MS 26: Chizuk Amuno Congregation Collections

The JMM is very lucky to have collections of various sizes related to all four of the Jewish congregations that used the two historic synagogues that make up our museum – Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, Shomrei Mishmeres, Chizuk Amuno, and B’nai Israel.  This finding aid for Chizuk Amuno will be the first of the four that I post.  Chizuk Amuno has its own museum, The Goldsmith Museum of Chizuk Amuno Congregation.  You can visit their website to learn more about the museum and read the curator’s blog.

Chizuk Amuno Congregation Collection

1876-1969

MS 26

Now B’nai Israel, this building on Lloyd Street was the first synagogue constructed by Chizuk Amuno congregation in 1876. 1987.137.24

ACCESS AND PROVENANCE

The Chizuk Amuno Congregation Collection is comprised of two accessions.  Chizuk Amuno congregation donated materials as accession 1985.064.  The rest of the materials were found in the Jewish Museum of Maryland in 2004 and assigned the accession number 2004.068.  The collection was processed by Erin Titter in 2004.

Access to the collection is unrestricted and is available to researchers at the Jewish Museum of Maryland.  Researchers must obtain the written permission of the Jewish Museum of Maryland before publishing quotations from materials in the collection.  Papers may be copied in accordance with the library’s usual procedures.

HISTORICAL NOTE

Congregation Chizuk Amuno was founded in 1871, when a group of congregants broke away from Baltimore Hebrew Congregation due to a dispute over rituals of orthodoxy.  Originally focused on Orthodoxy, the congregation eventually became influential in the Conservative movement and helping to establish the Jewish Theological Seminary and the United Synagogue of America.

The congregation built their first synagogue in 1876 on the corner of Lloyd and Lombard Streets.  Chizuk Amuno’s first rabbi was Rev. Henry W. Schneeberger, the first American-born ordained rabbi, who remained with the congregation for forty years.  In 1886 the women of the congregation founded the Ladies’ Chizuk Amuno Auxiliary Association of Baltimore City to help advance the welfare of the congregation.  That same year Rev. Schneeberger and Aaron Friedenwald were invited toNew Yorkto help establish the Jewish Theological Seminary.  In 1895 the congregation moved to a new building at Mosher and McCulloh Streets after selling theirLloyd Streetbuilding to B’Nai Israel Congregation.

Murray Slatkin and Selma Berkow are shown in an episode of the “Eutaw Place Scandals,” a musical revue written by Fred Katzner, which will be presented at the Maryland Theatre by members of Chizuk Amuno congregation, March 1935. 1984.12.5