History of Congregation Adath Israel, Cincinnati Ohio

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Rockdale Ave., east of Reading Road, was rented as temporary quarters. The Avondale branch of the Pest Office now occupies this site.

A year later the church building at 658-662 Rockdale Ave., which had been a Presbyterian Church and later a Christian Science Church, was purchased for $12,500. Extensively remodeled, this Building is now the home of the Avondale Talmud Torah and the Bureau of Jewish Education.

From 1885, when Dr. Kutner resigned, the congregation had no regularly ordained Rabbi until 1918 when Rabbi Louis Feinberg was brought from Philadelphia. He was elected by the Board of Trustees on May 12,1918, for a period of three years. But that three years grew to nearly thirty-one years, until his untimely death in 1949, as Adath Israel Congregation grew and flourished under his dynamic leadership and spiritual guidance.

The congregation took on new life. It affiliated itself with the United Synagogue of America, and the Ladies' Hebrew Benevolent Society, now known as the Adath Israel Sisterhoods, joined the Women's League of the United Synagogue.

Rabbi Feinberg entered upon his task with devotion and zeal. He emphasized the Sabbath morning service, introducing weekly sermons in English and considerable congregational singing. The attendance on Sabbath morning trebled in a short time. He opened a Hebrew School, as distinguished from a Sunday School, beginning with instruction three days a week and gradually increasing this to five days.

The younger women organized a Mothers' Club and devoted their attention exclusively to the welfare of the Hebrew School. Rabbi Feinberg conducted classes and study circles for men, women and young people. In 1922, with the help of Rabbi Israel Goldstein, of New York, then President of the Young People's League of the United Synagogue, now one of the top national Jewish leaders of the day, a member of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, President of the World Zionist Organization and a leader in other national and international bodies.