBethEl is one of several synagogues of this period in which architect Goodman was clearly trying to come up with striking new designs in competition with the much publicized grand-gesture work of star (and not Jewish) architects Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Pietro Belluschi, Yamasaki and others - while maintaining the warmth and almost vernacular simplicity that marked his early work and adoption of everyday materials.

Highland Park, IL. North Suburban Synagogue Beth El. Percival Goodman, architect, 1964. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2016.

Highland Park, IL. North Suburban Synagogue Beth El. Percival Goodman, architect, 1964. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2016.

The key to the complex is a round drum flanked by a low sweeping entryway, around which is wrapped  a sprawling complex. The drum appears to be made of pre-fab concrete slabs joined together (presumably around a steel frame), a technology not-unlike Yamasaki's use of pre-fab slabs at North Shore congregation Israel. The round drum recalls the contemporary sanctuary at Brith Kodesh in Rochester, designed by Pietro Belluschi and also completed in 1964. While round sanctuaries have their problems, it is worth noting the North Shore, overwhelmed by the size and grandeur of their huge 1960s sanctuary, built a smaller and round one in the 1980s, designed by Thomas Beebe, at the other end of their complex.

Highland Park, IL. North Suburban Synagogue Beth El. Percival Goodman, architect, 1964. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2016.

Highland Park, IL. North Suburban Synagogue Beth El. Percival Goodman, architect, 1964. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2016.

The unusual window shapes, and the use of small rectangular openings filled with solid pane colored glass, recalls Goodman's use of color and light in the Fairmount Temple in Cleveland, Ohio (1957), and also recalls Philip Johnson's work at Congregation Kneses Tifereth Israel in Port Chester, New York (1956).

Highland Park, IL. North Suburban Synagogue Beth El. Percival Goodman, architect, 1964. Ark and menorah by Ludwig Wolpert. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2016.

 

Highland Park, IL. North Suburban Synagogue Beth El. Percival Goodman, architect, 1964. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2016.

Despite the curved shape of the sanctuary space, the rear wall does slide open - with much effort - to connect the space with the social hall, a favorite device of Goodman to accommodate the difference in congregation size between Shabbat and High Holiday services.

Highland Park, IL. North Suburban Synagogue Beth El. Percival Goodman, architect, 1964. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2016.

Highland Park, IL. North Suburban Synagogue Beth El. Percival Goodman, architect, 1964. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2016. 

I want to thank the staff of North Suburban Synagogue Beth El for allowing me access to the building on very short notice, and for their dedication to maintaining this exciting work of mid-century modern synagogue architecture.

Happy Birthday Henry Hohauser, Miami Art Deco Master (b. May 27, 1895)

Miami Beach, Fl. Congregation Beth Jacob new sanctuary (1936). Henry Hohauser, architect. Postcard courtesy William A. Rosenthall Judaica Collection, College of Charleston

Happy Birthday Henry Hohauser,  Miami Art Deco Master  (b. May 27, 1895)

Celebrated Art Deco architect Henry Hohauser was born in New York (Brooklyn?) on May 27, 1895. He studied at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn before moving to Florida in 1932, where he was able to create a successful practice even during the Great Depression.  His work include hotels, theaters, apartments and houses built simply and affordably and aimed at middle class budgets - especially of tourists. He designed more than 300 buildings, many of which today are part of  the Miami Beach Art Deco Historic District. Before there was Las Vegas there was Henry Hohauser's Miami Beach.
 
He was member of Congregation Beth Jacob on Miami Beach and built their synagogue extension in 1932 which today houses the Jewish Museum of Florida. Hohauser's career created the model for many other Jewish architects (often from New York like Morris Lapidus) who found work and reputations in South Florida in the post-World War II period. 

Besides Beth Jacob, some of Hohauser's best known buildings are the  Carlton,Essex House, Beachcomber, Congress,  Crescent, and Cardozo hotels.

Henry Hohauser died in Lawrence, New York in 1963. 

Miami Beach, Fl. Crescent Hotel, 1420 Ocean Dr . Henry Hohauser, arch., 1938

Miami Beach, Fl. Cardozo Hotel,  1300 Ocean Drive. Henry Hohauser, arch., 1939.

From the Jewish Museum of Florida: 

"Congregation Beth Jacob (founded 1927) was the first Jewish congregation in Miami Beach to erect a synagogue in 1929 at 311 Washington Avenue. As the congregation expanded in the 1930s, a new, larger building was built (1936), next door at 301 Washington, designed by congregation member and noted Art Deco architect Henry Hohauser. We think that the synagogue was Hohauser's first project on Miami Beach. Hohauser was responsible for the design of more than 100 Streamline Moderne-styled hotels, apartments, and other structures on Miami Beach in the 1930s and 40s.

Miami Beach, Fl. Congregation Beth Jacob new sanctuary (1932). Henry Hohauser, architect. Photo: ISJM (ca. 1990)

Miami Beach, Fl. Congregation Beth Jacob new sanctuary (1932). Henry Hohauser, architect. Wedding. Photo: Jewish Museum of Florida.

Miami Beach, Fl. Congregation Beth Jacob new sanctuary (1932). Henry Hohauser, architect.  Sanctuary when first established as museum. photo: ISJM (ca. 1997). 

Primary space, 301

The Museum's primary building (301) was erected in 1936 as the second sanctuary for Miami Beach's first Jewish congregation (Orthodox).

This structure boasts 77 colorful stained glass windows, eight Art Deco chandeliers, marble bimah, decorative exterior concrete relief panels and a copper Moorish dome. In its original configuration, the building held 850 people in theater-style seating with a women's balcony. The floor was sloped to allow worshippers to see and hear the religious services.

The structure was built at a cost of $40,000 with the same elements and materials as the adjacent original synagogue that was built seven years earlier. The front elevations of both buildings have the same gable and two-story rectangular plans. The central double door of 301 Washington Avenue has inset panels, highlighting the Star of David. The main entrance is elevated by ten steps surfaced in tile and is approached from three sides. Above the door is a large arched stained glass window that represents the giving of the Ten Commandments to the Jews on Mount Sinai with the rays of the Divine presence streaming down from the clouds. The entrance is flanked by coupled fluted pilasters of cast stone, topped by composite capitals with the fluting continuing in the arch. The original light fixtures and stair railings remain. Multi-color Art Deco friezes with the Star of David are located between the first and second floor windows on all four sides of the building.

A copper dome mounted in an octagonal drum crowns the outside of the building. Each side of the drum has an octagonal stained glass window with a central Star of David. The rear elevation is a symmetrical composition with windows flanking the central projecting beam. Above, a stained glass window depicts the Menorah.

The interior ceiling is a shallow barrel vault with seven Deco chandeliers and another larger chandelier suspended from the top of the copper dome. Six arches in the ceiling connect twelve columns on the northern and southern walls. The columns contain the Star of David and Menorah-like sconces.

When the structure was built, it had no air conditioning. The transparent glass windows had to be opened during services, letting in the street noises and the beach's blowing sand and dust. When Rabbi Moses Mescheloff (spiritual leader 1937-1955) addressed the congregation with the windows and doors open, he had to speak so loudly that he could be heard a block away. The sun shone so brightly that it was impossible for the worshippers to read their prayer books.

The solution was determined as installing stained glass windows that were designed by Rabbi Mescheloff with graphic symbols to proclaim the messages of the foundations of Judaism. They create an environment beautifully enriched with the aspirations of the principles of the Jewish faith. The stained glass windows, installed in 1940, were fabricated in Hialeah.