History of Congregation Adath Israel, Cincinnati Ohio

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north-east corner of Seventh and Walnut Sts., where the John H. Hibben  Dry Goods Company is now located. There the congregation worshipped  for twenty-eight years. w

A charter was obtained in 1853. Isaac Cohen was President, and the other officers were William Frankel, Vice President, and I. Fobel, M. Isaacs, H. King and H. Wolfson, Trustees. The congregation boasted  thirty members. Today Adath Israel has a membership of 775.

 In 1855 the young congregation purchased three and a half acres of ground in Price Hill for cemetery purposes. Prior to that it had conducted its burials in the cemetery of the Bene Israel Congregation, with which some of its members formerly had been affiliated. Bene Israel is now known as the Rockdale Ave. Temple. It is of historic interest to know that the land purchased for the cemetery was originally owned by the famous Jewish philanthropist, Judah Touro, who at one time had extensive holdings in Cincinnati.

The available records of that period are quite vague about the early spiritual leaders of the congregation. There is mention of a Dr. Tintner, who served as Rabbi, and a Dr. Berg. There are more explicit references to a Rev. Dr. Kutner, who served as Rabbi until 1885, when he moved to Louisville, Ky., and from there to St. Louis, where he died. A son of his is reported to be still living in St.Louis. Older Cincinnatians also remember a scholarly Rabbi Gershon Landsberg, popularly known as "Reb Gershon", but whether he preceded Dr. Tintner, or succeeded him, cannot be determined from available records.

Until 1896, Congregation Adath Israel had no permanent home of its own. It moved from Seventh and Walnut Sts., to an old church building at Seventh and Central Ave., then to the Masonic Hall; from there to the Young Men's Hebrew Association's rooms at Seventh and Cutter Sts. When the Congregation was compelled to vacate the latter quarters, and was in danger of passing out of existence, it was only Nathan Feld, who had