Congregation Beth Israel (, officially Beth Israel Anshe Litte – "House of Israel, people of Lithuania"The beginning
, Congregation Beth Israel website, About Us, History of the Congregation. Accessed August 29, 2009.), is an Orthodox

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

located at 10 Dexter Street in Malden,

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, in the United States.Synagogue website
Accessed August 29, 2009. It was founded in 1904 by Jewish immigrants from Lithuania. Facing demographic decline in the early 2000s, the congregation undertook a number of efforts to attract Orthodox Jews to Malden and its synagogue.Malden's Eruv
, Synagogue website, About Us, History of the Congregation. Accessed August 29, 2009.Katie Zezima

''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', August 6, 2005. In 2012 Beth Israel had roughly 100 member families and held services three times daily.Liu, Menghan. HOUSE OF WORSHIP SPOTLIGHT Congregation Beth Israel. Malden Observer. June 8, 2012. Beth Israel's first (and longest-serving)

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

was Dov Ber Boruchoff, who served the congregation from 1906 to 1939. Yitzchak Zev Rabinowitz joined as rabbi in 1997.

History

The congregation was founded in 1904 as Beth Israel Anshe Litte ("Children of Lithuania"). Their first home was a former Methodist church on Lombard Court in Malden. In 1906, Beth Israel hired its first rabbi, Dov Ber Boruchoff, who would stay on for 33 years until his death on

Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday and one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals. It celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Biblical Egypt, Egypt. According to the Book of Exodus, God in ...

in 1939.Papers of Rabbi Ber Boruchoff, Collection # P-157, Box 1, Folders 1&2: Marriage Records of Rabbi Ber Boruchoff 1906–1939, Collections of the American Jewish Historical Society, Newton Centre, Massachusetts and New York, NY. Beth Israel's second-longest-serving

, Charles Weinberg, was a national leader in the Orthodox movement. He served as President of the

Rabbinical Council of America The Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) is one of the world's largest organizations of Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox rabbis; it is affiliated with The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, more commonly known as the Orthodox Union (OU). ...

, one of the world's largest organizations of Orthodox rabbis, from 1960 to 1962.Eleff, Zev. "Mentor of Generations: Reflections on Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik." Yeshiva University 2008, p. 218. In 1993, the synagogue was targeted by a

neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...

group calling itself the Aryan War Council who threatened adverse consequences if an investigation into a recent desecration of a nearby Jewish cemetery was continued. In 1997, Yitchak Zev Rabinowitz joined as rabbi. Before joining Beth Israel, Rabinowitz had studied at the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia, the

Beth Medrash Govoha Beth Medrash Govoha (, pronounced: ''Beis Medrash Gavo'ha''. lit: "High House of Learning"; also known as Lakewood Yeshiva or BMG) is a Haredi Jewish Litvishe ''yeshiva'' in Lakewood Township, New Jersey. It was founded by Rabbi Aharon Kotle ...

in Lakewood, New Jersey, the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, and had spent five years at the

Kollel A kollel (also kolel) (, , , , a "gathering" or "collection" f scholars is an institute for full-time, advanced Torah study, study of the Talmud and rabbinic literature. Like a yeshiva, a kollel features Shiur (Torah), shiurim (lectures) and ...

of Greater Boston.About Us
Congregation Beth Israel website. Accessed May 15, 2016. Beginning around 2000, Beth Israel began a unique effort to reverse the demographic decline in what had once been a thriving Orthodox community in Malden, receiving national attention for offering low-interest loans to Orthodox families wishing to move to Malden and join the synagogue. In 2005 the congregation intensified these efforts, advertising the loan opportunities in national publications, and creating Malden's ''

eruv An ''eruv'' (; , , also transliterated as ''eiruv'' or ''erub'', plural: ''eruvin'' or ''eruvim'') is a ritual ''halakhic'' enclosure made for the purpose of allowing activities which are normally Activities prohibited on Shabbat, prohibited ...

''. The synagogue also offered scholarships for students to attend religious schools.Berger, Paul
"Malden synagogue pays members to belong"
''

The Jewish Chronicle ''The Jewish Chronicle'' (''The JC'') is a London-based Jewish weekly newspaper. Founded in 1841, it is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world. Its editor () is Daniel Schwammenthal. The newspaper is published every Fri ...

'', June 3, 2010. The congregation's financial capability to make such offers was credited in part to a sizeable "investment portfolio" derived from a donation of stock by congregant Morton Ruderman, a cofounder of the software company Medical Information Technology, Inc. (

MEDITECH Medical Information Technology, Inc., shortened to Meditech, is a privately held Massachusetts-based software and service company that develops and sells information systems for healthcare organizations. History In 1969, Neil Pappalardo began d ...

). In 2011 the synagogue began construction of a new ''

mikveh A mikveh or mikvah (, ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvot'', or (Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazic) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for ritual washing in Judaism#Full-body immersion, ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve Tumah and taharah, ...

'' intended for the use by women within the Greater Boston Jewish community. It has since been completed and is currently in use. In 2012, Beth Israel had roughly 100 member families and held services three times daily. , the rabbi was Yitzchak Zev Rabinowitz.

Notable congregants

Singer-songwriter

Norman Greenbaum Norman Joel Greenbaum (born November 20, 1942) is an American singer-songwriter, known for his 1969–1970 hit song "Spirit in the Sky". The song made him one of the most famous acts with a best-selling one-hit wonder for all time. Early life a ...

, who wrote and performed the 1969 rock-gospel hit song " Spirit in the Sky", attended Beth Israel as a child.Benarde, Scott R. ''Stars of David: Rock'n'roll's Jewish Stories'' (

University Press of New England The University Press of New England (UPNE), located in Lebanon, New Hampshire and founded in 1970, was a university press consortium including Brandeis University, Dartmouth College (its host member), Tufts University, the University of New Hampsh ...

, 2003), , pp. 186–187
Excerpts available
at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

Rabbinical leadership

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beth Israel (Malden, Massachusetts) 1904 establishments in Massachusetts Ashkenazi Jewish culture in Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Malden, Massachusetts Lithuanian-Jewish culture in the United States Orthodox synagogues in Massachusetts Jewish organizations established in 1904 Synagogues completed in 1966 20th-century synagogues in the United States