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Looking
Back 100 Years
PART ONE: OUR BEGINNINGS
This
month (April 2007), we begin our One Hundreth Year and take the first PART ONE: OUR BEGINNINGS
step on our retrospective journey over a century. We turn our thoughts to
April 6, 1908, the date that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts granted
a charter to the Norwood Hebrew Congregation exactly ninety-nine years
ago. Who brought about this event? We need to turn back even a few more pages.
Benjamin Cushing in later years Conger Building
(photo courtesy of Judi Hershman) (photo courtesy of Norwod Historical Society)
Norwood's first Jewish residents, Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Cushing, moved
into town in 1899. Six years later, in 1905, additional Jewish families began
to settle in Norwood. Some of them purchased a Torah scroll in time for the
1907 High Holidays. They celebrated a Siyum Torah in Conger Hall, at the
corner of Railroad Avenue and Washington Street. This event, also attended
by out-of-town guests, raised about $180 for the fledgling congregation of
about seventeen families.
They organized themselves as the Norwood Hebrew Congregation and
applied for a charter from the state. Granted on April 6, 1908, our
congregation’s official “date of birth,” the charter listed the following
individuals as members of the newly organized corporation:
Alan Gainsberg Benjamin Cushing Charles Metcalf
David Silverman Lion Cushing Louis Walter
Leonard Goldberg Moris Hoffman Nathan Goldberg
Nathan Shepard Louis Aster Marcus Wygon
Alec Yompolski Harry Grossman Osher Glosberg
Alic Cushing Louis Fliegelman
Following these names, the charter added, “and others, their associates
and successors.” Successors. So here -- if we wish to see it -- we find
reference to ourselves, as well.
One hundred years is not very long in a story over three thousand years
old. We are nearing Passover, when we relive our beginnings as a people
and recount the Exodus with the mindset that we were present and
participating ourselves. We were there. As Jews, we walk the timeline of
our history and cast our eyes both forward and back. We bear witness again
and again to events each time the calendar turns to their special seasons.
This year, the fourth day of Passover, April sixth, will find us at the beginning
of our One Hundredth Year on the English calendar. It will be ninety-nine years
since the charter established our congregation, specifying not only its original
members, but also their successors. All of us. We were there.
May this season be the beginning of a year of joyous celebration and
awareness of ourselves as a continuous community.
Next month: The Early Years Carol Turkewitz
Looking
Back 100 Years
PART TWO: THE EARLY YEARS
As we
start the second month (May 2007) of our One Hundreth Year, we PART TWO: THE EARLY YEARS
walk the timeline of our second decade as a community in Norwood. The
Norwood Hebrew Congregation continued to grow. Lacking a permanent
location, our members continued to meet in various public buildings in
Norwood, including Conger Hall, the Odd Fellows Building, and Elks Hall.
We enjoyed the goodwill and hospitality of our non-Jewish neighbors in
the town.
Elk's Hall (later the Norwood Press Club) Early street scene, Norwood
(photo courtesy of Norwod Historical Society) (photo courtesy of Norwod Historical Society)
Norwood continued to grow. Its successful industrial base included the Winslow
Brothers & Smith Tannery, the Bird & Sons roofing plant on Pleasant Street,
and a growing printing industry. Retail businesses grew. Louis Orent, active member
of the Jewish congregation, opended the original Orent Brothers store with his brother
Herman on Guild Street in 1912. George Willett, tannery founder and civic leader,
purchased a private hospital and contributed significant funds to what would later
become Norwood Hospital. Immigrants from many countries settled in Norwood.
Employment was good, and the triple-decker homes in South Norwood were built
to meet new housing neeeds. The Norwood Hebrew Congregation started its
Religious School in 1915. The overall student population in Norwood was
growing, and construction was begun on a new junior-senior high school
(now the Guild Medical Building), completed in 1919.
Our local community was, of course, affected by the changes and movements
of this turbulent decade. In 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New
York City killed 145 workers, including many Jewish women and girls. This
event galvanized the labor movement, whose leaders included Jewish men
and women. Many Jewish women went on to become active in the suffrage
movement, as well.
We were also part of the international community. In 1910, the Jews of. Spain
were granted full equality. The Russian Jews were granted full legal equality
after the Bolshevik victory in 1917. However, as the year continued, their
rights continued to shrink. Thousands of Jews in the Ukraine were killed in
pogroms led by warring Russian groups. In Palestine, the victorious British
issued the Balfour teclaration, favoring establishment of a Jewish homeland
there. In 1918, br. Chaim Weitzman laid the foundation stone for the Hebrew
University on Mt. Scopus in Jerusalem.
Back in the United States, men lined up to register for the draft in 1917 and
1918. The Orent brothers and over six hundred other men from Norwood
served during World War I. The names of those who lost their lives can be
read on the plaque inside our Town Hall. More deadly at home, however,
was the national influenza epidemic, which took the lives of over ninety
Norwood residents over five months from 1918 to 1919.
Our community’s second decade ended with a growing Jewish population
in a hospitable town that was looking ahead to peacetime. We began to
think about building a synagogue of our own.
Next month: The Twenties Carol Turkewitz
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Looking
Back 100 Years
PART THREE: THE TWENTIES
PART THREE: THE TWENTIES
We entered a new decade with a different feel to it. Peacetime. Pride and
gratitude for our soldiers' safe and victorious return to Norwood. The
promise of prosperity and continued growth. A time to build.
On a Sunday afternoon in 1920, members of the Norwood Hebrew
Congregation gathered in Fraternity Hall to raise funds and plan for the
building of a synagogue in Norwood. It was February 8th. Mr. Alec Cushing
was elected chairman of the committee created to carry out these plans.
Mr. Benjamin Lappin was elected treasurer. Others on the committee
included Louis Orent, Phillip Harris, Dr. George Klein, Abraham Fineman,
and Mr. Luberman. By the end of the meeting, Alec Cushing announced
that $1,500 had already been raised and projected that the amount would
be doubled shortly.
Plans went forward. By 1924, our congregation had secured property on
Washington Street and was ready to break ground. Much of the foundation
was laid by Rosh Hashonah. These would be our last High Holidays in the
Odd Fellows Hall.
A large crowd of over 500 people attended the cornerstone laying ceremony
on Sunday afternoon, November 2. Invitations had gone out to several
hundred non-Jewish members of the Norwood community, and all Norwood
residents were welcome to attend. Speakers included the Hon. Elihu D.
Stone, Massachusetts Assistant District Attorney. Thomas B. Mulvehill,
chairman of the Norwood Board of Selectmen; Dr. Fredrick Cleveland,
chairman of the Norwood School Board; and many other dignitaries
including politicians and area Jewish and non-Jewish clergy. On that single
day, over four thousand dollars were contributed to the building fund, with
many contributions from our non-Jewish neighbors in Norwood.
The building was ready in less than one year. At a large and impressive
ceremony on Sunday afternoon, August 30, 1925, the Norwood Hebrew
Congregation dedicated our new synagogue. It would henceforth be known
as Temple Shaare Tefilah, translated a "Gates of Prayer". Members, local
dignitaries, area rabbis, and our Norwood neighbors filled the synagogue.
We were mid-decade and enjoying what seemed like never-ending
prosperity and security.
Next month: The Thirties Carol Turkewitz
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Looking
Back 100 Years
PART FOUR: THE THIRTIES
PART FOUR: THE THIRTIES
The twenties had ended, quite literally, with a crash. Postwar optimism was
giving way to caution and economic depression. And yet.... Americans were
still looking up to heroes and reaching toward prosperity. In Norwood, a new
municipal airport opened in 1930 and became associated with Wiggins Airways
two years later. By 1931, New Yorkers were gazing up at the newly completed
Empire State Building. Everyone soared with Amelia Earhardt in 1932 but also
mourned the Lindberghs' tragic loss. We could not contain the forces of evil, but
we did split the atom that year. And then came 1933.
New York, 1933. March to protest Nazi oppression and anti-Jewish
persecution. Natl. Archives and Records Administration/USHMM #69040(US
Holocaust Memorial Museum website).
Following Hitler’s rise to Chancellor of the Third Reich in January 1933, a
campaign of violence and oppression intensified against the Jews of Germany.
After much debate and worry among the American Jewish Congress, Bnai
B’rith, and the American Jewish Committee about whether protests would help
or harm the situation, plans went forward. Approximately l,500 representatives
of Jewish organizations met in New York for an emergency planning conference
in mid-March. On March 27, massive protest rallies convened simultaneously in
76 American cities, including New York and Boston. Our Shaare Tefilah
members in Norwood, no doubt, followed the day’s events closely and in all
likelihood participated.
The Nazi government denounced these rallies and countered with a boycott and
closing of German Jewish businesses beginning April 1. Impatient with the U.S.
ambassador’s meek protests in Berlin, the Jewish War Veterans led other
American Jewish organizations in a boycott of German goods.
At home in Norwood, we supported the boycott of German products and watched
in frustration as the situation in Germany, nevertheless, spiraled downward: the
Nuremburg Laws in 1935, the Nazi Olympics in 1936, the annexation of Austria
and then Kristallnacht in 1938. The German ocean-liner “St. Louis” carried 937
passengers on a futile trip from Germany, past the U.S. and Cuba, and back to
Europe. Economic depression in the U.S. was fueling reluctance to make
exceptions to immigration laws.
Locally, Norwood was hoping for growth but looking at reality. A new strip of land
became available for commercial development in 1934, when the Norwood
section of the Boston-Providence Highway was completed. But economic times
were tough, with at least two strikes at the Winslow and Smith tannery. Norwood
residents suffered further losses in the devastating hurricane of 1938.
Fortunately, that same year, Irving Berlin was writing his final version of “God Bless
America”. It would be ready just in time.
Next month: The Forties Carol Turkewitz
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LOOKING
BACK 100 YEARS
PART FIVE: THE FORTIES
PART FIVE: THE FORTIES
The 1940’s began with a cold winter in Norwood. Monthly board meetings of the
N.H.C. (Norwood Hebrew Congregation, as we still often called ourselves)
resumed in February, 1940, two months after a fire had damaged the
synagogue's vestry and boiler room. Minutes of the February meeting discussed
allocation of funds for repair of the fire damage, which could have been much
worse. We knew that we were lucky.
It was a cold February 1940 in Poland, as well. Germany had begun setting up
the Lodz Ghetto. The first group of Jews was deported into Poland from
Germany. By April, Auschwitz was under construction.
In Norwood, the Peabody School would soon be under construction beside the
high school. Life continued as usual, although the war was coming closer.
Holland fell to Germany in May. France was divided and occupied in June. In
America, the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League (successor to the American
League for the Defense of Jewish Rights, which had organized the 1933
boycott of Germany) continued to lobby and educate the public. Minutes of
our synagogue’s board meeting in June, 1940, mention support of this
organization. In France, meanwhile, many Jews were joining the growing
resistance movements.
Italy declared war on the Allies in June and bombed Haifa and Tel Aviv in July.
At home, residents read and listened as bad news flowed from more and
more countries. Almost 1,800 Norwood men registered for the draft in
October, and those selected by lottery left for training in November.
At Shaare Tefilah, we were feeling the need for professional spiritual leadership.
Our first Rabbi, Dr. Isaiah Wohlgemuth, joined the congregation that November.
Rationing began for paper and gasoline in 1941, even before the U.S.entered
the war in December. Norwood High School's clock tower was used for air raid
alerts. Norwood Airport, closed to civilian traffic from 1942 until 1944, was
authorized for expansion during that time.
We all know the painful history and unimaginable scope of the Holocaust and
the Second World War. By 1945, America would never be the same. Members
of Shaare Tefilah were among the more than 2,000 Norwood residents who
served this country. As Norwood citizens, we lost seventy of our neighbors in
the war. As Jews, we lost one-third of our people. Afterwards, our synagogue
members continued to work and lobby for veterans, refugees, and the Zionist
cause. We rejoiced at the creation of Israel in 1948.
And we turned our thoughts back to our families, our town, and our synagogue.
Next Month: The Fifties Carol Turkewitz
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LOOKING
BACK 100 YEARS
PART SIX: THE FIFTIES
PART SIX: THE FIFTIES
Peacetime again:
a decade of prosperity and growth. During the 1950's,
Norwood's population grew by 50 percent, and its businesses doubled
in
number. New commercial enterprises appeared on
Route 1, including
dealerships that would eventually constitute the "Automile".
families was graying but active at the synagogue. The 1950's brought an
influx of young Jewish families post-war, new brides and grooms migrating
from Dorchester, Roxbury, and other locales. They found affordable housing,
often financed through GI loans, in friendly Norwood neighborhoods on either
side of Route 1.
Shaare Tefilah was a hub of community connection and activity that our newly
arrived members of the 1950's still recall fondly today. Esther Taube describes
picnics behind the synagogue, annual November dinners with dancing to an
orchestra at the old Elks Building (for which our members made sandwiches to
sell for twenty-five cents apiece), groups of friends who met at each others'
homes for canasta or bridge, and an active Sisterhood with lots of spirit. It was
like a surrogate family. Lillian Miller reminisces about the wonderful Couples Club
which met monthly for dinner and socializing in the Washington Street synagogue
beginning in the 1950's. She recalls weekly Sisterhood meetings, where
members enjoyed evenings of accomplishment and friendship while their
husbands stayed home with the children. Lillian also remembers providing
piano accompaniment to the frequent fashion shows. Judy Hershman tells
about the dedication of her parents, Max and Mollie Hershman. Mollie was
the energetic organizer of many activities, from rummage sales to dinner parties.
Judy recalls the sukkah behind the synagogue, huge annual temple
picnic/barbecues, and a close-knit group of friends at Hebrew School. She
fondly remembers Mr. Sam Spector as a wonderful teacher who was strict but
very kind.
Pre-Hebrew School Graduation, June 1955 or 1956
(photo courtesy of Judy Hershman)
(photo courtesy of Judy Hershman)
Our
synagogue supported the infant State of Israel through the Jewish National
Fund, and, beginning in 1951, through Israel Bonds. And while
our TST
community grew in a hospitable town, the flourishing moshavim in
Israel
were surrounded by increasingly hostile neighbors. Egypt, allied
with Syria
and Jordan, called for the destruction of Israel. The 1956 Sinai
Campaign
captured the Sinai Peninsula, which Israel returned for international
security
guarantees that would hold into the next decade.
At home, we grew. How long would our building
hold us?
Next Month: The Sixties
Carol Turkewitz
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LOOKING
BACK 100 YEARS
PART SEVEN: THE SIXTIES
PART SEVEN: THE SIXTIES
Every decade
brings change, and we began the 1960's restless for something
new. We got more than we bargained for. Our baby-booming country happily
ascended the first slope of a roller-coaster ride that would surprise us with its
amazing peaks and plunging heartbreaks. Who knew?
As Jews, we looked back toward the Holocaust and sought healing through
justice and memory. Israel's capture of Nazi war criminal Adolph Eichmann
in May, 1960, led to trials and testimonies that made world headlines, culminating
in Israel's only civil execution, in 1962. The trials also opened floodgates of
memory and oral history for many who had previously kept silent.
In Washington, a young administration challenged citizens to build a new world
and reach the moon. We watched a space program begin. Everything was "new
and improved." And then the decade's signature cycle of violence and
assassination began.
It was a decade of televised news, with all of us tuned in communally to the
same few channels each evening. And the tough images came fast and hard:
the Cold War; the Birmingham church bombings and Kennedy's death in 1963,
Mississippi in '64, the Selma marches in '65. Vietnam. Images of social
change also entered our living rooms: new music, a "generation gap,"
permissiveness. New voices in the Women's Movement. A smaller world
connected by the new communications satellites.
At home, Norwood's connection to other places increased with the completion
of Route 95, linking our business area to other communities and Norwood
residents to jobs out of town. Windsor Gardens was built on the commuter
rail line. Families moved into town, and Shaare Tefilah welcomed many of them.
Newcomers found a thriving synagogue with an active Sisterhood, Brotherhood,
and Couples Club. Often members were neighbors, with children who played
and went to public school together. A daily preschool was organized by Marilyn
Wolfson and other mothers of young children. Hebrew School enrollment
increased from forty-five students in 1963 to seventy-eight in 1964. Older
children attended Young Judea meetings at the synagogue, and teenagers
enjoyed an active USY. Because our sanctuary dominated the first floor of the
Washington Street Synagogue, the all-purpose "vestry" downstairs served as
our school, preschool, meeting space, and social hall. It was getting crowded.
In 1964, the synagogue began a building fund campaign to construct a new
synagogue on Nichols Street. A ceremony to consecrate the site was held on
November 15, with a symbolic groundbreaking. Two years later, our new home
was ready.
Moving day on Sunday, September 11, 1966, was a once-in-a-lifetime experience:
a processional of our Shaare Tefilah community on foot, children and adults,
bringing our Torah scrolls from old synagogue to new. As we made our way
across town, our Norwood neighbors turned out to watch. Dignitaries and church
leaders came to wish us well. Our current members who were present describe
that day as a high point of their lives. Jodi Diamond recalls that she had never felt
such pride in her life. There didn't seem to be a Jewish person left at home that day.
We arrived at our new house of prayer and celebrated.
Happy as we were that September, we rejoiced in an even greater homecoming
the following June: Jerusalem was reunited after the Six Day War. We could pray
at the Western Wall of our Temple for the first time since 1948. As Jews, we were
proud of the rapid preemptive strike that had foiled Egypt's attempt to unite the
Arab countries in war against Israel. Our USY'ers had a new song to learn:
"Yerushalayim Shel Zahav", "Jerusalem of Gold".
We blossomed in our new synagogue. Membership increased to 150 families, and
our Hebrew School continued to grow. The full-time nursery school had a waiting
list. Our members were active in the Norwood community, and in the world Jewish
community, as well. We pressed for the rights of Soviet Jewry to emigrate to
America or Israel.
The Sixties continued to heighten our awareness of the contrasts in our society,
along socioeconomic, racial, ideological, political, generational, and gender lines.
These tensions brought more violence, but also positive changes that would carry
over to the next decade.
And we did reach the moon.
Next month: The Seventies Carol Turkewitz
new. We got more than we bargained for. Our baby-booming country happily
ascended the first slope of a roller-coaster ride that would surprise us with its
amazing peaks and plunging heartbreaks. Who knew?
As Jews, we looked back toward the Holocaust and sought healing through
justice and memory. Israel's capture of Nazi war criminal Adolph Eichmann
in May, 1960, led to trials and testimonies that made world headlines, culminating
in Israel's only civil execution, in 1962. The trials also opened floodgates of
memory and oral history for many who had previously kept silent.
In Washington, a young administration challenged citizens to build a new world
and reach the moon. We watched a space program begin. Everything was "new
and improved." And then the decade's signature cycle of violence and
assassination began.
It was a decade of televised news, with all of us tuned in communally to the
same few channels each evening. And the tough images came fast and hard:
the Cold War; the Birmingham church bombings and Kennedy's death in 1963,
Mississippi in '64, the Selma marches in '65. Vietnam. Images of social
change also entered our living rooms: new music, a "generation gap,"
permissiveness. New voices in the Women's Movement. A smaller world
connected by the new communications satellites.
At home, Norwood's connection to other places increased with the completion
of Route 95, linking our business area to other communities and Norwood
residents to jobs out of town. Windsor Gardens was built on the commuter
rail line. Families moved into town, and Shaare Tefilah welcomed many of them.
Newcomers found a thriving synagogue with an active Sisterhood, Brotherhood,
and Couples Club. Often members were neighbors, with children who played
and went to public school together. A daily preschool was organized by Marilyn
Wolfson and other mothers of young children. Hebrew School enrollment
increased from forty-five students in 1963 to seventy-eight in 1964. Older
children attended Young Judea meetings at the synagogue, and teenagers
enjoyed an active USY. Because our sanctuary dominated the first floor of the
Washington Street Synagogue, the all-purpose "vestry" downstairs served as
our school, preschool, meeting space, and social hall. It was getting crowded.
In 1964, the synagogue began a building fund campaign to construct a new
synagogue on Nichols Street. A ceremony to consecrate the site was held on
November 15, with a symbolic groundbreaking. Two years later, our new home
was ready.
Moving day on Sunday, September 11, 1966, was a once-in-a-lifetime experience:
a processional of our Shaare Tefilah community on foot, children and adults,
bringing our Torah scrolls from old synagogue to new. As we made our way
across town, our Norwood neighbors turned out to watch. Dignitaries and church
leaders came to wish us well. Our current members who were present describe
that day as a high point of their lives. Jodi Diamond recalls that she had never felt
such pride in her life. There didn't seem to be a Jewish person left at home that day.
We arrived at our new house of prayer and celebrated.
Happy as we were that September, we rejoiced in an even greater homecoming
the following June: Jerusalem was reunited after the Six Day War. We could pray
at the Western Wall of our Temple for the first time since 1948. As Jews, we were
proud of the rapid preemptive strike that had foiled Egypt's attempt to unite the
Arab countries in war against Israel. Our USY'ers had a new song to learn:
"Yerushalayim Shel Zahav", "Jerusalem of Gold".
We blossomed in our new synagogue. Membership increased to 150 families, and
our Hebrew School continued to grow. The full-time nursery school had a waiting
list. Our members were active in the Norwood community, and in the world Jewish
community, as well. We pressed for the rights of Soviet Jewry to emigrate to
America or Israel.
The Sixties continued to heighten our awareness of the contrasts in our society,
along socioeconomic, racial, ideological, political, generational, and gender lines.
These tensions brought more violence, but also positive changes that would carry
over to the next decade.
And we did reach the moon.
Next month: The Seventies Carol Turkewitz
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United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.