150 years ago, in 1859, a small group of Jews from Germany and Bohemia established the Congregation Anshe Emeth to keep their heritage alive in a world exploding with knowledge, innovation and political crises.
- The Civil War had not yet begun but that year John Brown attacked the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry in a failed effort to free slaves.
- Harriet Beecher Stowe opened readers’ eyes to the ravages of slavery in Uncle Tom’s Cabin
- Charles Darwin published The Origin of the Species.
- The first transatlantic cable was laid, the Pony Express was established, and four men travelled 1200 miles in a hot air balloon.
- Reform Judaism had been born in Germany in the early 1800’s, and in 1855 Isaac Mayer Wise began growing it in America.
In 1859 the New Brunswick population was 11,200, less than 1% of whom were Jews.
- Free public schools for all children had been established just six years earlier.
- Most people travelled by horse and buggy, and it cost 50 cents for a buggy to cross the Raritan River (on foot, it was 2 cents and on a horse, 7 cents.).
- The New Jersey Railroad had just completed track from Jersey City to New Brunswick.
- New Brunswick was a successful manufacturing city, with factories for rubber, wallpaper, shoes, furniture, bricks, and cotton spinning mills.
And a small group of “young, struggling, vigorous, ambitious and deeply religious” families decided it was time to set up a formal congregation in the thriving river city of New Brunswick to serve the Jews of the city.
Sources: Various writings of Ruth Patt in the Jewish Historical Society of Central New Jersey. Centennial Year Address by Rosella G.Hanauer, October 25, 1959.
Anshe Emeth Service Sheet - October 9, 2009/ 21 Tishrei 5770
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