Edited by Laura Ann Schwartz from separate histories
compiled by Dr. Kenneth Davis and Sylvia Plank, ca. 2002,
with additional research and the addition of footnotes by Andrew Seager in 2016.
Alexander Shonfield, fifth president of Temple Beth El, claims to have traced Jewish residents of Muncie, then called Munseetown, back to 1848. Sylvia Plank later wrote that Jews first came to Munseetown in 1828. Neither author cites sources, however.
The earliest documentary evidence of Jews in this locality dates to 1850. An advertisement in The Muncietonian newspaper in March of that year announces the opening of the L. and H. Marks dry goods and clothing store on the south side of the public square. The proprietors had just arrived in town from Cincinnati.
The first Jewish religious service in Delaware County was held in 1852 at the home of Mr. Frank Leon, now the site of the Lofts at Roberts apartments at High and Howard Streets. A congregation was organized in 1885 with an initial membership of 19. Student rabbis from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio, conducted services
From 1891 until 1896, worship services were held in the Masonic building (Delaware Lodge No. 46) at the corner of High and Main Streets. In September 1896, the congregation relocated two blocks south to a suite of rooms in the Muncie Savings and Loan building at Adams and High Streets. Newspapers and city directories referred to the new location as “the Synagogue of the First Hebrew congregation” or “the Hebrew Temple.” By 1901, with a membership of 14, the congregation was maintaining Sabbath worship with lay leadership and also brought in a rabbi to conduct special Holy Day services. On October 28, 1901, the congregation began its long affiliation with the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now the Union for Reform Judaism).
Another move took place in 1912, by which time the congregation had adopted the name Temple Beth El. The new place of worship was on the second floor of a business building at 120-1/2 East Main Street. Rabbi Maurice Feuerlicht of Indianapolis conducted the dedicatory services, which were held on December 8, 1912, during Chanukah. The front room of the suite served as the sanctuary, the middle room had tables for food and card games, and the back room held a kitchen. The place was still used as a social club after the current Temple Beth El building was dedicated and being used for religious services.
B’nai B’rith Lodge #752 was established in 1907. A Ladies Aid Society, comprised of 15 members, was also operating at the time. On March 8, 1924, the Ladies Aid Society became a Sisterhood affiliated with the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods.
Our present temple, located at the comer of Jackson and Council Streets, was dedicated on December 3, 1922. The building’s cornerstone contains a sealed box with souvenirs of local Jewish history, but we know of only three of them: a record of the first Jew in Munseetown; a diaper pin from the first Jewish male born in Muncie; and a half-penny. Rabbi Feuerlicht gave the dedicatory sermon while Rabbi Bernard Dorfman gave the invocation and placed the scroll in the ark. Congregation president Charles Indorf received the key of the temple from Adolph C. Silverburg. Three years after the dedication, in 1925, the temple confirmed its first class.
Additional classroom space was created in 1962 by inserting a balcony over the front entrance porch, which originally was a two-story high space. Additional land was acquired the following year, including what is now the grassy courtyard south of the temple and the westernmost four parking spaces along the alley.
Many more improvements and renovations were made to the temple beginning in the 1980s. New pews and carpeting were installed and the kitchen and women’s restroom completely renovated in 1981. After suffering flood damage in 1984, the sanctuary was re-carpeted and re-painted. In the same year, new ceiling tiles were installed in the social room.
The congregation celebrated its centennial year in 1985 with three special events. A January birthday party at the temple featured a panel of younger and older congregants comparing their experiences of Jewish life in Muncie. In May, a public concert of Jewish music by Bonia Shur and his ensemble from Hebrew Union College was held at Muncie Civic Theatre. In October, Professor Jonathan Sarna of Hebrew Union College lectured at the temple on the historic implications of Muncie’s Jewish population.
Following the centennial celebrations, the congregation began to further expand the building and property. A strip of land adjacent to the eastern property line was acquired in 1989. In 1990, the temple purchased the house next door, which was razed to provide additional parking space. Also in 1990, the temple sold the property on Riverside Avenue that it had acquired in the 1950s. The strip of land purchased in 1989 was landscaped in 1991. Also that year, carpeting was installed in the rabbi’s study and on the stairs leading to the kitchen.
Temple Beth El celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Jackson Street building on December 7, 1997.
Congregation president Arthur Malman and student Rabbi Beth Schwartz delivered the opening comments. Following that, Martin Schwartz, Bernard Freund, and Herbert Pazol shared their personal memories in a panel discussion. Andrew Seager discussed the architectural style of the temple and Dr. Anne Eliades outlined future plans for the temple. Deborah Malitz and Fred Terman organized a dinner in the social hall. The attendees were then entertained by the religious school which, led by Dr. Connie Hirsh, performed Israeli folk songs and dances.
The musical entertainment, encompassing selections from the 17th through the 20th centuries, also featured a special composition by Raphael Crystal entitled “V’asu Li Mikdash.” Performers included vocalists Bertha Burgauer, Larry Francer, Connie Hirsh and Fred Terman, violinist Deborah Malitz, and pianist Raphael Crystal.
1997 also saw publication of the book Middletown Jews, edited by journalist Dan Rottenberg. Excerpted from transcripts of interviews recorded by two Ball State University history professors, the book presents the recollections of nineteen older members of the local Jewish community about their lives as Jews in Muncie during the 1920s and 1930s. The interview tapes and transcripts are housed in the Middletown Studies Collection of Ball State University Libraries.
The temple began an extensive expansion project in 1997. John and Anne Eliades donated funds in memory of Anne’s parents, William and Lotte Schwarz, for construction of a new community room, new kitchen, restrooms, and an elevator. The architecture firm Eggink Mounayar and Associates designed the addition. S.A. Boyce, Inc. was general contractor. Martin and Helen Schwartz contributed towards the cost of decorating the addition, and several congregation members donated to an endowment fund for the addition’s future upkeep. The new addition was officially dedicated on December 28, 1999 by Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman, president of Hebrew Union College, during a service conducted by Student Rabbi Laura Sheinkopf Hoffman and Cantorial Soloist Larry Francer.
During the time the addition was under construction, contributions were made also for improvements to the sanctuary. Martin and Helen Schwartz generously gave funds for a new and larger reading table for the bimah. Arthur and Dorothy (Dobrow) Malman and Edward and Maureen Dobrow donated new Torah dressings and a new curtain for the Aron ha-Kodesh in memory of their parents, Samuel and Frieda Dobrow.
In the spring of 2000, Ball State University faculty member and congregation member Elizabeth Leeor completed a photographic essay documenting four synagogues in East Central Indiana. It includes Temple Beth El in Muncie as well as Temple B’nai Israel in Kokomo, Beth Boruk Temple in Richmond, and Sinai Temple in Marion. The photographs were exhibited first at the Minnetrista Cultural Center, which sponsored the project, and then in various cities around the state. Several of the photographs are now displayed in the temple’s social room.
The social room was further enhanced in 2000 by the addition of stained glass windows. The windows were donated by Mrs. Harriet Berger in 2000 in memory of her husband, Fred Berger. In January of 2002, Sarah and Richard Walter donated a holocaust memorial plaque which was installed later that year in September. An additional yahrzeit board, donated by Alan and Rebecca Goldberg, was added to the sanctuary and dedicated in 2006.
Temple Beth El, Muncie 