EXHIBITS
100 Years of Congregation Brith Sholem: Honoring the Jewish Community in Ogden, Utah: Rabbis of Congregation Brith Sholem
Rabbis of Congregation Brith Sholem
Before the Congregation Brith Sholem synagogue was erected in 1921, most religious services were conducted by members of the congregation. Sometimes rabbis from neighboring congregations in Salt Lake City would run holy religious services, like Rosh Hashanah. Congregation Brith Sholem did not receive their first rabbi until 1914. The congregation held six rabbis from 1917 to the early 1930s. During the Great Depression in the 1930s, the congregation could no longer maintain a rabbi, as their membership decreased and they ran into financial struggles.[1] Since then, the congregation has not had an in-house rabbi and have since relied on members of the congregation to hold services.
In 1989 Congregation Brith Sholem began to hire student rabbis from the Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles to visit their synagogue once a month to hold services and perform adult education.[2] Andrea Weiss was the first student rabbi hired to serve the High Holy Days for Congregation Brith Sholem in 1989.
Note on archival material used to find the history of early rabbis of Congregation Brith Sholem:
The history presented on the next few pages about the early rabbis of Congregation Brith Sholem almost all originates from Utah newspapers. Because newspapers were the primary source for this study, some years and names may not be entirely accurate. For instance, an article written on April 16, 1939, by Hugh F. O’Neil in The Ogden Standard-Examiner provides a history of the “Jewish Church Begun in 1890.” The article contains a list of rabbis that supposedly served for the congregation. The information I found varies considerably from the information given in the article. The rabbis Hugh O’Neil lists were Ben Alcoff (1917–1918), A. Leherer [sic] (1918–1920), Rabbi Finkelstein (1920–1928), Rabbi Bloomenstein (1923–1934), and Rabbi Friedman (1934–1935). An obvious error in this article can be found in the years Rabbi Lehrer served for the congregation, as there are newspaper articles placing him at the laying of the synagogue’s cornerstone in 1921. Since this error is located in the main primary source I am using for my research, these types of errors may also be present in articles I used to find the history of the congregation’s rabbis. Thus, the names, spelling, and years of the rabbis may be marginally inaccurate.