By Melissa Hunter
Assistant Editor
In celebration of Rockdale’s Bicentennial year, learn with Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Karla Goldman! Dr. Goldman is Sol Drachler Professor of Social Work, School of Social Work, and Professor of Judaic Studies, College of LS&A at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on the history of the American Jewish experience with special attention to the history of American Jewish communities and the evolving roles and contributions of American Jewish women. She directs the University of Michigan Jewish Communal Leadership Program, a collaborative effort between the School of Social Work and the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies.
Goldman previously taught at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati and was historian in residence at the Jewish Women’s Archive in Brookline, Massachusetts. In 2022, Goldman wrote an op-ed in Lilith Magazine that asks what can be expected from Reform Judaism in the wake of reports of sexual discrimination released by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC) in Cincinnati. She is also the author of Beyond the Synagogue Gallery: Finding a Place for Women in American Judaism (Harvard University Press).
Dr. Goldman is a prolific historian of Jewish Cincinnati and author of Rockdale’s history. In American Congregations (The University of Chicago Press), Goldman and co-author Jonathan D. Sarna wrote: Joseph Jonas … the man generally considered to be the “founding father” of the Cincinnati Jewish community, “solemnly promised … never to forget his religion nor forsake his G_d.” For two years, following his arrival in the city in 1817, he worshiped alone. Then, when more settlers arrived, holiday services were conducted. In 1821, local Jews purchased a small plot of land to serve as a cemetery. Finally, in 1824, “a majority of the Israelites in Cincinnati” assembled at the home of Jonas’s brother-in-law, Morris Moses, and formed a congregation, Kahl aKodish Bene Israel, “for the purpose of glorifying our G_d, and observing the fundamental principles of our faith, as developed in the laws of Moses.”
Seventy years later, Dr. David Philipson, rabbi of what had now become known as K.K. Bene Israel (Holy Congregation of the Children of Israel), and later as Rockdale Temple, commemorated the anniversary of his congregations founding by compiling its only published history, a volume entitled “The Oldest Jewish Congregation in the West.” He explained that the story of Bene Israel’s development needed to be told. It was, he wrote, the first Jewish congregation west of the Alleghenies, and “it presents, in the course of its existence, the gradual development of religious thought that may be taken as characteristic of the reform movement in Judaism in this country.”
Now, Goldman will be a keynote speaker as Rockdale celebrates its bicentennial. The weekend-long event begins Friday, March 15 with Erev Shabbat, where Goldman will be presenting Speaking from On High: David Philipson, Rockdale Temple, and Classical Reform Judaism in Cincinnati, followed by a reception and Q&A session. The following day, Goldman will conduct a Shabbat morning study program entitled, “We Despise You and Your Pretensions:” Congregational Rivalries and the Authority of Tradition at K.K. Bene Israel, 1842-1855, followed by Shabbat morning services. The event concludes on Sunday, March 17 with the Rak Limud Adult Education seminar, Why Is It Still Called Rockdale?: Changing Neighborhoods in the Journey of K.K. Bene Israel, followed by brunch. The entire Cincinnati Jewish community is invited to join us at Rockdale for any and all of the events. RSVP requested for brunch on Sunday. To find more information and to register, visit Rockdale Temple’s website.
