B'nai Jehudah (1875-1885)

The first building to serve as Congregation B'nai Jehudah's temple was located here. The congregation used it for the short period of 1875 to 1885 before moving to a larger building on 11th and Oak Street. It was a modest building serving a small Jewish community, but the community was proud of it, speaking highly of it until their new building was finished. T.M. James & Sons occupied the building for some time after the congregation moved. After this, it was eventually razed.

The group that would become Congregation B'nai Jehudah was formed in 1869 with fifteen members. At this time, "members" meant heads of families so these men would have brought their families to the congregation with them. Rabbi Emanuel Hess joined the community around 1872. He proved to be a very popular Rabbi, and the community grew to more than thirty members after he joined. They ran their services out of homes or rented buildings until 1875, when the congregation could finally build and dedicate their own building. It was small and modest, especially by today's standards, but it was the pride of the Kansas City Jewish community, who spoke highly of it in the newspaper on the day it opened:

A prettier church outside or in is not in the city; it is 39x63 feet, with a basement of the gothic style, handsomely ornamented and painted outside. Within it is all neatness and taste, being nicely painted and varnished, with stained glasses in the windows, completed throughout. Altogether it is the neatest and most convenient church in the city.

The dedication was held in September and led by Rabbi Hess, who expressed his pride in his community for their success and advised them on how their growing congregation should operate. His words laid out a framework for B'nai Jehudah, which became known over the years for its political and social efforts.

My beloved Friends, Brothers and sisters: The hour you have longed and hailed for has at last come. The work so nobly begun by the few has bravely been brought to a glorious end. Your indefatigable efforts have been crowned with success, for you now stand in your own house, erected to the worship of the Holy one ...Verily, this house shall be a house of God, a house of prayer it shall become for all nations...

My friends ... no worship is acceptable to God that is defiled by senselessness, apathy, indifference, bigotry or superstition. Our worship must be spiritual, intelligible, devotional, honest, sincere and consistent.

Hess left the congregation the following year to take a better-paying position in Columbus, Ohio. Several years of difficulty for the congregation followed. With a limited budget and a mortgage to pay, they had trouble finding a new rabbi, even going without High Holiday services one year because there was no one to lead them. Rabbi Ignatz Grossman was hired in 1878. He was the only one in the congregation's history to serve as both Rabbi and Cantor and was described as having a "strong and melodious" singing voice. He served here for two years and was succeeded by Elias Eppstein, who served for three. Most of what little is known about the original Wyandotte building and the congregation at the time comes from the diary Eppstein wrote while living in Kansas City. The most important information coming from Eppstein's journal, which continues to affect the congregation today, is that he led B'nai Jehudah's shift from Orthodox to Reform Judaism, which it still practices today.

By the time Eppstein joined the congregation, its membership had grown to 90 families. Shortly after he left, it had grown even more, justifying the eventual move to the new building at 11th and Oak Streets in 1885. Kitchenware manufacturers T.M. James & Sons occupied the building for some time after the congregation moved. Some time after, they moved out too, and the building was later razed.

"Dedicatory. Initial Service at the New Jewish Synagogue." Kansas City Daily Journal (Kansas City) September 25th, 1875. 4.

Janem. The Oak Street Temple, The Temple, Congregation B'nai Jehudah. November 13th, 2020. Accessed November 4th, 2022. https://www.bnaijehudah.org/2020/11/13/the-oak-street-temple/.

Adler, Frank J. Roots in a Moving Stream: The Centennial History of Congregation B’nai Jehudah of Kansas City, 1870-1970 (Kansas City, MO: The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah, 1972).