FAIR,  1895.
 

77
 

TEnPLE BETH=EL.
 

The congregation, worshipping at the above
named shrine, at Seventy-sixth street and Fifth
avenue, has been for many years one of the
most influential factors in the history of Re¬
formed Judaism in America. Under its present
designation it has existed only about twenty-
 

back to the very beginnings of the immigration
of German Jews to America, it having been
founded about 1828 ; it was the third Jewish
congregation formed in New York City. Its
beginnings were extremely humble, and carry
us back to quite other regions than its mem¬
bers are apt to frequent to-day. Originally
the congregation met in a small rented room

Copyright, 1892, by The Century Co.
 

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Temple Beth-El.     (From Central Park
 

one years, it having been formed by the union
of two congregations under the ministry of
Rev. Dr. David Einhorn in 1874—one of which,
called the Anshe Chesed Congregation, was
the first German-Jewish congregation in the
United States ; while the other, the Adas Jeshu¬
run Congregation, during the ten years of its
existence, had become one of the leading Jew¬
ish Reform organizations in America. The
history of the Anshe Chesed Congregation goes
 

in the lower part of the city ; and each member
in winter, just before Friday evening set in,
could be seen wending his way to these quar¬
ters, bringing along a piece of wood to be used
in rendering the place warm enough for occu¬
pation. Soon the increase in numbers and in
wealth manifested itself in the erection of a
synagogue in Henry street, which was con¬
secrated on Passover, 1840. Other German-
Jewish congregations were meanwhile being
 

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