Forest Avenue Synagogue (k/n/a Golf Manor Synagogue), Cincinnati, Ohio - Golden (50th) Anniversary Book, 1904 - 1954

1954

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A Message . . . from Our Rabbi
"It shall be a Jubilee unto you and ye shall return every man unto his possession and every man unto his family" LEV. 25, 10

For fifty years out Congregation has been a guid-ing beacon to the entire Jewish community of Cincinnati, shedding its rays of religion, knowledge and the more noble and pure ethical way of Jewish life. After fifty years, we pause and look back. We would like to recapture and relive some of those beautiful days which now belong to the past. We want to refresh our minds with those fond of memories which we cherish and to remember them to the end of our days. At the same time a Golden Jubilee is also a time of rededication to the cause and to the task ahead.

 The saying "from little acorns big oak trees grow" sums up the beautiful and colorful history of our existence. A handful of poor and destitute immigrants, seeking to adhere to the teachings of their ancestors, in the land of their adoption, band together and worked tirelessly to establish one of the leading Congregations of the midwest.

How well we remember the Synagogue in its earlier days with its eighty or ninety daily worshipers; its Talmud Classes; the men who remained daily after the services to chant the beautiful and immortal Psalms. We can look back at all that with great pride but we dare not look too long, lest we lose ourselves and our perspective. Our eyes must look to the future; we must also be awake to the dawning of the new era.

In days goneby when Israel was in its pride and glory, every fiftieth year was set aside as a Jubilee Year. It was a year of happiness and festivity, but at the same time the Shofar, Israel's clarion call of Faithfulness to the Lord was also sounded. It was an alarm to awaken us to the fact that we cannot live on past laurels alone but we must go forever forward to greater accomplishments.

"It is a Jubilee" and that is the time for each of us to reevaluate our position and to rededicate ourselves that "every man shall return to his possessions and his family" that is, to his religion and his people.

Let us go forward to greater strength, so that we may be a pride to our G-d, our religion and our nation.