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A
Short History of
It took some time for the congregation to establish roots and an identity of its own. Although Rabbi Mond's training was Orthodox, the congregation tried to embrace Jews of all persuasions. In 1963, however, it voted to affiliate with the United Synagogue of America (now the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism), and the synagogue constitution specifies that "the Congregation shall follow the forms, practices, and usages of Conservative Judaism". At first, the congregation occupied rented quarters, moving several times. Its own building, called the Zuckman Center, at 715 Fleming Road, was constructed in 1964.
The Norwood Congregation had been chartered in 1914, and, after flourishing for several decades, went into decline as Jews moved away from that community. Most of the members of the Norwood Congregation became life members of the resulting Northern Hills Synagogue - Congregation B'nai Avraham, and Northern Hills Synagogue also received the assets of the Norwood Synagogue, including several sifre torah and a cemetery in Covedale. In 1969, Rabbi Mond left Cincinnati because of his wife's serious illness, and Rabbi Henry Barneis was elected spiritual leader of the congregation. He served until 1972, when he retired to Israel. Rabbi Ephraim Rubinger served as rabbi from 1972 through 1975, and he was succeeded by Rabbi Gershom Barnard. Concern with membership growth and retention characterized the life of the synagogue from the beginning. In 1961, layoffs at General Electric decimated the new congregation, but, as more Jews moved into Finneytown and Wyoming in the late 1960s and 1970s, membership rose steadily. It exceeded 200 households in the early 1990s. Then, the dispersion of Jews around the Greater Cincinnati area and their movement toward the northeastern corridor became an issue which the congregation had to face. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, the congregation, like other Conservative synagogues, struggled with the issue of egalitarianism. After several years of compromise measures, the congregation's religious services became completely egalitarian in 1984. Although fear of "splitting the congregation" had played a role in delaying that decision, once the decision was made, the overwhelming majority of congregants approved of it. In 1987, changes in Jewish residence patterns again made their mark on the congregation, as it absorbed Havurat Tzedek, a group of people who had been conducting services at Yavneh Day School. Northern Hills Synagogue undertook to support those services, in order to meet the special needs of its members in the eastern and northeastern suburbs. The congregation maintained a Rabbinic Resource Person on its staff for several years, for that purpose. At the same time, however, many of the members of the former havurah became completely integrated into the mainstream of the congregation, and, in the summer of 1994, the Eastern Branch services lapsed. As the congregation grew and matured, it expanded its functions. A Sisterhood and Youth Group were established in the congregation's early years. During the early 1970s, the Youth Group affiliated with Young Judaea, but that organization, the youth movement sponsored by Hadassah, is not oriented toward synagogue-based Youth Groups, and, in 1979, the synagogue's Youth Groups affiliated with Kadima and USY. A Men's Club and a Couples' Club existed for a period in the 1970s. One of the first concerns of Northern Hills Synagogue was the religious education of its children. From 1960 through 1993, the congregation relied on the Cincinnati Community Hebrew Schools for that purpose, and a branch of CCHS was located in the synagogue building. By 1990, only the Northern Hills branch of CCHS continued to function, and its student body was composed largely of Northern Hills Synagogue children. The Jewish Federation of Cincinnati did not care to continue to subsidize what it saw as a congregational religious school, and many members of NHS wished to have more direct control over their children's Jewish education. On July 1, 1992, therefore, Northern Hills Synagogue Religious School opened. The first Educational Director, Sheryl Gross, had been the last Educational Director of CCHS, and continuity with the CCHS program was maintained. At the same time, efforts were made to strengthen the connection between the religious school and the congregation, and an emphasis on family education was added. In 1995, Haviva Horvitz became the Director of Education and Programming, and she was succeeded in 2000 by Rebecca Line (since her marriage in June, 2001: Rebecca Starr). Our current director of Education and Programming is Tracy Weisberger. By the mid-1990s, the movement of Jews to the northeastern suburbs of Cincinnati, a factor which had played a role in the Eastern Branch mentioned above, became a much more serious issue in congregational life. After a thorough study of the situation and much discussion, the congregation voted overwhelmingly in October, 1999, to relocate to the northeastern area of the metropolitan area. Property at 5714 Fields Ertel Road was purchased at the end of 2000, the congregation engaged the firms of Architectural Group International and Alan Scherr Associates to design the new synagogue building. Many committees went to work refining the draft plans.
In September of 2006, a "burning bush" sculpture was installed in front of the entrance to the synagogue. It was dedicated in memory of Norm Weiser, one of our founding members. It was designed by Julie Staller-Pentelnik and sculpted by David Klass. A unique design feature is that the "flame" is the Hebrew letter "shin", which can be seen from almost any angle. More photos may be seen from this link. Northern Hills Synagogue - Congregation. B'nai Avraham prides itself on being a "full-service synagogue" despite its small size. Its efforts have won recognition from the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, in the form of two Solomon Schechter Awards for Excellence in Programming in 1999, 6 in 2002, and 5 in 2003. In 2007, our congregation has been honored by the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism with four Solomon Schechter Awards for Excellence in Synagogue Programming. We received a gold award for Artzeinu, the Israel connection program which we presented together with Cong. Ohav Shalom and Cong. Beth Israel in Hamilton, a gold award for our membership programming, a silver award for Keruv, and an honorable mention for Chavurat Shabbat. These awards will be presented officially at the Biennial Convention of the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism, to be held at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando, Florida, November 29 through December 3, 2007. |
Northern
Hills Synagogue - Congregation B'nai Avraham of Cincinnati is the
product
of the migration of Jews to suburban areas and the entrance of many
American Jews into technical and professional fields. Among the people
who settled,
in the late 1950s, in the region of Springfield Township known as Finneytown,
were Jews who had grown up in the older areas of Jewish settlement
such
as Avondale and Bond Hill. They were joined by Jews from other cities
who had come to Cincinnati to work for major industrial firms such
as
Procter and Gamble and General Electric. These people formed the Northern
Hills Jewish Couples Club, which became the Northern Hills Jewish
Community,
which, in turn, became the Northern Hills Synagogue - Congregation
Beth El. The first Shabbat service was held on July 8, 1960, under
the leadership
of Rabbi Bertram Mond.
The
congregation moved into its new building on Fields Ertel Road in
March 2004, becoming the first Jewish synagogue in Deerfield
Township, Ohio. The new sanctuary retains many elements from the
old building, including the Ark doors and stained glass windows.
