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In May 1959, Rabbi Samuel Mayerberg informed B’nai Jehudah’s board that he would retire after 31 years of service to the Congregation. Mayerberg privately let it be known that he hoped Rabbi William Silverman would be hired as his successor. Mayerberg had unsuccessfully tried to recruit Silverman to serve as B’nai Jehudah’s Associate Rabbi in […]

The new Memory Murals of the Michael Klein Collection in B’nai Jehudah’s commons area depict various aspects of our history. None is more important than the contribution to the civil rights struggle made by B’nai Jehudah member Esther Swirk Brown. Her courageous efforts paved the way for desegregation of public schools in the 1950s. Born […]

Great demographic changes swept the United States beginning with the close of World War II. The end of the 1930s economic depression and return of American soldiers from overseas sparked a baby boom that would last nearly 20 years. Reflecting broad prosperity and the formation of many new families generally, B’nai Jehudah’s membership reached 900 […]

Eddie Jacobson’s good name is closely associated with President Harry Truman. Jacobson’s sustained efforts for Israel spanned several years and made a critical difference during the new nation’s precarious infancy. He was an unlikely diplomat, yet he rose to the occasion with distinction when he was needed most. Edward Jacobson was born to poor immigrants […]

When Hitler became chancellor of Germany in early 1933, laws and actions against Jews began almost immediately. Some German and Austrian Jews sought haven in the United States but needed an American sponsor who could guarantee that they would not become public charges for a minimum of five years. B’nai Jehudah members organized to provide […]

Henry J. Berkowitz joined B’nai Jehudah in 1925, as the Congregation’s first Associate Rabbi. The nephew of former B’nai Jehudah rabbis Henry Berkowitz and Joseph Krauskopf, he set out to build a more vibrant congregational life. In his second month in Kansas City, Rabbi Berkowitz organized the Men’s Temple Club, which was the forerunner of […]

In 1926, B’nai B’rith District Grand Lodge No. 2 held its district convention in Kansas City and elected Rabbi Samuel Mayerberg of Dayton, Ohio as president. He impressed members of the Kansas City Jewish community with his eloquent, vibrant personality and infectious enthusiasm. So when Rabbi Harry Mayer retired from B’nai Jehudah in 1928, the […]

B’nai Jehudah bought two acres of land in Elmwood Cemetery in 1872, and it served our needs for 47 years. By this time, Kansas City was growing south and the Congregation needed more burial space for the future. In 1919, we paid $15,000 for a ten-acre tract of farmland on the far southern outskirts of […]

After 20 years in the downtown Oak Street Temple, B’nai Jehudah was exploring a new home in 1905. Kansas City was growing and land south of 31st Street was being developed as a neighborhood of fine homes. The Congregation had about 200 member families and approved a plan to construct its third building. B’nai Jehudah […]

At this writing in early 2021, B’nai Jehudah’s current and incoming President are both women, but it wasn’t always this way. Reflecting the times, B’nai Jehudah’s founders and early leaders were men. The suffrage movement wasn’t successful in Missouri until 1919, and the 19th Amendment to the Constitution wasn’t passed until the following year. For […]