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Establishing a Synagogue as a place of assembly for prayer, for learning and for
fostering a greater sense of community is a most noble endeavor.
Late in the
1964, a group of families in the Roselawn area of Cincinnati, along with others
in neighboring communities, gathered together and committed themselves to
undertaking this task. Their goal – create a Synagogue dedicated to Conservative
Jewish practices in the Roselawn area. At the time Roselawn was a major hub of
the Cincinnati Jewish population and the site of the Jewish Community Center.
Follow-on meetings to this first gathering yielded a board of officers, by-laws,
functional committees, including a Sisterhood, and a name – Congregation Bnai
Tzedek (BTZ).
BTZ as a place for Prayer- After announcing its formation, BTZ
held its first Saturday morning Shabbat Service. The date was November 28, 1964,
which appropriately enough corresponded with the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Hence, the Shecheyanu pronounced at the Service had dual meaning. This first
Shabbat Service was held in the Jewish Community Center Nursery School building.
The event marked the beginning of what became and remains a distinguishing
feature of BTZ worship. Specifically, the Service was entirely led by lay
Congregants who assumed the roles of Service leader, sermonizer, Cantor, and
Torah reader. In subsequent Services, these roles were rotated among still other
members. Giving reinforcement to this practice, our Rabbis coached members in
how to lead parts of the Service, and welcomed them to share the pulpit in
offering sermons on Shabbatot. The latter resulted in the publication of two
editions of member sermons appropriately titled, “Voices from the B’nai Tzedek
Bima – The Congregants Speak”. Today, Congregation B’nai Tzedek’s Shabbat,
festival and even High Holy Day Services are largely congregant driven.
In the
early years, the spiritual leadership of our Congregation included a succession
of short-term appointments of Rabbinic students and ordained Rabbis doing
doctoral work at the local Hebrew Union College (HUC). Though a seminary for
training Reform Rabbis, those selected to serve us from HUC came from
traditional backgrounds, and thus were very comfortable in leading a
Conservative congregation. Moreover, their approaches to prayer and ritual
practices reflected a flexibility that was also growing within the Conservative
movement. In this regard, BTZ was the first Conservative Congregation in
Cincinnati to become completely egalitarian, and the first Synagogue to have a
woman Rabbi. Our current spiritual leader, Rabbi Jennifer Lewis, underscores the
egalitarian nature of our Congregation.
BTZ as a place for Learning – At its
beginning, a number of BTZ families had their children enrolled in Jewish Day
Schools and others attended the afternoon classes of the Cincinnati Community
Hebrew Schools. However, needs to attract new members, especially young
families, became apparent and led the Board to approve establishing the
congregation’s own Hebrew school. In September, 1991, the BTZ Creative School of
Jewish Learning opened. From an initial enrollment of a handful of pupils, the
number attending grew to over 60 in just a few years, along with the addition of
a pre-school and high school program. The presence of the Congregation’s first
truly full-time Rabbi (Edward Boraz) and a nationally known Jewish educator
(Candy Kwiatek, who later was to become President of the Congregation) gave
impetus to this school. With this emphasis on education, intergenerational
programs and adult learning programs also flourished. Saturday Shabbat
afternoons included Talmud and bible study sessions, and Sunday mornings
featured lectures from the HUC faculty and the University of Cincinnati Judaica
program on assorted topics. Special funds dedicated to Jewish education and
trips to Israel were also established. Indeed, the 90’s decade proved a very
exciting time for BTZ.
BTZ as a Place for Fostering a Greater Sense of Community
– Judged by its membership, BTZ has always been among the smaller Synagogues in
Cincinnati. Since its establishment and even at its peak, family memberships
never exceeded 125. But this small size also has had its benefits. It has led to
unusually close ties between members, such that Simchot of all descriptions and
life cycle events in any member household have become celebrated and/or
responded to by the Congregation as a whole. Further, each member has
innumerable opportunities to serve on the Board, participate in different Shul
activities, be they planning for special events, undertaking social
action/Mitzvah projects, and even serving in kitchen details. In effect, active
member involvement was and is the foundation of the BTZ experience. Interesting
too has been the religious makeup of the members of the congregation, ranging
from very traditional (i.e., Conservative) to near liberal (i.e. Reform)
practices. Efforts to ensure that the all-inclusive nature of our services and
goodwill are extended to all members in Synagogue affairs have served us well in
this regard.
True to its original mandate, BTZ was to remain as the Roselawn
Conservative Synagogue for 36 years, using facilities of the local Jewish
Community Center for holding services, furnishing classrooms for instruction
plus office space and other areas for special functions. In 1998 the Jewish
Community Center announced plans to move elsewhere in Cincinnati in light of
changing demographics of the Roselawn area. Shortly thereafter, and in
recognizing that most of the BTZ members were also living in other areas of
Cincinnati, a decision was made to seek a new location for our Synagogue. Even
more significantly, consideration was given to purchasing land for the eventual
construction of our own sanctuary. A Kenwood area site was selected for purchase
as it was a location central to many of our members, and a building drive
commenced. Within a year, a capital campaign raised over $1,000,000 and building
construction began in the summer of 2000. On August 24, 2001, the BTZ
congregation held its first Shabbat services in its first real home on Kugler
Mill Road.
This edifice gave new identity to Bnai Tzedek and was a remarkable
accomplishment for such a small Congregation. At the same time it meant new
challenges such as paying the mortgage, maintaining a Rabbi, and needs to
recruit new members to sustain the viability of the Shul. The early part of this
decade have proved very demanding and there have been setbacks. But the spirit
of the Congregation has remained upbeat thanks to new leadership and innovative
efforts to keep the Congregation moving forward. So may it continue …Keyn Y’Hi
Ratzon.
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