History Overview.

Temple Israel has a long-standing presence (over 125 years) in the Ozarks. Even before the first congregation was founded in 1893, Jews engaged in Jewish practice in the metro-Springfield area by meeting to pray and organizing classes. Jews helped make Springfield and the Ozarks what it is today. Learn more about our established history by reading more below.

The Beginning

The first Jews arrived before 1864 in Springfield, Missouri were Dr. Ludwig Ullman and his wife Sarah Maas Ullman. Ludwig opened a pharmacy on the Square. In 1868, Sylvian Levi arrived with his family and worked in a store on the Square. They, like the group of people who came after, were German-born or of German-born parents. The German immigrants, Jewish and Christian, were basically well accepted in Springfield. With the expected arrival of the railroad in 1870, the Jewish population of the city exploded. Victor and Bertha Summers (or Sommers) and Bertha’s brother Ferdinand Backrow came and then the Cohn brothers and the Marx brothers. In the early 1880s, the Herman brothers, Jake Rothschild, August “Gus” LeBolt arrived. All opened their stores on the Square. At the end of the 1880s, Moses Levy opened his store on the Square; his family closed it in the 1990s.

In November 1893 Marx, Levy, Levy, Rothschild, Herman, Hirschild, Alschul, and Scharff signed the Articles of Association for Temple Israel. This congregation followed the German Reform Jewish customs. Jake Marx led the services for over twenty years. Temple Israel joined the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now the URJ) in 1904.

Early History

The first Sunday School was in the summer of 1888 when Ed Greenburg and Louis Meyer “were amongst the boys” who attended. The first mixed gendered religious school class in 1893 was taught by a Mrs. Hattie Cohen, with students: Fay Netter, Clarence and Dan Scharff, Edgar and Hortence Herman, Clara Hirsch, Leo Ellenberg, Irving Levy, Jay Altschul, Dora and Hattie Weigle, and Ray M. The Sunday School originally was held in a church on the corner of Olive and Jefferson Streets, which has seen been demolished. When the Woodruff Building opened in 1911, just next to that church, the religious school rented space there. When the first synagogue was built, the religious school was moved there.

In 1894, Rabbi Messing of the United Hebrew Congregation in St. Louis presented sermons on Yom Kippur; the services were held in the original South Street Christian Church building. Shortly thereafter, the Jewish community began renting space at the Martin’s Piano Store, just south of the Square. In the teens, the congregation moved east across the street into the Chickering Piano Store above which was the Masonic Lodge. In 1930, Temple Israel built their first building on property owned by David and Max Schwab. The building cost $16,000, which in the modern dollar amounts to over $185,000. In 1946, Sha’are Zedek merged with Temple Israel and the congregation renamed themselves: United Hebrew Congregations. The ground breaking for the current building was on January 21st, 1996.

Until Today

After 125 years, the congregation, now called Temple Israel again, thrives in its building on the outskirts of Rogersville. It has the only full-time rabbi in the Ozarks, a religious school beginning with preschool, a congregational choir, and members who do outreach to the larger interfaith community.