From Twelve Jews in 1850 to Dayton's Largest Reform Congregation
Temple Israel began on December 21, 1850, when twelve Jews, led by Joseph Lebensburger, gathered in the old Dayton Bank Building to form a Hebrew Society dedicated to worship and the perpetuation of their joint heritage. Four years later, on December 8, 1854, the Society incorporated as Kehillah Kodesh B'nai Yeshurun. The congregation grew quickly. By 1860 it had purchased a former Baptist church at the northeast corner of 4th and Jefferson Streets for $4,500, and in 1893 it built a new house of worship at the corner of First and Jefferson Streets. The great Dayton flood of 1913 caused heavy damage to that building. In 1925, under the spiritual leadership of Rabbi Samuel S. Mayerberg, the congregation constructed a new home at Salem and Emerson Avenues with a sanctuary seating six hundred, a social hall, classrooms, offices and a kitchen. With that move, the congregation took the name it still carries: Temple Israel.
A modern sanctuary was added to the Salem Avenue campus during the tenure of Rabbi Selwyn D. Ruslander, who served from 1947 until his death in 1969. In 1973 Rabbi P. Irving Bloom became the congregation's spiritual leader, and his years brought a new Religious School Hebrew curriculum, Focus on Friday programs with guest speakers, joint Scholar-in-Residence weekends with Temple Beth Or and Beth Abraham Synagogue, adult Jewish studies classes and lay-led summer services. Rabbi Bloom retired in 1997 and was succeeded by Rabbi Marc Gruber, whose tenure introduced adult B'not Mitzvah classes, worship reform and participation in Synagogue 2000. In 1994, while these changes were underway, the congregation moved into its present home at 130 Riverside Drive in Dayton's city center. Today Temple Israel is the largest Reform congregation in Greater Dayton, a community of nearly one thousand individuals who pray, study and gather together throughout the week.
A Progressive Home Grounded in Tradition
Temple Israel is a founding member of the Union for Reform Judaism, the largest movement within American Judaism, and an egalitarian congregation where men and women share equal responsibilities and privileges. Interfaith families, Jews by choice, people of all sexual orientations and individuals of varied ethnic backgrounds are welcome members of the community. The congregation's mission calls it to perpetuate a vibrant and relevant Reform Jewish community by cultivating sacred relationships, engaging in meaningful worship, providing challenging learning opportunities and pursuing social justice for all people. Its vision is to be a dynamic, relevant spiritual center for Reform Judaism where all know they are welcome and feel they belong.
Reform Judaism at Temple Israel affirms the central tenets of Judaism - God, Torah and Israel - while embracing the conviction that Jewish life must change and adapt to survive. Tikkun olam, the repair of the world, is treated as a hallmark of congregational life. The congregation's own statement of faith affirms the absolute equality of women in all areas of Jewish life, the full participation of those who identify as LGBTQIA, and the inclusion of interfaith families and Jews by choice. Reform Judaism, as the congregation describes it, has enabled the Jewish people to introduce innovation while preserving tradition, to embrace diversity while asserting commonality, and to bring faith to sacred texts without sacrificing critical scholarship.
Worship Across Three Sacred Spaces
Worship at Temple Israel is built around active participation rather than passive attendance. No steps are required to ascend the bimah, and at the start of the Torah service the Torah is taken from the ark and carried through the sanctuary. Melodies chosen by the music director invite the whole congregation to join in. Services are conducted in three different rooms, each chosen to suit the occasion. The main sanctuary hosts most Friday evening services and is designed to foster communal intimacy. The Chapel, a smaller space, is used on Saturday mornings when there is no Bar or Bat Mitzvah, and its informality encourages a more intimate feel. The Great Hall, large enough to seat the full congregation at once, becomes the worship home during the Ten Days of Awe; the Great Ark, a very large structure built by members of the Temple Israel community, stands at the front of that space.
The Rhythm of Shabbat
Friday evening services generally begin at 6:30 p.m. and blend Hebrew and English prayers with both classic and contemporary melodies, drawing on traditional Jewish nusach. The rabbis and the congregation's soloist typically lead these services. On the first Friday of each month at 6:00 p.m., Share Shabbat offers an informal alternative: songs, a story in place of a sermon and, after worship, a congregational potluck dinner that begins a little after 7:00 p.m. Temple Israel provides challah, wine and fried chicken; attendees bring side dishes and dessert. Dinner costs five dollars for adults and three dollars for children ages four to twelve, and is free for younger children. Reservations are required by the Tuesday before the dinner.
Saturday morning services begin at 10:00 a.m. year-round when there is a Bar or Bat Mitzvah to celebrate. From 9:15 to about 10:15 a.m., Torah study meets in the Rabbi Louis Witt Memorial Library or on Zoom, led by Rabbi Bodney-Halasz or Rabbi Sobo in an open, hour-long conversation about the weekly portion. A separate Talmud class meets Tuesdays at noon in the library and on Zoom, with Rabbi Sobo guiding discussion of the text, its structure and history, and its implications for daily life. Children are always welcome at services, and a bi-monthly healing service precedes regular Shabbat worship for those who wish to add prayer for recovery and renewal to their week.
The High Holidays and the Year's Festivals
Temple Israel gathers the full congregation in the Great Hall for the High Holidays. Erev Rosh Hashanah, Rosh Hashanah, Kol Nidrei, Yom Kippur Morning and Yom Kippur Afternoon services are all streamed on YouTube, allowing members who cannot attend in person to follow along. The High Holiday Booklet is published online, and no tickets are required for in-person attendance. After the final tekiah gedolah of Yom Kippur, the intensity of the season lingers through Sukkot and Simchat Torah, when Temple Israel moves from reflection to celebration.
The fall festival cycle opens with Pizza in the Hut, a congregational dinner in the sukkah followed by Sukkot and Shabbat worship, and continues with Sukkot Under the Stars, an evening of music, hot drinks, s'mores and lulav-and-etrog shaking with the acclaimed Jewish musician and educator Dan Nichols. Simchat Torah follows, with the unrolling of a Torah scroll, the Consecration of new Religious School students and a potluck dinner. Hanukkah brings latkes handmade by the Religious School committee, an outdoor menorah lighting each evening, a Shabbat menorah addition during services and a Sunday Hanukkah Happening with skits, songs, stories and a festive lunch.
Purim is a noisy, candy-strewn celebration. TIDY, Temple Israel's youth group, hosts a lively carnival and dinner; Rabbi Bodney-Halasz reads the megillah while candy sails through the sanctuary; and congregants arrive in costume as characters from the Book of Esther, superheroes, rock stars or simply themselves. The dart throw at the swinging salami is a perennial favorite, and the winners go home with the salami itself. The synagogue's Second Seder on Passover, prepared by volunteer cooks, draws a crowd for gefilte fish, hard-boiled eggs, matzo ball soup, baked chicken, vegetables and an array of Passover cookies and brownies. Confirmation of the tenth-grade class is the centerpiece of the Shavuot service each spring, and the congregation also gathers for community observances of Yom HaShoah and Yom Ha'atzmaut alongside other Dayton congregations.
From Preschool Through Confirmation
The Religious School at Temple Israel serves students from preschool through tenth grade, following a progressive spiral curriculum that returns to core topics - Torah, life cycle events, holidays, Jewish history, rabbinic literature, worship, Hebrew, American Jewish history, comparative religion, comparative Judaism, Jewish values and Jewish culture - at increasingly advanced levels. Specialty classes in Jewish music, dance, literature and art are part of the program, and weekly worship services are led by the rabbis. Hebrew instruction uses the Union for Reform Judaism's Mitkadem program for third through sixth graders, with classes held on Sundays following the morning Judaica sessions; the aim is to give students the comfort and skill to pray in a Reform Jewish setting. Faculty often includes rabbinic students from Hebrew Union College and Israeli teachers, supported by high-school-age madrichim who add energy to the classrooms.
Social justice is woven into the curriculum from the earliest grades. Preschoolers take part in Petach, Open Doors, a hands-on sensitivity program about living with a disability. Third graders learn about Daybreak, Dayton's only youth shelter, and prepare lunches and write letters for its residents. Students hear directly from congregants engaged in community work as they choose their own social action projects. In the year before Confirmation, tenth graders travel with a rabbi to the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, D.C. Confirmation itself, a two-year course of study with Rabbi Bodney-Halasz, culminates on Shavuot, when students speak about their learning and the meaning of Judaism in their lives.
Families are part of every Religious School morning. Parents and grandparents are welcome in the classrooms, at family Days of Learning, at picnics and holiday celebrations, and at the volunteer-run Kibbitz Café, which offers coffee, bagels and conversation while classes meet. A free, professionally staffed childcare program for infants and toddlers is available on Sunday mornings, giving parents a place to drop off little ones while they worship, study or visit.
Adults in the Library and the Classroom
Learning at Temple Israel does not end with adolescence. The Dorothee and Louis Ryterband Lecture Series, sponsored by the Temple Brotherhood, is one of the longest-running lecture series in the country. Founded in 1951 by parents who wanted to learn while their children were in Religious School, it offers eighteen to twenty programs each year on Sunday mornings during the Religious School season, with brunch beginning at 9:45 a.m. and talks at 10:15 a.m. Topics range widely across Jewish culture, history, ethics, Israel and contemporary concerns. Recent programs have included an insider's look at life in Israel from Rabbi David Sofian, a discussion of community programming from Jewish Family Services' executive director, a Talmud reading with Rabbi Richard Sarason of Hebrew Union College, and a history of the 1919 ethnic map of New York City and its place in the first Red Scare. Admission is ten dollars per session or eighty-five dollars for a season subscription; bagels, coffee and an extensive question-and-answer session follow each talk. Non-members and non-Jews are welcome, and no prior knowledge is required.
Weekly Torah study and Talmud classes, taught by the rabbis, are open to all. Adult Hebrew classes run at multiple levels, from one-day alphabet marathons to multi-semester courses in Modern, Rabbinic or Biblical Hebrew. Both Jews and non-Jews are welcome in these classrooms. The Synagogue Forum of Dayton, formed in 1986 and made up of the rabbis of Dayton's congregations, offers an annual Introduction to Judaism course that walks students through beliefs about God, Torah, Israel and Jewish peoplehood, the Jewish life cycle, holidays and the different denominational traditions within Judaism. The course is designed for those new to Judaism, those exploring conversion and Jews who want to review the basics.
The Rabbi Louis Witt Memorial Library
The congregation's library, named for Rabbi Louis Witt, holds more than seven thousand volumes of Jewish history, theology, culture, biography and fiction. It is open to members on Tuesday mornings and by appointment, and the online catalog can be searched from anywhere. Non-members may use the library for non-circulating reference. The library also serves as the meeting room for Torah study and Talmud classes during the week and houses a Learning Resource Center with literary, audio, video and computer educational tools, wireless internet throughout the building and mobile computer stations.
The Czech Holocaust Memorial Scroll
Temple Israel is the custodian of Czech Memorial Torah Scroll #313, believed to have been written in the middle of the nineteenth century for the Jewish community of České Budějovice. The scroll is on permanent loan from the Memorial Scrolls Trust in London, the organization that, in 1964, arranged for the rescue of 1,564 Torah scrolls from Prague and distributed them to synagogues around the world. The scroll is honored within Temple Israel's worship and study, and its presence in Dayton is described as a tangible link between the congregation and a destroyed European community. Students preparing for Confirmation read from this Czech Holocaust scroll as part of their training for Jewish adulthood.
Life Cycle Moments
From birth through death, Temple Israel's rabbis walk with families through the milestones of Jewish life. Naming ceremonies welcome new babies into the eternal covenant, and the rituals surrounding birth recognize the hopes and dreams of parents for their children as they celebrate the continuation of the Jewish people. B'nai Mitzvah preparation is taken seriously: each young person learns to lead the congregation in prayer, chant or read from the Torah and Haftorah, and deliver an interpretation of what their Torah portion has taught them. Adult B'nai Mitzvah classes, introduced under Rabbi Gruber and continuing today, allow those who come to Judaism later in life to stand before the congregation as full members of the household of mitzvot.
Weddings take place under the chuppah; the congregation considers Jewish marriage a Kiddushin, a sacred relationship marked by a commitment to a Jewish present and future, consecrated before God, family and community. At the time of death, the rabbis are available around the clock to help families navigate funeral decisions, sit shiva and find comfort, with instructions on the temple's recorded message for reaching a rabbi when the office is closed. The synagogue also maintains Riverview Cemetery through the Cemetery Fund and the Jeanette Maimon Memorial Fund.
Tikkun Olam in the City
Social Action is one of the temple's standing committees, coordinating volunteer service and advocacy throughout the year. The congregation prepares and serves meals at St. Vincent de Paul, supports Daybreak and local women's shelters in collaboration with Jewish Women's International, and works to make Temple Israel's physical space more accessible to those with different needs. The Caring Committee reaches out to members who are ill or shut in. Each year the temple collects nonperishable food for the Dayton Foodbank during the High Holiday season, with donations later redirected to the Haitian Community Support Center in Springfield, Ohio. A long-standing pulpit exchange with Omega Baptist Church brings the rabbis and clergy together for shared worship and shared work on the city's most pressing concerns. Pride Shabbat, celebrated each June, is another expression of the congregation's commitment to inclusion and to seeing the divine image in every human being.
The Religious School's social action curriculum extends this work into the next generation. The Social Action Committee also organizes Mitzvah Alley at the Jewish Cultural Festival, where local nonprofit organizations set up booths to share their work. Each year the festival highlights a different cause - recent focuses have included literacy, human trafficking, mental health and refugee support.
The Jewish Cultural Festival
On a single Sunday each year - in 2026, May 31 from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. - Temple Israel opens its doors to the wider Dayton community for the Jewish Cultural Festival. More than 2,500 people attend in a typical year, moving between entertainment stages, food vendors, Jewish and Israeli crafts at the Shuk, a children's area with a petting zoo, Ask a Rabbi booths, building tours, Mitzvah Alley and raffle baskets featuring prizes from local businesses. Performers in recent years have included comedian Karen Jaffe, the klezmer band the Flying Klezmerians, the harmonies of Mary, Marc and Steve, the dance troupe the Shimmy Cats and student ensembles from Price Music Studio. More than 150 Temple members volunteer to make the day possible, serving food, performing, leading tours, explaining holidays, answering questions and proudly welcoming newcomers to share a Jewish experience.
The festival is also the temple's largest fundraiser. Sponsorship levels range from Friend at fifty to ninety-nine dollars to Presenting Partner Plus at thirty-six hundred dollars and above, with categories that include listings in Temple publications and on festival signage, recognition from the festival stage and even a sampling of cookies baked for the event. Funds raised support the congregation's year-round programming and its commitment to keeping membership open to all who wish to join, regardless of ability to pay.
Music in the Round
Music is woven through every corner of Temple Israel's life. Courtney Cummings serves as the congregation's soloist, joined by a High Holiday choir that helps fill the Great Hall with song during the Days of Awe. Guest cantors and musicians are engaged throughout the year, and special musical collaborations - from Dan Nichols under the sukkah to joint programs with other congregations and visits by national artists - are a regular part of the calendar. The Cantor Family Fund for Music and the Cantor Judah Smith Fund support this work and help sustain the role of music as a living expression of prayer, with year-end giving dedicated to sustaining the High Holiday Choir and engaging professional musicians throughout the year.
The People Behind the Congregation
Rabbi Karen Bodney-Halasz has served as Senior Rabbi since 2017, continuing the chain of rabbinic leadership that began with Rabbi Mayerberg in 1925 and continued through Rabbi Ruslander, Rabbi Bloom and Rabbi Gruber. Rabbi Tina Sobo serves as Associate Rabbi and Epstein Family Director of Education, overseeing the Religious School and adult learning programs. Rabbi David Sofian is Rabbi Emeritus and remains active in congregational life. John Hunter is the Executive Director; the broader staff includes a bookkeeper, a marketing and communications coordinator and an administrative coordinator.
The congregation's lay leadership is organized around standing committees, each with its own chair and a direct line to the rabbis and board. The Facilities Committee cares for the building, grounds and Riverview Cemetery. The Jewish Cultural Festival Committee plans the year's biggest community day. Social Action coordinates tikkun olam work; Fundraising brings members together to support Temple financially; Adult Education oversees the Ryterband Series, scholars-in-residence and Hebrew classes; Membership welcomes newcomers and engages current members; Worship and Music evaluates and refreshes the worship experience; the Religious School Committee supports the school; and Finance, chaired by the Treasurer, oversees the budget. The Executive Committee, made up of the congregation's officers, sets the agenda for the board and acts on its behalf between meetings.
A separate Temple Israel Foundation, headed by Suzanne Shaw as Executive Director and Jeff Stoller as President, manages an endowment that supports the congregation's operations, sends children to Goldman Union Camp Institute (GUCI), the Reform movement's summer camp in Indiana, and provides scholarship loans for members in higher education. Donations, tribute cards and planned giving through Life & Legacy all flow into this work. The Foundation oversees a long list of named funds, from the Cantor Family Fund for Music and the Witt Memorial Library Fund to the Greene Memorial Break-the-Fast Fund, the Betsy Patterson Childcare Fund and the Marjorie Jane Emoff Fund for works of art.
Visiting Temple Israel
Services are open to all, and no tickets are required for the High Holidays. Members of the community are welcome at Shabbat worship, adult classes and most festival events. Friday evening services begin at 6:00 p.m. for Share Shabbat on the first Friday of the month and at 6:30 p.m. on other Fridays. Saturday morning services and Torah study are held when there is a Bar or Bat Mitzvah; the online calendar is the best guide to the week's schedule. Services are livestreamed on YouTube, and recorded services remain available for later viewing.
The temple office is open Monday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and on Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The address is 130 Riverside Drive, Dayton, Ohio 45405. The main phone number is (937) 496-0050; the fax line is (888) 777-0490. Visitors can request a meeting with Rabbi Bodney-Halasz or Rabbi Sobo through the staff page, and a home blessing can be scheduled online. Giving is available online through the temple's donation portal, and the Temple Tablet newsletter, published since the early years of the congregation, is available in PDF form going back more than a decade.
More than one hundred and seventy-five years after twelve Jews met in a Dayton bank building, Temple Israel remains what it set out to be: a community that gathers to pray, to learn, to mark life's milestones, to remember those who came before and to repair the world together.