History

The his­tory of Aha­vath Sholom is a rich one, now span­ning almost 120 years. In 1992, the salient events of our first hun­dred years were cap­tured in a beau­ti­ful com­mem­o­ra­tive book.

What fol­lows below is the entire text from that book.

The First Fifty Years…Hebrew Con­gre­ga­tion Aha­vath Sholom
Fort Worth, Texas
Octo­ber the 9th, 1892 Record Book

It was in this man­ner that the out­side cover of the first recorded meet­ings of our con­gre­ga­tion was labeled. The very first page listed the ”Names of offi­cers of Con­gre­ga­tion Aha­vath Sholom elected for the next 12 months?from this date, Octo­ber 9, 1892″

Mr. W. Gold­stein, Pres­i­dent
M. M. Shan­blum, Vice Pres­i­dent
Mr. J. Jacobs, Sec­re­tary
Mr. J. B. Colton, Trea­surer
Mr. L. Miller
Mr. L. G. Gilbert
Mr. B. Levenson

after which fol­lowed a list of the thirty-one ”Names of the Mem­bers of the Con­gre­ga­tion Aha­vath Sholom, Octo­ber 8, 1893″

1892 — A group of Jew­ish immi­grants met at the home of the late William Gold­stein on 5th and Cal­houn. They estab­lished Fort Worth’s first Jew­ish Con­gre­ga­tion to be known as Aha­vath Sholom which means Love of Peace. The 31 founders and their fam­i­lies met for High Holy Day ser­vices in rented halls for the first three years.

The first min­utes, trans­lated from Yid­dish, read:

Meet­ing 1
Fort Worth

Octo­ber 30, 1892

The meet­ing was called to order at 8 P.M. by Mr. Gold­stein, Pres­i­dent. The min­utes of the last meet­ing were read and approved. No impor­tant busi­ness was brought up and the meet­ing was adjourned. (Approved by W. Gold­stein, President)

And so the fas­ci­nat­ing project of Con­gre­ga­tion Aha­vath Sholom was launched. From these mod­est begin­nings there grew, through an abun­dance of con­fi­dence, vision and hope, a reli­gious insti­tu­tion that serves almost six hun­dred fam­i­lies today.

Fort Worth was a bustling rail­road cen­ter when these first meet­ings were held. The host was William Gold­stein, the first pres­i­dent, and his home at Fifth and Cal­houn was the meet­ing place.

The min­utes reflected, step by step, how the orga­ni­za­tional rou­tine and func­tions were estab­lished. It took many meet­ings to final­ize and accept the bylaws. The acqui­si­tion of a char­ter was an almost insol­u­ble prob­lem, for there were no char­ter blanks avail­able. Even­tu­ally, the Char­ter was acquired on Jan­u­ary 8, 1893. Sub­se­quently, a sign read­ing Con­gre­ga­tion Aha­vath Sholom was made, a gavel was pur­chased and a dues struc­ture of $6.00 per annum, payable at 50? per month, was set.

Even in those days there was a turnover of mem­ber­ship. Each poten­tial new mem­ber, how­ever, had to apply, and a vote was taken before his appli­ca­tion was accepted. Accord­ing to the records, a few rejec­tions of appli­ca­tions were even­tu­ally made on the basis of moral and eth­i­cal issues.

For sev­eral years the reli­gious func­tions were restricted to High Holy Day ser­vices. The min­utes of August 30, 1893, reflect the appoint­ment of a spe­cial com­mit­tee to make the nec­es­sary arrange­ments. A hall was rented for $12.00. Mem­bers were appointed to offi­ci­ate, and they vied with one another for these hon­ors. Tick­ets were sold at $1.00 for mem­bers, $2.00 for non-members, and gratis to those who could not afford to pay.

The min­utes fur­ther reflect the finan­cial dif­fi­cul­ties that con­fronted both the con­gre­ga­tion and the indi­vid­ual mem­bers. The founders, how­ever, did not allow prob­lems to hin­der them in their progress for any length of time.

1893
Aha­vath Sholom bought a lot on Jarvis and Hemphill for $1,000

The hub of their inter­ests and activ­i­ties was the ”Shul”, despite the nec­es­sary sac­ri­fi­cial efforts and con­tri­bu­tions. Gifts of funds were solicited and received. Balls, par­ties, raf­fles and every type of enter­tain­ment was held. When cash was not read­ily avail­able, mem­bers donated gifts instead. Through­out many recorded min­utes, the dis­cus­sion revolved around the inci­dent of a ”gold watch gift”, and the var­i­ous tri­als and prob­lems that it gen­er­ated. Even planned legal steps had to be taken before $35.00 was real­ized from the sale of the watch and added to the trea­sury of Aha­vath Sholom.

A mem­ber was never excluded who could not afford the required dues. How­ever, sev­eral times motions were car­ried to sus­pend those mem­bers in arrears. One time, four­teen mem­bers (half of the mem­ber­ship) were sus­pended. At other times, mem­bers were sus­pended for fail­ing to pay dues or other oblig­a­tions. There were even times when finan­cial assis­tance had to be sought by the con­gre­gants from res­i­dents of Dal­las, Waco and other towns in the vicin­ity. Yet the records show they were always ready to rec­i­p­ro­cate. When cit­i­zens of Waco, Cisco and other neigh­bor­ing com­mu­ni­ties needed help, these men and women were ready to assist.

After sev­eral meet­ings and events, it was felt that a struc­ture was needed. On May 14, 1893, a com­mit­tee was appointed to seek a lot upon which to build a syn­a­gogue. On June 18, 1893, the com­mit­tee reported an avail­able lot at the cor­ner of Jarvis and Hemphill for $1,000, $500 to be paid down and $500 to be paid out in two years. A motion was unan­i­mously approved to pur­chase the lot and to estab­lish all mem­bers in good stand­ing as char­ter mem­bers of the future synagogue.

By August 6, 1893, the 50 X 100 foot lot was pur­chased, the deed was recorded and the bylaws of Con­gre­ga­tion Aha­vath Sholom were passed. It was not until March 24, 1895, that a com­mit­tee was appointed to apply for a loan, with the lot as secu­rity, to enable them to build the first syn­a­gogue. They were able to obtain a loan for $500 with­out secu­rity, and that same com­mit­tee of W. Gold­stein, B. Lev­en­son and J. Jacobs became the build­ing committee.

The deci­sion to build is detailed in the min­utes. The build­ing was to be fifty feet long, twenty-six feet high. It was to be frame, with a shin­gled roof. A small vestibule with a dou­ble win­dow would face west. There would be dou­ble doors in the west, sin­gle doors in all other direc­tions. Even the detail of win­dows was included, as was the descrip­tion of the foun­da­tion materials.

This first build­ing was erected at the cost of $640. An Ark was espe­cially designed and built for $92.50. Con­gre­ga­tion Aha­vath Sholom now had its first home?a sanc­tu­ary for ser­vices, a cen­ter for activities.

In Sep­tem­ber 1895, the first Shochet, Mr. Rosen­baum, was engaged. He also par­tic­i­pated in offi­ci­at­ing at the ser­vices, and was prob­a­bly the first paid offi­cial to be hired.

1895
First Syn­a­gogue, a small frame build­ing, where ser­vices were held for the next six years, was erected for $640.00.

From the mod­est but ambi­tious begin­nings, Con­gre­ga­tion Aha­vath Sholom began to grow and pros­per. The names of ardent work­ers were repeated often in var­i­ous capacities?W. Gold­stein, B. Lev­en­son, M. Shan­blum, J. Jacobs, T. Gans, A. Rat­ner, H. B. Ackin, J. B. Colton, A. Sals­berg, V. Block, Z. Solomon, D. Cohen, I. N. Mehl, A. Greines and so many more. Their tenure as offi­cers, trustees and com­mit­tee mem­bers often lasted for many years. Under their lead­er­ship and with enthu­si­as­tic par­tic­i­pa­tion of the mem­ber­ship, the activ­i­ties on Jarvis and Hemphill were numer­ous and varied.

1901
Bought a lot at 819 Tay­lor Street for $1655.00 and moved the frame build­ing to this location.

As mem­ber­ship began to increase, the facil­i­ties, at one time thought to be ade­quate and spa­cious, were now becom­ing over­crowded. The con­stant neces­sity of look­ing and plan­ning ahead proved once again that a new site had to be acquired. On Decem­ber 12, 1901, the lot at 819 Tay­lor Street was pur­chased for the sum of $1,655. The Jarvis Street syn­a­gogue was moved to this new site. The old lot was sold, and for the next five years, Con­gre­ga­tion Aha­vath Sholom used their old home at a new location.

By 1905, the mem­ber­ship had grown to nearly 100 fam­i­lies. Talk of a new build­ing was enthu­si­as­tic and con­ta­gious. Mr. L. G. Gilbert trans­lated that enthu­si­asm into prac­ti­cal efforts when he vol­un­teered the first gift of $250 toward the build­ing fund. Oth­ers fol­lowed suit. Offi­cial action was taken and a build­ing com­mit­tee was appointed, con­sist­ing of I. N. Mehl, Pres­i­dent; Sam Simon, Vice Pres­i­dent; A. Sals­berg, Sec­re­tary; T. Gans, Trea­surer; M. Shan­blum, B. Lev­en­son and L. G. Gilbert, trustees; and L. F. Shan­blum, W. Gold­stein and J. Jacobs, mem­bers at large.

These men met many times, spend­ing many hours in delib­er­a­tion. By April 1906, a def­i­nite set of plans was approved. A new brick build­ing was to be erected on the Tay­lor Street prop­erty at a cost not to exceed $15,000. Rev­enues raised from fund-raising dri­ves and the sale of seats would be used to pay off the loan.

1905
Con­gre­ga­tion now num­bers 100 mem­bers and plans are started to build a more per­ma­nent struc­ture on this site.

1906
The Hebrew school was orga­nized. Rabbi Blu­men­thal was its first teacher.

It was an impos­ing edi­fice, with the name ”Con­gre­ga­tion Aha­vath Sholom” writ­ten in bold Hebrew let­ters across the top fol­lowed by the year ‘‘1906’’. Steps led up to the sanc­tu­ary, and there was also a bal­cony. For eight years, the base­ment, with win­dows above the ground, served as the school facil­ity and the cen­ter for var­i­ous activities.

Four years after the ded­i­ca­tion of the new build­ing, these men of vision saw that in order to carry out the three func­tions of a syn­a­gogue property?Worship, Study and Fellowship?additional facil­i­ties would be needed. Another piece of prop­erty on Tay­lor Street, just two lots away, was pur­chased in May of 1910 for $8,250. A build­ing com­mit­tee to explore and plan addi­tional facil­i­ties was appointed, with M. Shan­blum as chair­man, S. Simon as co-chairman, L. F. Shan­blum, as sec­re­tary, I. N. Mehl as trea­surer. Addi­tional mem­bers were L. G. Gilbert, S. Rosen, W. Gold­stein, J. Wolf­son, J. J. Jacobs, T. Gans, L. Cohen, A. Sals­berg, S. Gilbert, B. Lev­en­son, J. Gold­stein, A. Simon and N. Eck­ert, Felix P. Bath served as an advi­sory member.

1910
A lot north of the con­gre­ga­tion was pur­chased for $8,250.00 and the three-story Hebrew Insti­tute was built.

Once again meet­ings were held to final­ize pro­jected ideas. There are min­utes in Yid­dish regard­ing the committee’s delib­er­a­tions and deci­sions. Even­tu­ally, plans were drawn up and the work was started. In June 1914, the first two sto­ries of the Hebrew Insti­tute were ready for occu­pa­tion. Later, a third floor was com­pleted, and a many faceted pro­gram of activ­i­ties was sched­uled. The first floor housed the Hebrew School, and later, the Sun­day School, the Rabbi’s study, a large meet­ing room and a library. The sec­ond floor had a kitchen and com­bi­na­tion auditorium/banquet hall. The third floor was the gym­na­sium, with all the required equip­ment, dress­ing rooms and showers.

On Feb­ru­ary 22, 1925, eleven men of the Con­gre­ga­tion met to form an orga­ni­za­tion whose pro­jected aim was to cre­ate an endow­ment fund. It was not their inten­tion to entirely sup­port the Hebrew School finan­cially, but rather, when needed, to assist the Hebrew School in main­tain­ing a high stan­dard of teach­ing of the Hebrew lan­guage and Judaism to the youth of the city. A res­o­lu­tion was drawn up and unan­i­mously adopted, offi­cially cre­at­ing the M. Shan­blum Endow­ment Fund. This res­o­lu­tion read in part:

Whereas, Mr. Moses Shan­blum, a res­i­dent of our com­mu­nity for many years, has given unstint­edly of his time and money, and has so gen­er­ously and will­ingly striven to increase the funds avail­able for the main­te­nance of the Hebrew School; for ser­vices ren­dered in the past he has received cer­tain monies in the form of com­mis­sions, a part of which he has pre­vi­ously donated to other orga­ni­za­tions and which were used partly in the con­struc­tion of the Hebrew Insti­tute, and approx­i­mately twelve hun­dred dol­lars has been hith­erto returned to the Hebrew School, which sum has been vested in Lib­erty Bonds and notes, and now con­sti­tutes a basic fund for this purpose?

1913
Many of the mem­bers of Aha­vath Sholom met in the Hebrew Insti­tute to orga­nize a new Pio­neers of the West lodge. They con­tin­ued to hold their meet­ings there until the lodge dis­solved in the mid 1940’s.

There­fore, be it resolved by the Con­gre­ga­tion Aha­vath Sholom, in meet­ing assem­bled, that in order to show its high appre­ci­a­tion of the noble and untir­ing work done by Moses Shan­blum dur­ing all these years, and espe­cially to make avail­able a par­tic­u­lar fund with which the School is to be main­tained, it is hereby agreed that all monies received for this pur­pose shall be deposited and retained in the Moses Shan­blum Endow­ment Fund for the Hebrew School?

The res­o­lu­tion, in its for­mal lan­guage, set up a per­ma­nent com­mit­tee for man­age­ment and admin­is­tra­tion of the fund, with the pro­vi­sion that all names of donors to the fund would be recorded in books kept for that pur­pose, and that such lists were to be made per­pet­ual. At the same time, a Board of Trustees, to serve dur­ing their life­time, was selected, and the fol­low­ing names were signed to this res­o­lu­tion to com­prise the first Board of Trustees of the M. Shan­blum Endow­ment Fund:

L. G. Gilbert
M. Shan­blum
Israel N. Mehl
L. F. Gins­burg
J. Gold­stein
S. Gilbert
M. J. Chicotskey
A. Sals­berg
A. Rosen­thal
J. Wolffson

A set of Bylaws, Rules and Reg­u­la­tions were adopted for the con­trol and man­age­ment of the orga­ni­za­tion, and read in part?

Arti­cle I

Sec­tion 1. The name of the orga­ni­za­tion shall be ”The M. Shan­blum Endow­ment Fund for the Hebrew School of Fort Worth.”

Sec­tion 2. All busi­ness shall be trans­acted and records kept in the Eng­lish language.

Arti­cle II

Sec­tion 1. The income of this orga­ni­za­tion shall con­sist of con­tri­bu­tions and dona­tions invited and solicited from indi­vid­u­als or soci­eties, lega­cies and bequeathals made by Jew­ish men and women who by such dona­tion or con­tri­bu­tion desire to have their names linked and per­pet­u­ated with the most wor­thy Jew­ish insti­tu­tion, the Tal­mud Torah.

Sec­tion 2. A book, spe­cially pro­vided and designed in attrac­tive appear­ance shall be main­tained by this orga­ni­za­tion, said book to be known as the ”Sei­far Hazichronos” or ”Golden Book”, and in the pages of said book, the names of all donors and con­trib­u­tors to the Endow­ment Fund shall be recorded and inscribed.

The trustees estab­lished a min­i­mum sub­scrip­tion of $250 for the pur­pose of hav­ing one’s name inscribed in the book, but they were also empow­ered to inscribe in the book names of per­sons whose out­stand­ing deeds dur­ing their life­time left an indeli­ble mark on the Jew­ish com­mu­nity. How­ever, they reserved for them­selves full author­ity to reject any sub­scrip­tion or dona­tion to the Fund and to refuse to have names inscribed in the Golden Book.

1925
An orga­ni­za­tion was formed for the pur­pose of finan­cially aid­ing in the main­te­nance of the Hebrew School. The orga­ni­za­tion has accu­mu­lated a size­able cap­i­tal, the inter­est on the amount is yearly donated to the Hebrew School. Unlike other orga­ni­za­tions, the mem­bers of this group are elected for their entire lifetime.

On Novem­ber 24, 1925, a com­mit­tee was appointed to cor­re­spond with the Beza­lel School of Pales­tine to secure a cover for a book to be known as the Golden Book. Within its pages were to be inscribed the names of donors to the Fund. In the min­utes of this meet­ing was the fol­low­ing descrip­tion of the Golden Book?

The front cover on the out­side is to have a Mogen David with the Kotel Maar­avi pic­ture, and in a round cir­cle, the inscrip­tion in Hebrew. On the inside of the same cover is to be the pic­ture of the Hebrew Uni­ver­sity; on the top the inscrip­tion in Hebrew ”Sefer Haz­a­hav” and on the bot­tom ”Tal­mud Torah Keneged Kulam”.

The back cover on the out­side is to have the pic­ture of the Hebrew Insti­tute of Fort Worth with the inscrip­tion ”Golden Book of the Donors of the M. Shan­blum Endow­ment Fund of the Hebrew School of Fort Worth, Texas.” On the inside of the same cover is to be the pic­ture of Aha­vath Sholom Syn­a­gogue and under it the names of the Board of Trustees to the Fund. Two hun­dred and fifty gold trimmed pages are to be placed in this book, with the inscrip­tion, in gold, on the top of each page ”Names of Donors”.

Total cost of this book, which was ordered and sub­se­quently received from Pales­tine on Octo­ber 27, 1926, was $500. The Golden Book was pub­licly dis­played and ded­i­cated at a Chanukah ban­quet sched­uled Decem­ber 7, 1926.

1908
The Hebrew school was orga­nized. Rabbi Blu­men­thal was its first teacher.

1912
Rabbi Blu­men­thal left Fort Worth

1922
Abra­ham E. Abramowitz was Rabbi

1922
Bengis was Rabbi

1929
Philip Graubart, father of Alexan­der Graubart was Rabbi

In 1936, Jake Luskey observed that a lot which divided the Syn­a­gogue prop­er­ties (the Insti­tute and the Syn­a­gogue) would some day be use­ful to the Con­gre­ga­tion. Since the Syn­a­gogue had not seen fit to pur­chase the lot, Jake Luskey bought it and turned it over to the Hebrew Pro­tec­tive Asso­ci­a­tion, which was in oper­a­tion at that time. It was turned over with the under­stand­ing that their only cus­tomer would be the Con­gre­ga­tion and that the orig­i­nal price of $6,751.00 would have to be the sell­ing price. Four years later the Con­gre­ga­tion bought the lot and used it for a play­ground, pro­vid­ing the chil­dren of the Hebrew School and Sun­day School with a safe place for out­side recreation.

Ever mind­ful of the needs of the Hebrew School, and of their orig­i­nal pur­pose in cre­at­ing the Fund, the mem­bers elected to pur­chase a sta­tion wagon. This was to be used to trans­port the stu­dents from the Pub­lic Schools to the after­noon Hebrew School, since it was found that many could not attend reg­u­larly due to the lack of proper trans­porta­tion. This sta­tion wagon was pur­chased for the sum of $2,300.81, and was used from Octo­ber 12, 1947 to Feb­ru­ary 28, 1951, at which time it was sold and the pro­ceeds turned back to the fund.

As the years passed the finan­cial struc­ture of the fund con­tin­ued to grow. The years brought changes in the mem­ber­ship as the elders passed away and replace­ments were elected. But, always, the orig­i­nal con­cept and pur­pose of the fund was main­tained, with the con­tin­u­a­tion and progress of the Hebrew School the prime object of the membership.

At a meet­ing held in April, 1961, a motion was made and car­ried to the effect that cer­tain sum of money be set up as a per­ma­nent cap­i­tal­iza­tion and that all future con­tri­bu­tions be added to this per­ma­nent reserve. This was done to ensure that the finan­cial struc­ture of the Fund would be secure, and that at all times there would remain in the fund this per­ma­nent reserve.

The ”Golden Book”, being as it were, the sym­bol of the Fund, was found to be in a state of dis­re­pair and at a meet­ing held in Octo­ber 1961, a com­mit­tee was formed to have the book repaired, and to seek out a suit­able dis­play case for the book. The book was sub­se­quently repaired, each entry checked and rechecked, and a glass-topped dis­play cab­i­net was secured.

Today, the ”Golden Book”, the ”Sei­far Hazichronos” of the M. Shan­blum Endow­ment Fund, proudly, yet humbly pro­claims that the cher­ished dream of those orig­i­nal eleven men has come true; the Hebrew School in Fort Worth, Texas has con­tin­ued to flour­ish and expand, and will for­ever be endowed for the gen­er­a­tions to come.

1942 ? 1972
Now that the syn­a­gogue and its facil­i­ties were com­pleted, Con­gre­ga­tion Aha­vath Sholom enjoyed an air of secu­rity and permanency.

The pro­grams, meet­ings, dances, lun­cheons and din­ners held in the Insti­tute were numer­ous and var­ied. Young and old, affil­i­ates and non-affiliates?all met there. The Men’s Club, the Ladies Aux­il­iary, Hadas­sah, BBG, AZA, Young Judea, Boy Scouts and other orga­ni­za­tions on a rental basis made use of the new struc­ture. Dur­ing World War I and World War II, the Hebrew Insti­tute became the cen­ter for ser­vice per­son­nel. Dances and enter­tain­ment were planned for them. Indeed, the con­tin­u­ous hus­tle and bus­tle within the Insti­tute was valid evi­dence of its need. Its pop­u­lar­ity and con­stant use was grat­i­fy­ing and reward­ing to the congregation.

How­ever, as the mem­ber­ship con­tin­ued to increase, those build­ings, so prac­ti­cal and use­ful for sev­eral years, once again became inad­e­quate. The sanc­tu­ary could not con­tain all the wor­shipers dur­ing High Holy Day ser­vices, and the over­flow crowd had to meet in the Hebrew Insti­tute. Some Sun­day School classes had to be sched­uled in clos­ets. The influx of new peo­ple and the returnees from World War II fur­ther empha­sized the crowded conditions.

The loca­tion was prob­lem­at­i­cal. By now, Con­gre­ga­tion Aha­vath Sholom found itself sit­u­ated in the mid­dle of the down­town dis­trict. Park­ing lots were located across the street and a children’s play­ground was next door to the sanc­tu­ary. With no air con­di­tion­ing, win­dows had to be opened for ven­ti­la­tion. The flow of street traf­fic, the noise in the nearby park­ing lots and the shouts of chil­dren at play wrought havoc with any pos­si­bil­ity of deco­rum dur­ing reli­gious ser­vices. The benches, seat­ing many more than they were designed to accom­mo­date, added to the dis­com­fort of the wor­shipers. The desir­abil­ity of new facil­i­ties began to gain momen­tum once again.

There was under­stand­ably some oppo­si­tion to a pos­si­ble move. Some of the pio­neers, whose ded­i­cated efforts and sac­ri­fi­cial con­tri­bu­tions made the first two syn­a­gogues a real­ity, were reluc­tant to leave ”their home”. They felt activ­i­ties would be greatly reduced if the present loca­tion were aban­doned. Some felt that although the prop­erty was now valu­able, it was not proper to build on the income of the past alone. A propo­si­tion was artic­u­lated that if the younger gen­er­a­tion ”were inter­ested in build­ing, then they must show their inter­est through contributions.”

The first prac­ti­cal step was taken in 1947. A Memo­r­ial Plaque, upon which mem­bers could have the names of their beloved departed inscribed, was to be estab­lished. The names would be read at every Yizkor ser­vice. It would be known as the Memo­r­ial Build­ing Fund Plaque. All pro­ceeds would be set aside for the build­ing project.

1946
Isadore Garsek hired as Rabbi

In 1948, the site com­mit­tee reported a pos­si­ble loca­tion at the cor­ner of Eighth Avenue and Myr­tle. Upon inves­ti­ga­tion, the Board of Direc­tors found this site suit­able and approved its pur­chase. A year later, a tem­po­rary build­ing com­mit­tee was appointed to keep the project alive. Pre­lim­i­nary plans were stud­ied and a gen­eral approach was approved.

In the lat­ter part of 1950, at a gen­eral con­gre­ga­tional meet­ing, the build­ing of a new syn­a­gogue was approved. A month later, the sin­cer­ity and earnest­ness of those who advo­cated the new loca­tion was demon­strated, even to the sat­is­fac­tion of the few oppo­nents of the plan. The occa­sion was the Ladies Aux­il­iary annual birth­day din­ner. Instead of the usual pro­gram, the meet­ing was ded­i­cated to the ”New Build­ing Plan”. Pledges and con­tri­bu­tions were solicited, with the Ladies Auxiliary’s $1,000 dona­tion spear­head­ing the drive. Before the meet­ing was adjourned, the sum of cash and pledges amounted to $147,000.

On Sun­day, Feb­ru­ary 18, 1951, a pro­ces­sion came down Eighth Avenue, led by four men hold­ing a Chu­pah. An elder of the con­gre­ga­tion, Harry Rosen­thal, car­ried a Sefer Torah, accom­pa­nied by Haskell Daiches, M. J. Chicot­sky, J. Gold­stein and Rubin Rovin­sky. Rab­bis Garsek, Brach­man and Blu­men­thal, Rev­erend Leib­son and Can­tor Fried­man, offi­cers, board mem­bers and other dig­ni­taries as well as a large num­ber of con­gre­gants fol­lowed the Torah, cant­ing appro­pri­ate hymns and songs and stop­ping approx­i­mately where the sanc­tu­ary was to be erected. Prayers, addresses and greet­ings were deliv­ered. Then, with a shovel pre­pared espe­cially for the occa­sion, the ground was bro­ken. The honor of the ground-breaking was assigned to the char­ter mem­bers, the elders and the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the synagogue’s affil­i­ated organizations.

1948
The lot at Eighth Avenue and Myr­tle was purchased.

The next step was to dis­pose of the Tay­lor Street prop­erty. A com­mit­tee, chaired by Irv­ing Rosen­thal, reported to a spe­cial con­gre­ga­tional meet­ing on March 4, 1951, that a buyer was avail­able. The March 24, 1951 edi­tion of the Star-Telegram read, ”Dan­cigers Buy Syn­a­gogue Prop­erty on Tay­lor Street.” The syn­a­gogue, the Hebrew Insti­tute and the lot in between were pur­chased by Jack Dan­ciger and his daugh­ter Ruth for a sum in excess of $200,000. Mr. Dan­ciger took imme­di­ate pos­ses­sion of the Insti­tute, but agreed to allow the con­gre­ga­tion to use the syn­a­gogue struc­ture temporarily.

Once again ser­vices and Hebrew School were held in the orig­i­nal Tay­lor Street build­ing. Sun­day School, how­ever, had out­grown the facil­i­ties and began to meet at Lily B. Clay­ton Ele­men­tary School. When Mr. Dan­ciger decided to take pos­ses­sion of the old struc­ture, a Novem­ber 16, 1951 news­pa­per arti­cle announced: ”Last Meet­ing In Syn­a­gogue Is Announced” ? Mem­bers of Con­gre­ga­tion Aha­vath Sholom will meet in the Syn­a­gogue at 821 Tay­lor Street for the last time at 8 P.M. Friday?”

Through the cour­tesy of Mr. Dan­ciger, a home on 1723 Hemphill Street became tem­po­rary head­quar­ters, rent free. Mem­bers of the Men’s Club, armed with brooms, paint and brushes, made the home usable for daily ser­vices and Hebrew School. Fri­day evening ser­vices were held in Lily B. Clay­ton School. Holy Day ser­vices were held in the Black­stone Hotel. For a while, we were reliv­ing the expe­ri­ences of our early founders.

As the new build­ing, designed by Fort Worth archi­tect C. O. Chro­mas­ter, took shape, feel­ings of pride and excite­ment could be detected in its future inhab­i­tants. Con­gre­gants stopped by on the way to and from work to watch con­struc­tion. Upon com­ple­tion in Sep­tem­ber 1952, the edi­fice was teem­ing with activ­ity. All through the day and late in to the night, peo­ple dropped in, just to be there and to meet their friends there. Detailed descrip­tions and pic­tures of the new sanc­tu­ary, chapel, audi­to­rium, ban­quet hall, kitchen, library, offices, Rabbi’s study and class­rooms appeared repeat­edly in the newspapers.

A ded­i­ca­tion ban­quet was held on Thurs­day, Sep­tem­ber 11. Some seven hun­dred peo­ple filled our Cen­ter to over­flow­ing, with many more want­ing to attend but being turned away because of space lim­i­ta­tions. On the first Sab­bath Eve, the cur­tains sep­a­rat­ing the sanc­tu­ary from the audi­to­rium had to be opened to accom­mo­date seat­ing for sev­eral hun­dred addi­tional worshipers.

On Sat­ur­day night, in the beau­ti­fully dec­o­rated Cen­ter, some five hun­dred peo­ple met for the Ded­i­ca­tion ball. The orches­tra, enter­tain­ment and refresh­ments were enjoyed by all until 11:55 when the music stopped. Slowly the con­gre­gants entered and filled the sanc­tu­ary for Sli­chot ser­vices. The fol­low­ing morn­ing was set aside for the ded­i­ca­tion of the school wing. There were brief remarks, prayers and refresh­ments, and then a tour of the entire build­ing was given for those who had not had the oppor­tu­nity of vis­it­ing previously.

Thus, the ded­i­ca­tion week­end came to a close, end­ing on the high note of cul­tural and edu­ca­tional aspi­ra­tions. The entire event had well-defined the three aspects of our con­gre­ga­tional program?worship, study and fel­low­ship. Sab­bath and Holy Day ser­vices, daily minyanim and spe­cial events were attended enthu­si­as­ti­cally. Both the Hebrew and Sun­day Schools showed an increase in reg­is­tra­tion and atten­dance. For a num­ber of years, the preschool, under the direc­tion of Lil Gold­man, attracted chil­dren of mem­bers and non­mem­bers alike, until it even­tu­ally became part of the Dan Dan­ciger Jew­ish Com­mu­nity Cen­ter pro­gram. The pur­chase of the lot on the north side of the build­ing for use as a Youth Cen­ter and for some classes did not ade­quately alle­vi­ate the lack of space that was being expe­ri­enced. Thus, at the April 12, 1959 annual meet­ing, a motion was passed to add addi­tional class­rooms, an assem­bly hall and a gym­na­sium. Under the lead­er­ship of George Lev­i­tan, the expan­sion plans were real­ized and Ded­i­ca­tion Con­vo­ca­tion pro­gram was held May 7, 1960. The con­vo­ca­tion was to con­fer the Hon­orary Degree of Doc­tor of Hebrew Let­ters on Rabbi Garsek by the Hebrew The­o­log­i­cal Col­lege of Chicago, Illi­nois. The Ded­i­ca­tion Ser­vices were to open the new addi­tion of ten large class­rooms, three pri­vate offices, a meet­ing room and a recre­ation center.

1959
Kosher butcher shop closed in May. Arrange­ments were made for Kosher killing of chick­ens at the TCU Poul­try Co. in order to meet city require­ments and sup­ply Kosher meat.

1960
On May 15, a con­vo­ca­tion ser­vice was held hon­or­ing Rabbi Garsek. Dr. Oscar Fas­man, Pres­i­dent of Hebrew The­o­log­i­cal Col­lege of Chicago bestowed hon­orary Doc­tor­ate of Hebrew Let­ters on Rabbi Garsek. This cel­e­bra­tion was held in con­junc­tion with the ded­i­ca­tion of our new edu­ca­tional facilities.

1966
Received pledges of $3,000.00 from 32 mem­bers to be used for col­lat­eral so a bank loan can be obtained by new oper­a­tor to buy and oper­ate the Kosher meat market.

With con­struc­tion and expan­sion pro­grams com­pleted, the con­gre­ga­tion was able to enter into the 1960s with a stronger ded­i­ca­tion and improved facil­i­ties. It was dur­ing this period that sev­er­alchanges took place within the syn­a­gogue. The first Bat Mitz­vah was cel­e­brated dur­ing a Sab­bath Eve ser­vice, with many more soon to fol­low. Under the direc­tion of Simon and Miriam Zip­per, the Hebrew School was strength­ened. Hebrew instruc­tion and prayer under­went a tran­si­tion from Ashke­nazic to Sephardic pronunciation.

Plans and prepa­ra­tions were begun for the congregation’s 75th anniver­sary cel­e­bra­tion. The com­mem­o­ra­tive event was observed in Feb­ru­ary 1967 with a gala ban­quet and pro­gram. The 412 fam­ily mem­ber­ship of 1967 grew to 460 fam­i­lies by 1973. A year and a half

1967
In June a joint Fri­day night ser­vice with Tem­ple Beth El was held. This is the first such joint ser­vice in twenty years.

later, 502 fam­i­lies were mem­bers, and by the end of the decade, the congregation’s mem­ber­ship totaled over 550 fam­i­lies. This growth in mem­ber­ship was accom­pa­nied by a host of new pro­grams to serve our con­gre­gants. A Young Married’s Group was estab­lished, a new Sab­bath Eve prayer book was adopted, con­gre­ga­tional Shab­bat din­ners spon­sored by the Ladies Aux­il­iary were ini­ti­ated. Adult edu­ca­tion lec­tures, con­certs, youth break­fasts and many other such activ­i­ties were enjoyed by our members.

1972 ? 1993
In Feb­ru­ary 1972, Pres­i­dent Shel­don Labovitz reported that the Cassco Land Com­pany was offer­ing to sell the con­gre­ga­tion a ”12 acre par­cel of land on the south­west cor­ner of Bri­arhaven and Hulen.”

1970
On Octo­ber 20 the Board of Direc­tors autho­rized pur­chase of 12 acres on Hulen and Bri­arhaven for sum of $100,000.00 as pos­si­ble future site for Shul.

In March, Labovitz appointed Char­lie Levin­son gen­eral chair­man of the plan­ning coun­cil to deal with all mat­ters con­cern­ing the land, its use, and sale of the present Shul build­ing. Shortly there­after, Al Sankary, who later suc­ceeded Labovitz as Shul pres­i­dent, took charge of some of the mat­ters in con­nec­tion with the sale of the Shul, and then became involved in the plan­ning of the new build­ing. The frus­trat­ing job of sell­ing the exist­ing Shul was taken over by Bob Kra­gen. Shel­don Labovitz accepted the respon­si­bil­ity for rais­ing the needed funds, a job that appeared to many to be impossible.

In April 1972, at an open meet­ing of the con­gre­ga­tion, Mar­cia Korn­bleet moved that the mem­ber­ship accept a dona­tion from the Mary Potish­man Lard Foun­da­tion of $100,000 and pur­chase the site at Hulen and Bri­arhaven. The Motion was passed by the 155 mem­bers who were present, and a new dream began to take shape. The con­gre­ga­tion was informed in August 1972 that the land had been pur­chased. By March 1973, the con­gre­ga­tion began inter­view­ing archi­tects and sub­se­quently chose the firm of Growald-Shutts. In Novem­ber of that year, plan­ning chair­man Mil­ton Hamill announced that draw­ings of the new sanc­tu­ary were ready to be inspected.

1979
On Sep­tem­ber 30, Ground Break­ing cer­e­monies were held.

Under Pres­i­dent Harry Cohn, the plan­ning for the new shul moved into high gear and efforts to sell the old shul to the Radi­a­tion Cen­ter moved toward final suc­cess. Ground break­ing cer­e­monies were held Sep­tem­ber 30, 1979, and con­struc­tion was begun Novem­ber 21, 1979. The excite­ment sur­round­ing these new devel­op­ments was tem­pered by Pres­i­dent Mil­ton Hamill’s announce­ment that the long and highly pro­duc­tive tenure of Rabbi Isadore Garsek as active Rabbi of the con­gre­ga­tion had come to an end. Rabbi Garsek, who served our con­gre­ga­tion for more than thirty years, announced his retire­ment. Rabbi Alex Graubart was selected to lead our con­gre­ga­tion, with Rabbi Garsek serv­ing as Rabbi Emer­i­tus until his death in 1985.

Our beau­ti­ful new build­ing was offi­cially ded­i­cated the week­end of Decem­ber 5, 6 and 7, 1980. Once again a pro­ces­sion of con­gre­ga­tional lead­ers, dig­ni­taries and mem­bers could be seen car­ry­ing the Sefer Torahs to our new place of wor­ship. The mezuzah was affixed, prayers were said, speeches were given, and a new era in Con­gre­ga­tion Aha­vath Sholom’s his­tory had begun.

Decem­ber 1980
With the offi­cial ded­i­ca­tions of the build­ing, respon­si­bil­i­ties of the Plan­ning Coun­cil came to an end.

The last dozen years have brought addi­tional changes and chal­lenges. In 1980, a request was made to allow Sab­bath morn­ing Bat Mitz­vah cel­e­bra­tions. Board min­utes reflect a def­i­n­i­tion of our con­gre­ga­tion as con­ser­v­a­tive with tra­di­tional lean­ings. Rabbi Graubart accepted a posi­tion in Cal­i­for­nia in 1981 and was suc­ceeded by Rabbi Jack Izak­son. The Fort Worth Hebrew Day School, estab­lished in 1981, was housed in our facil­i­ties until mov­ing into its per­ma­nent home in 1988. A Mother’s Day Out pro­gram was also begun at this time. The Edu­ca­tional Endow­ment Fund was set up in March of 1982; and addi­tional finan­cial goals were real­ized when Shel­don Labovitz received a stand­ing ova­tion from the board of direc­tors upon his announce­ment April 24, 1983, that the note on the new build­ing had been paid in full.

Min­i­mum dues in 1983 were $450, increas­ing to $600 by 1991. New devel­op­ments in 1984 included the pur­chase of the congregation’s first office com­puter and the devel­op­ment of a new sec­tion in the Aha­vath Sholom Cemetary. Yet the min­utes of 1984 demon­strate that, in spite of the changes, some things remain the same. Men­tion is made of the Men’s Club pur­chase of a flash­ing light to be set on the roof out­side the chapel. This flash­ing light would be an indi­ca­tion to those dri­ving by that hav­ing enough men to make a minyan is still as much of a prob­lem today as it was twenty years ago.

The Isadore Garsel Patri­otic Gar­dens were for­mally ded­i­cated on Novem­ber 30, 1986. That same year Can­tor Gary D. Kessler was hired as direc­tor of edu­ca­tion and youth activ­i­ties. He orga­nized a youth group that, with the help of the Men’s Club and Ladies Aux­il­iary, spon­sored many monthly activ­i­ties for our chil­dren. Trips to local attrac­tions were enjoyed by dozens of stu­dents, as were annual week­end retreats and Purim celebrations.

1986
The Isadore Garsek Patri­otic Gar­dens were for­mally ded­i­cated on Novem­ber 30.

On Sep­tem­ber 18, 1988, the Korn­bleet Memo­r­ial Chapel at Aha­vath Sholom Cemetary was ded­i­cated in mem­ory of Larry Korn­bleet. The year 1989 saw the neces­sity of sell­ing 200 High Holy Day seats at $100 each to raise funds for a pre­dicted bud­get deficit.

Cel­e­bra­tions and changes con­tinue to leave their mark on the 1990s. May 6, 1990 was the date the con­gre­ga­tion pre­sented a plaque to Max Pila in honor of his 35 years of ser­vice. The Ladies Auxiliary

1988
The Korn­bleet Memo­r­ial Chapel of Aha­vath Sholom Cemetary was ded­i­cated in mem­ory of Larry Korn­bleet on Sep­tem­ber 18.

75th anniver­sary cel­e­bra­tion took place in 1991. This was also the year the con­gre­ga­tion voted to change our con­sti­tu­tion to read that reli­gious ser­vices would be con­ducted in a con­ser­v­a­tive, rather than a tra­di­tional, manner.

Rabbi Sid­ney Zimel­man was hired as reli­gious leader of Con­gre­ga­tion Aha­vath Sholom on May 14, 1991. Work­ing in con­junc­tion with Rabbi Zimel­man, Pres­i­dent Harry Labovitz and the offi­cers and direc­tors of the con­gre­ga­tion con­tinue to guide the mem­ber­ship into our sec­ond century.

1992
The con­gre­ga­tion voted to affil­i­ate with the United Syn­a­gogues of Amer­ica and to extend to all mem­bers of the shul, regard­less of gen­der, egal­i­tar­ian rights in reli­gious services.

On Decem­ber 6, 1992, the con­gre­ga­tion took an his­toric vote to for­mally affil­i­ate with the United Syn­a­gogues of Amer­ica and to extend to all mem­bers of the shul, regard­less of gen­der, egal­i­tar­ian rights in reli­gious ser­vices. Con­gre­ga­tional ties con­tinue to be strength­ened by social and reli­gious activ­i­ties such as Shab­bat din­ners, Shab­bat ser­vices for preschool­ers and their par­ents, the annual Chevra Kadisha din­ner, the Purim Seu­dah, a con­gre­ga­tional seder, host­ing of the South­west Region Shab­ba­ton for the United Syn­a­gogues of Con­ser­v­a­tive Judaism, and, of course, the cel­e­bra­tion of our first 100 years.