On May 29, 1899, Temple de Hirsch is founded in Seattle on principles of reform Jewish thought. Today (2005), it is the largest Reform congregation in the Pacific Northwest.
To form the congregation, seven men met in Seattle's Morris Hall (9th Avenue and Yesler Way). They named their newly formed congregation after Jewish philanthropist, Baron Maurice de Hirsch of England. The founding members were Emanuel Rosenberg, Vice President; Sol Friedenthal, Secretary; Max Bornstein, Treasurer; and Simon Degginger, I. E. Moses, and I. Korn, Trustees.
Rabbi Theodore Joseph of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was elected as the first spiritual leader of the Congregation. Two years later, on June 9, 1901, at Boylston and Marion, the cornerstone was laid for the new temple.
Sources:
The Guide to Jewish Washington (Seatttle: The Jewish Transcript, 1998); Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of Congregation Temple de Hirsch: 1899-1924 (Seattle, Washington, 1924); Wendy Marcus, "Temple de Hirsch-Sinai," The Seattle Times Magazine, November 25, 1979.
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