History of Temple Beth-El
The Jewish community of Ithaca has two roots: the arrival of a smaller number of Jewish merchants and peddlers in the mid-to-late nineteenth century and the somewhat later arrival of Jewish students and faculty at Cornell University. The town community grew slowly, the student community somewhat faster. By 1929, when Temple Beth-El was built, there were only about sixty Jewish families in Ithaca but about 600 Jewish students at Cornell and at Ithaca Conservatory (now Ithaca College).
After 1929, the growth rate increased, so that today there may be as many as seven hundred Jewish families in Ithaca and several thousand Jewish students at Cornell University and Ithaca College. Only a minority of both groups are affiliated with organized religious institutions--the town community, largely with Temple Beth-El, and the students with the campus Hillel organizations.
Organized Jewish religious activity had begun in Ithaca in 1906 with the founding of a Conservative congregation, Chevra Kadisha, at the home of Isadore Rocker. This was the forerunner of Temple Beth-El. The building of the synagogue itself was a remarkable community enterprise. Many prominent Ithacans in the Christian community assisted the Jewish community in its building fund drive, including Livingston Farland (President of Cornell University), Robert H. Treman, William A. Boyd (Vice President of the First National Bank of Ithaca, now Fleet Bank), and numerous local clergymen. This cooperative and mutually supportive spirit has been characteristic of the relationship between the Jewish and Christian communities throughout the history of Ithaca.
The year 1929 saw not only the building of Temple Beth-El but also the founding of the student Hillel organization at Cornell University. In fact, until World War II, relations between the Temple and Hillel were particularly close. Cornell Hillel was headquartered at the Temple, and the Hillel rabbi, Isadore Hoffman, was also named the Temple's first rabbi in 1929. He conducted services at the Temple for both students and town residents. After 1942, however, the size of the two groups made this collaboration impractical. Hillel moved its headquarters to the Cornell campus, and Temple Beth-El selected the first rabbi to serve it alone, Isadore Passow.
Because the town community was too small to support more than one permanent congregation, but diverse enough to contain a wide spectrum of viewpoints concerning religious observance, the early history of the congregation had involved a number of schisms followed by reunification. Rabbi Passow's arrival in 1942 also marked the healing of the last breach.
Rabbi Felix Aber, who led the congregation from 1952-1960, and was then named Rabbi Emeritus, was instrumental in introducing regular Sabbath morning services year round, and it was after him that our religious school wing was named.
Our current rabbi, Scott Glass, has been with Temple Beth-El for thirty-three years (a record), during which time the congregation has doubled and the religious school has flourished. The new wing of Temple Beth-El, dedicated in October of 2002 was named in his honor, The Rabbi Scott Levi Glass Education & Program Center.