People

The Buffalo region has been home to a wide range of individuals associated with local Jewish communities and Jewish networks from the 1820s through to the contemporary period as immigrants, citizens, residents and locals.

Institutions

Buffalo Jews have a rich history of forming both formal and informal institutions for religious, educational, political and social needs. From synagogues to organizations, and from coordinating agencies to groups and clubs, Jewish Buffalonians have seen a changing range of institutions supported by group endeavors and community philanthropy.

Neighborhoods

In living memory, the East Side and North Buffalo stand out as physically connected and interwoven religious and commercial centers of Jewish living. In contrast to these specific areas are the mini hubs identified with Jewish living and connected to a more dispersed idea of neighborhood. Separately, suburbia with its significant geographic spread, has redefined how a series of Jewish spaces come together with a mix of hubs, focal points and networks.

Themes

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Exhibitions

Special exhibitions, through a focus on particular individuals and subjects, delves into the personal stories that have animated Jewish lives. Each digital exploration reflects on the interplay between place, identities and changing times and the way in which American, Jewish and Buffalo historical experiences are deeply interwoven.

Resources

Materials that document Jewish Buffalo in all its diversity are found in books, articles, archives and museums, many of which are available locally or online. This section highlights some of these sources and will be updated regularly.

Jonathan David Lodge #580, Knights of Pythias

Jonathan David Lodge #580, Knights of Pythias

The Jonathan David Lodge #580 was founded in 1927 for mainly Jewish members in Buffalo, NY.  Its most active years were in the early to mid-twentieth century from the 1930s-1960s. Many of its members identified with Conservative and Reform Judaism, and in the early days, they included American born second generation as well as new immigrants.

Poland Jewish Cemeteries Restoration Project (PJCRP)

Poland Jewish Cemeteries Restoration Project (PJCRP)

In the years preceding the formation of the Poland Jewish Cemeteries Restoration Project (PJCRP), Norman and Hannah (nee Cohen) Weinberg had diligently worked on their family genealogies. Like many Jewish families in North America, their family roots lay in Eastern Europe where Jewish communities had suffered centuries of antisemitic policies and violence from pogroms to genocide, culminating in the Holocaust.

Abbey, Harlan C.

People A-Z  /  Harlan C. AbbeyJournalist. Horseman. Author. 1930–2014OverviewHarlan C. Abbey was a newspaper sportswriter, author, newspaper editor, horse rider and racer and horse owner. Born in Cleveland, he developed an early passion for horses and worked as a...

Aaron, Rabbi Israel

Aaron, Rabbi Israel

People A-Z  /  Rabbi Israel Aaron1859–1912OverviewBorn on November 20, 1859, in Lancaster, Philadelphia to Moses Aaron, a German Jewish immigrant from Hesse-Darmstadt, Israel Aaron’s birth was recorded in Congregation Rodeph Shalom, Philadelphia mohel records. Israel...

Goldberg, Rabbi Dr. Martin L.

Goldberg, Rabbi Dr. Martin L.

Dr. Martin L. Goldberg blended attentive pastoral care and religious leadership in his rabbinic career of more than 40 years as Rabbi, Senior Rabbi and Rabbi Emeritus at Temple Beth Zion. Over many decades, Dr. Goldberg built a reputation as a devoted pulpit rabbi, chaplain and inter-faith leader in Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Western New York.

Abramovitz, Max

People A-Z  /  Max AbramovitzArchitect 1908–2004OverviewMax Abramovitz was born in Chicago in 1908, the son of working-class Romanian Jewish immigrants. He attended the University of Illinois and received a BS degree, in architectural engineering in 1929. At Columbia...

Adler, Selig

People A-Z  /  Selig AdlerHistorian and Author. Distinguished Professor. 1909–1984OverviewDistinguished Professor Selig Adler (1909-1984) chronicled the history of the Jewish community in Buffalo from the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century,...

Altman, Sadie

Altman, Sadie

Born in Baltimore in 1860 to Henry and Wilhelmina Strauss, Sadie had a privileged upbringing including bilingual education in Germany. As a child and teen she also experienced extensive periods of travel in Italy and France where she learned each spoken language. Reared in music, art, literature and music, she contributed articles to the Baltimore American and defined herself as a journalist in an era when women were beginning to expand their roles beyond the private domestic sphere.

Ustingrader Unterstitzung Verein (UUV)

Ustingrader Unterstitzung Verein (UUV)

The Ustingrader Unterstitzung Verein (UUV) was founded in 1913 as an immigrant benefit club that provided social, credit and death benefits to its members with Sokolivka roots.

Holy Order of the Living Cemetery

Holy Order of the Living Cemetery

Holy Order of the Living was founded in 1909 to provide burial rights according to Orthodox ritual. The cemetery is located in Cheektowaga on Pine Ridge Road and remains closely associated with descendants of the Sokolivka community in Buffalo.

Arlen, Harold

Arlen, Harold

Harold Arlen was a composer, singer, pianist, and arranger, but was most known for his Academy award winning musical and film compositions, many of which remain classics of American musical culture.

Locating Sokolivka

Locating Sokolivka

Sokolivka: Once Home Locating SokolivkaSokolivka-Ustingrad, 1846, permission of Chaim Buryak, Ukranian Jewish History.IntroductionThe Jewish community of Sokolivka formed in the second half of the 18th century in what is present day Ukraine and was then part of the...

Life in Sokolivka

Life in Sokolivka

Sokolivka: Once Home Life in SokolivkaDavid Sultz, Sokolivka-Ustingrad on Market Day as reproduced in Sokolivka-Ustingrad Reunion Booklet, 1991. Ferne Mittleman Research Collection, Cofeld Judaic Museum. A Country Life Sokolivka-Ustingrad was arranged in a horseshoe...

Pogrom

Pogrom

Sokolivka: Once Home PogromMemorial at the Cemetery of Holy Order of the Living. Image by Chana Revell Kotzin, 2021.Remembering the PogromsDuring and after WWI, Jewish residents of Sokolivka-Ustingrad were increasingly subject to harassment and attacks by soldiers,...

Flight and Emigration

Flight and Emigration

Sokolivka: Once Home Flight and EmigrationPozarny Freida Certificate of Naturalization 1928. Courtesy of Rolene Pozarny. Overview Emigration from Sokolivka happened in multiple waves over two decades before and after WWI and the Russian Revolution that instituted the...

Beginning Again

Beginning Again

Sokolivka: Once Home Beginning AgainMembers of the Ustingrader Unterstitzung Verein Drum Corps and Patrol, 1943. Courtesy of Sue and Eric Recoon.Community BuildingSokolivka emigres began community institutions as soon as they arrived in Buffalo in the early twentieth...

Buffalo—Now Home

Buffalo—Now Home

 Sokolivka: Once Home Buffalo—Now HomeUstingrader Unterstitzung Verein Ladies Auxiliary at a social event at the Town Casino in Williamsville, NY, c. 1940s. Courtesy of Sue and Eric Recoon.Making a life in FreedomThe initial immigrant Sokelifke generation worked low...

Sokolifkers are Beautiful

Sokolifkers are Beautiful

Sokolivka: Once Home Sokolifkers are BeautifulSlutsky Cousin Club with members of the Recoon and Shuman families, courtesy of Sue and Eric Recoon.Nostalgia and ReunionBy the time of the first major reunion of Sokolivker descendants took place in Buffalo over 1990 to...

Sokolivka: Once Home Resources

Sokolivka: Once Home Resources

Sokolivka: Once Home ResourcesEdith and Morris Carrel’s 50th Wedding Anniversary, Temple Emanu-el. Top row, left to right: Ruthie Carrel (Birnberg); Harold Carrel, Harry Carrel; Abe Carrel; Avram Finger; Louis Finger; Hy Carrel; Dickie Carrel Bobby Carrel; Alan Carrel...

Sokolivka: Once Home Acknowledgments

Sokolivka: Once Home Acknowledgments

Sokolivka: Once Home AcknowledgmentsLeslie Shuman with Irv, Marilyn and Cathy Shuman and the extended Shuman family, 1960s. Courtesy of Charlie Shuman.In Loving Memory Leslie Shuman Kramer Community leader, activist and advocate. 1961-2022Our thanks to Leslie Shuman...

National Council of Jewish Women, Buffalo Section

National Council of Jewish Women, Buffalo Section

The National Council of Jewish Women was founded in 1893 in Chicago and the Buffalo Section formed just two years later in 1895. The section focused on service and advocacy in several areas including child welfare, health care, women’s rights and individual rights.

Brodsky, Linda MD

People A-Z  /  Linda Brodsky, MDA specialist in pediatric swallowing and feeding disorders and a fair treatment and wage equalization activist. 1952-2014OverviewBorn in 1952 on Long Island, New York, Linda Brodsky graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1974 followed by...

Book the Exhibit

Book the Exhibit

Harold Arlen Exhibition / Book the Exhibit "An East Side Story: Harold Arlen’s Buffalo Roots" Traveling ExhibitionOverview Harold Arlen (1905-1986) was born in Buffalo, New York and composed some of the most memorable songs of the twentieth century including the Oscar...

Bunis, Anne

Bunis, Anne

Born in Russia in 1901 as Anna Wiener to parents, Morris and Dora Wiener, Anne as she would become, arrived in Rochester as a six-year old immigrant child. As the eldest of eight children, she left school at the end of eighth grade. Dreams of becoming a designer were put aside, even as she was creating and sewing her own clothing from her early teens.

Beginnings in Buffalo, NY

Beginnings in Buffalo, NY

Harold Arlen Exhibition / Beginnings in Buffalo, NY Born on February 15, 1905, at 389 Clinton Streeton the East Side of Buffalo the joy of Arlen’s birth was overlain with family tragedy. For Joseph–as Harold was first named–struggled to survive and his twin brother,...

The Jewish East Side

The Jewish East Side

Harold Arlen Exhibition  /  The Jewish East Side Along the streets of Jefferson, Pratt, Spring and William and the surrounding highways bounded by Michigan and Fillmore, Clinton and Broadway, dense networks of Jewish family and friends formed the “The Jewish East...

Bunshaft, Gordon

Bunshaft, Gordon

People A-Z  /  Gordon BunshaftArchitect 1909-1990OverviewGordon Bunshaft was born in 1909 in Buffalo, to parents David and Yetta, who were first cousins, from a small village in what is now Ukraine. The couple emigrated to the United States in 1908, first to Boston...

Cohn, Ann H.

People A-Z  /  Ann H. Cohn1926–2017OverviewAnn Cohn née Holland, was born on June 2, 1926. Growing up in Kenmore, through the Depression in the first “suburb” of Buffalo, she came of age during the Second World War. The Holland family were affiliated with Temple Beth...

Coplon, David

People A-Z  /  David Coplon1882-1976OverviewDavid Hascal Coplon emigrated to the United States as a child with his family. Born in Shavl, Lithuania on January 18, 1882, he and his family were part of the mass movement of Jewish immigrants who came to the United States...

Coplon, Rosa

Coplon, Rosa

Rosa Berman was born in 1855 in Shavl in Eastern Europe, then part of the Russian Pale of Settlement, and now a part of Lithuania. In 1878 she married Samuel Coplon, a skilled glazier, and began raising a family in Shavl while working as a fishmonger. She had six children with her husband, but only four of whom survived to adulthood. Seeking an escape from endemic antisemitism and economic privation, the family emigrated to America.

Musical Influences

Musical Influences

Harold Arlen Exhibition  /  Musical Influences Both Celia and Samuel Arluck lived within Orthodox Judaism and infused their family home with these traditions. As Cantor of the Clinton Street synagogue (Beth Jacob), Samuel also had a Jewish communal role. It was his...

A City of Entertainment

A City of Entertainment

Harold Arlen Exhibition  /  A City of EntertainmentFrom the 1900s to the late 1920s, music, performance, and film were changing in Buffalo as they were across America. Vaudeville and Burlesque were still popular forms of entertainment, but popular song and dance bands...

Performer and Arranger

Performer and Arranger

Harold Arlen Exhibition  /  Performer and Arranger By the age of 18, Arluck had established himself as a full-time performer. He changed his first name to Harold listing himself in the Buffalo City Directory in 1923. In 1924, he published his first piece of music with...

From NY to Hollywood

From NY to Hollywood

Harold Arlen Exhibition  /  From New York to Hollywood Harold Arluck settled in New York City in the late 1920s in an era known as the Jazz Age (1920s-1930s) also defined by musicologists as the Golden Age of Song (1920s-1940s). At just 23, Harold had more than a...

Remembering Harold Arlen

Remembering Harold Arlen

Harold Arlen Exhibition / Remembering Harold Arlen The Buffalo beginnings of Harold Arlen remained with him throughout his life. Commentators and musicologists assessed Arlen as a complex and “complete” composer, who created songs of outstanding cultural resonance...

Harold Arlen Exhibit Sources

Harold Arlen Exhibit Sources

Arlen Biography Chana Revell Kotzin, Ph.D.General Articles and Books Woody Backensto, “Who were the Buffalodians?” The Record Changer, Vol 13, January 1954, p. 7, p.14. Jacqueline Bassan, From Shul to Cool: The Romantic Jewish Roots of American Popular Music, New...

Drumlevitch, Seymour

People A-Z  /  Seymour DrumlevitchArtist 1923–1989OverviewBorn in Brooklyn in 1923, Drumlevitch attended the High School of Music and Art in Manhattan. He later studied at the New School for Social Research in New York, taking art classes at the Cooper School of Art...

Rabbi Dr. Joseph L. Fink

Rabbi Dr. Joseph L. Fink

Dr. Joseph L. Fink was a nationally respected rabbinic leader, skilled mediator and inspiring speaker who led Temple Beth Zion for forty years as Rabbi, Senior Rabbi and Rabbi Emeritus. For four decades, Dr. Fink served as a distinguished civic and inter-faith leader, and a much beloved pulpit Rabbi.

Flintrowitz, Marcus

People A-Z  /  Marcus Flintrowitz Soldier and Cigar Maker (c.1816-1882) Overview Marcus Flintrowitz was born in Kraków, and came to Buffalo in 1846 and initially worked as a barber. Soon after, he enlisted for service in the Mexican-American War on February 6, 1847...

Greenstein, Louis

Greenstein, Louis

People A-Z  /  Louis GreensteinArchitect 1886-1972OverviewLouis Greenstein was born in 1886 in Buffalo at a time of significant Jewish immigration into the city. As a professional architect, he created commercial, religious, civic and residential designs that followed...

B’nai B’rith Girls

B’nai B’rith Girls

B’nai B’rith Girls formed as a girls youth wing of the local B’nai B’rith parent organization, supported by B’nai B’rith Women. It provided a whole range of social, educational, religious and service opportunities for Jewish girls in Greater Buffalo.

Jewish Mothers Club

Jewish Mothers Club

The Jewish Mothers Club began as an all-volunteer effort to help women and their families living on the East Side of Buffalo with childcare and temporary foster care. It was active from the early years of the twentieth century to the mid 1950s when it closed.

Suburbs

Neighborhoods  /  SuburbsThe suburbs are expansive and include Kenmore, Cheektowaga, Getzville, Amherst, Snyder, Williamsville, and Clarence and all stops in between.OverviewSince the 1950s, the main growth area of Jewish living in Greater Buffalo area has been the...

Humboldt-Ferry

Neighborhoods  /  Humboldt-FerryEncompassing the East Ferry and Humboldt Parkway area, and the streets of East Ferry, Woodlawn, Wohlers, Roehrer, Glenwood Ave and Crestwood.OverviewAs the East Side began to decline, young first-generation American Jews moved uptown...

North Buffalo

Neighborhoods  /  North BuffaloNorth Buffalo continues as an organizational home for several congregations even if its Jewish enterprise heyday has faded. In popular memory, Hertel Avenue stands out as a center of Jewish commercial activity and a culinary hub that was...

West Side

Neighborhoods  /  West SideThe Jewish West Side encompasses areas west of Delaware Avenue and includes Allentown, Richmond Avenue, Elmwood and Forest Lawn.OverviewThis broad area is not a single neighborhood but a series of scattered institutions including...

East Side

East Side

Neighborhoods  /  East SideThe Buffalo Jewish East Side centered on William Street and Jefferson, and the roads radiating around them stretching to Broadway.OverviewThe East Side holds a particular affection for many Jewish Buffalonians. This was the immigrant...

Delaware Avenue

Neighborhoods  /  Delaware AvenueThe home of the downtown Jewish Community Center, and Temple Beth Zion, Delaware Avenue is a premier address in Buffalo.OverviewDelaware Avenue was known as Millionaires' Row from the 1880s to World War I, when many large mansions were...

Downtown

Downtown

Neighborhoods  /  DowntownDowntown is associated with commercial Jewish history and has connections to significant historical events as the site of a utopian address in 1825 and the location of the first synagogue established in Buffalo.OverviewFrom the pomp...

BJE Staff May, 2010

BJE Staff May, 2010

Front Row, L-R: Stephen Yonaty, Evie Weinstein, Howard Benatovich, DDS. Back Row, L-R: Mindy Ponivas, Ethel Melzer, Rita Goldman, Chana Kotzin, Bette Davidson, Jill Komm.

Jewish Fresh Air Camp and Camp Lakeland

Jewish Fresh Air Camp and Camp Lakeland

Agencies  /Jewish Community Center  /Jewish Fresh Air Camp and Camp LakelandOverviewCamp Lakeland opened as the Jewish Fresh Air Camp in 1910 under the auspices of the Young Women’s Jewish Benevolent Society. In the earliest days of the camp, this all volunteer...

Camp Centerland

Camp Centerland

Agencies  /  Jewish Community Center  / Camp CenterlandOverviewCamp Centerland began as an extended summer option for young children at the Jewish Community Center known as Centerland. This program expanded in the period following World War II from a patchwork of day...

Ohr Temimim expansion, 2014

Ohr Temimim expansion, 2014

Ohr Temimim expansion: The Shuman and Gellman Families Educational Campus, 2014. Photograph created by Rabbi Shmuel Shanowitz. Courtesy of Rabbi Shmuel Shanowitz.

Buffalo Frontier Post no. 25, 80th Anniversary, 1929-2009

Buffalo Frontier Post no. 25, 80th Anniversary, 1929-2009

Maurice Sands, Buffalo Frontier Post no. 25, 80th Anniversary, 1929-2009, Collection of Jewish War Veterans, Buffalo Frontier Post no. 25, Benjamin and Dr. Edgar R. Cofeld Judaic Museum, Benjamin and Dr. Edgar R. Cofeld Judaic Museum, Courtesy of Temple Beth Zion.

Exhibition Pamphlet, “A City of Refuge”

Exhibition Pamphlet, “A City of Refuge”

Exhibition Pamphlet, “A City of Refuge” at the Benjamin and Dr. Edgar R. Cofeld Judaic Museum on the 40th Anniversary of Israel’s founding, 1988, p.1 Courtesy of the Temple Beth Zion, Cofeld Judaic Museum.

The Holocaust Memorial at Pine Ridge

The Holocaust Memorial at Pine Ridge

A small marker was erected at Old Brith Sholem Cemetery at Pine Ridge in Cheektowaga in 1947, by Holocaust survivors as a memorial to Jews murdered during the Shoah (Holocaust). In 1972, the memorial was extended with the addition of a six-foot marble arch and the...

Hadassah of Greater Buffalo

Hadassah of Greater Buffalo

Organizations  /  Hadassah of Greater Buffalo Greater Buffalo Hadassah is a local chapter of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, a Jewish women’s voluntary organization and the largest Jewish membership organization in the United States. As a...

Elmlawn Memorial Park

Cemeteries  /  Elmlawn Memorial ParkJewish Cemetery Sections within Elmlawn Memorial Park

White Chapel Memorial Park

Cemeteries  /  White Chapel Memorial ParkJewish Cemetery Sections within White Chapel Memorial Park

Ohr Temimim

Ohr Temimim

Organizations  /  Ohr TemimimOhr Temimim is a Chabad affiliated day school for children from nursery through 8th grade that grew out of a merger of the Jewish Heritage Day School and Torah Temimah Day School in 2008. In 2014, the school underwent a major expansion of...

Holocaust Resource Center

Holocaust Resource Center

Organizations  /  Holocaust Resource CenterThe Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo, teaches the lessons of the Holocaust, remembers the survivors and victims of the Holocaust and promote social justice, civic responsibility, and human rights through documentation and...

Kadimah School

Kadimah School

Organizations  /  Kadimah SchoolThe Kadimah School of Buffalo was incorporated on August 17, 1959 and began its first school year with 15 students. Over the years it expanded to more than 200 students from K-8th, and rented homes at both Jewish Community Center sites,...

Hillel Foundation of Buffalo

Hillel Foundation of Buffalo

Organizations  /  Hillel Foundation of BuffaloHillel of Buffalo at the University of Buffalo is a campus student organization that serves Jewish student communities in Greater Buffalo. In 1946, it was founded as a part-time Councillorship supported by the local B’nai...

Jewish War Veterans Buffalo Frontier Post #25

Jewish War Veterans Buffalo Frontier Post #25

Dr. Joseph L. Fink was a nationally respected rabbinic leader, skilled mediator and inspiring speaker who led Temple Beth Zion for forty years as Rabbi, Senior Rabbi and Rabbi Emeritus. For four decades, Dr. Fink served as a distinguished civic and inter-faith leader, and a much beloved pulpit Rabbi.

Mikvah

Mikvah

Organizations  /  MikvahThe Mikvah (also known as the Buffalo Ritualarium) in Amherst, NY opened in 2000. Fundraising and its construction began in 1998. It suceeded the Kenmore Mikvah, located at 1248 Kenmore Avenue, Buffalo, NY.OverviewA mikvah (מִקְוֶה ‎Hebrew for...

Buffalo Jewish Federation

Buffalo Jewish Federation

Agencies  /  Buffalo Jewish FederationThe Buffalo Jewish Federation can trace its history back to 1903, when several fundraising and social service volunteer-led organizations came together in order to coordinate their work for the benefit of community members and...

JCC

JCC

Agencies  /  Jewish Community CenterThe Jewish Community Center of Greater Buffalo was an outgrowth of a movement started in 1891 by the Sisterhood of Zion. From Zion House to the Jewish Community Building operating in the heart of Jewish community of east side...

Jewish Family Service

Jewish Family Service

Agencies  /  Jewish Family ServiceJewish Family Services of Western New York grew out of a number of different organizations but it traces its beginnings back to July 15, 1863 and the formation of the Hebrew Union Benevolent Society. In 1903, that organization merged...

Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies

Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies

Agencies  /  Foundation for Jewish PhilanthropiesThe Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies traces its history back to a meeting of community leaders at Zion House in March 1911. At this time they created a nonprofit charitable organization to hold bequests and other...

Weinberg Campus and Rosa Coplon

Weinberg Campus and Rosa Coplon

Agencies  /  Weinberg Campus and Rosa CoplonOpening in 1915 as the Daughters of Israel Jewish Old Folks Home to care for Yiddish speaking elderly men and women, it was renamed The Rosa Coplon Jewish Old Folks Home: Orthodox Jewish Home for the Aged in 1924. Expanding...

Hauptman, Dr. Herbert

People A-Z  /  Herbert Hauptman, Ph.D.Mathematician. Nobel Prize Winner for Chemistry, 1985 1917–2011OverviewHerbert Aaron Hauptman was born in New York City, New York on February 14, 1917. He attended the City College of New York where he earned a Bachelor of Science...

Jacobs, Kurt R.

Jacobs, Kurt R.

Jacobs, Kurt, Richard. Soldier, Military Intelligence Service, WWII, “Ritchie Boy”.

Joseph, Shirley

Joseph, Shirley

Shirley Troyan Joseph was a feminist Jewish activist and a Jewish women’s rights leader who worked in community organizations and advocacy groups at local, national and international levels.

Klein, Gerda Weissmann

People A-Z  /  Gerda Weissmann KleinHumanitarian, Holocaust Survivor, author, public speaker and Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree. 1924-2022OverviewFrom Bielsko to Volary Gerda Weissmann (later Klein) was born in Bielsko, Poland, on May 8, 1924. Growing up into a...

Klein, Dr. Rabbi Isaac

People A-Z  /  Rabbi Isaac Klein1905–1979OverviewRabbi Isaac Klein (1905-1979) was born in a village in Czechoslovakia on September 8, 1905. He migrated to the United States in 1920. Studying at the Elchanan Yeshiva (now part of Yeshiva University) he earned a...

Klein, Kurt

Klein, Kurt

People A-Z  /  Kurt KleinHumanitarian, public speaker, former refugee, US Military Intelligence Service officer, “Ritchie Boy.” 1920-2002OverviewBirth and Emigration to the USA Kurt Klein was born in Walldorf, near Heidelberg, in Baden, Germany to parents, Alice and...

Kramer, Leslie Shuman

Kramer, Leslie Shuman

Leslie Shuman Kramer was a dedicated community leader, former attorney and a committed advocate and fundraiser for many causes, especially the fight against cancer.

Luskin, Samuel

People A-Z  /  Samuel S. Luskin1882–1959OverviewSamuel Luskin was a music teacher, composer and performer in Buffalo from 1911 to 1957, originally a Jewish immigrant from Russia. Born in Horka, Mogilev in 1882 to Leon and Fannie Luskin, the Luskin family fled Russia...

Milstein, Milton

People A-Z  /  Milton MilsteinArchitect 1911-1993OverviewMilton Milstein was born in Brooklyn in 1911, trained at the School of Architecture at Syracuse University, and was granted a license to practice in 1942. He was made a fellow of the American Institute of...

Noah, Mordecai Manuel

People A-Z  /  Mordecai Manuel NoahJudge, Writer, Utopian and Proto-Zionist. 1785–1851OverviewMordecai Manuel Noah was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 19, 1785 to Manuel Noah, a Revolutionary war hero and Zipporah Phillips a descendent of Dr. Samuel Nunez,...

Rabinowitz, Rabbi Eliyahu Yosef

People A-Z  /  Rabbi Joseph RabinowitzRabbi Eliyahu Yosef Rabinowitz, Linzer Rebbe from Buffalo 1856–1910OverviewPine Ridge is the site of an ohel (tomb) for Rabbi Joseph Rabinowitz (b. ca 1856; d. Buffalo, November 14, 1910).  Due to the proximity of the Ohel in...

Rosen, Sylvia L.

Rosen, Sylvia L.

Defying the attitudes of establishment art critics and institutions in WNY, Sylvia Rosen (nee Korn), upended definitions of what constituted art, giving craft artists the philanthropic support needed, while also changing attitudes to art itself.

Wiener, Cecil

Wiener, Cecil

People A-Z  /  Cecil WienerSuffragette, Judge, Social Welfare Professional. 1874–1960OverviewCecil B. Wiener was a woman of many “firsts” over a working life of more than fifty years. Born in 1874, Cecilia Bertha Wiener, known as Cecil, was the daughter of Magnus...

Memorial Issue of Bulletin, 1964

Memorial Issue of Bulletin, 1964

Memorial Issue of Bulletin on the death of Dr. Joseph L. Fink, 1964, TBZ Collection, Cofeld Judaic Museum, permission of Temple Beth Zion.

Service Honoring Donald Day, 1980

Service Honoring Donald Day, 1980

Service honoring Donald Day on his Election as Chairman of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1980, TBZ Collection, Cofeld Judaic Museum, permission of Temple Beth Zion.

TBZ Program for the Dedication Service

TBZ Program for the Dedication Service

Program for the Dedication Service of the Stained Glass Windows and Ritual Objects in the New Temple, TBZ Collection, Cofeld Judaic Museum, permission of Temple Beth Zion.

Humboldt Orthodox, Inventory

Humboldt Orthodox, Inventory

Humboldt Orthodox, inventory compiled by Alan Ehrlich, 1960, render as courtesy of Cofeld Judaic Museum, Temple Beth Zion, Buffalo, NY.

Temple Sinai, 1954

Temple Sinai, 1954

L-R, Cantor Sternberg, Louis Bunis, Rabbi Ira Eisenstein, Rabbi Nathan Gaynor and Harold Axelrod.

Anshe Zedek

Anshe Zedek

Synagogues  /  Anshe ZedekAnshe Zedek was originally founded as Ohev Zedek in 1925, otherwise known as the Hungarian Synagogue. Following a name change to Anshe Zedek, the congregation purchased 85 Saranac Avenue in 1931. In 1952 the shul changed its name to...

Chabad House of Buffalo

Chabad House of Buffalo

Organizations  /  Chabad House of BuffaloChabad House of Buffalo began as an outreach program to college age students at the University at Buffalo campuses and Buffalo State College in the early 1970s. It continues that mission today.OverviewIn 1971 Rabbi Noson Gurary...

Sol Messinger

Sol Messinger

In the run up to WWII and the Holocaust, thousands of Jews fled Nazi Germany, Austria and Czech Sudetenland. Sol Messinger was born in Berlin in 1932. On May 27, 1939, Sol Messinger, fled with his parents onboard the SS St. Louis. The ship tried to dock in Havana,...

Congregation Havurah

Congregation Havurah

Synagogues  /  Congregation HavurahCongregation Havurah was founded in 1972 as a lay-led fellowship allied with Reform Judaism. It is located in Williamsville, NY, and has a high holiday annual retreat in Chautauqua, NY.OverviewIn 1972, a new style of congregation...

Congregation Shir Shalom

Congregation Shir Shalom

Synagogues  /  Congregation Shir ShalomIn 2012, Temple Sinai and Temple Beth Am merged to form Congregation Shir Shalom, the world’s first jointly constituted Reconstructionist-Reform congregation. The new congregation selected the synagogue and school complex of...

Humboldt Orthodox Shul

Humboldt Orthodox Shul

Synagogues  /  Humboldt Orthodox ShulThe Humboldt Orthodox Shul formed in 1940 and was also known as the Glenwood Avenue Shul. Located in the Humboldt area of Buffalo, it was led by Rabbi Gedaliah Kaprow for much of its history.OverviewHumboldt Orthodox Center was...

Temple Beth Am

Temple Beth Am

Synagogues  /  Temple Beth AmFounded in Amherst, NY during the mid-1950s as the “Suburban Congregation,” Temple Beth Am built its home in Williamsville, NY in 1959. In 2012 it merged with Temple Sinai to form Congregation Shir Shalom. OverviewTemple Beth Am,...

Temple Beth David-Ner Israel

Temple Beth David-Ner Israel

Synagogues  /  Temple Beth David-Ner IsraelTemple Beth David-Ner Israel at 500 Starin Avenue was a merger of two congregations from two streams of Judaism: Conservative and traditional.OverviewThe fusion of a synagogue associated with Conservative Judaism and a...

Temple Beth El

Temple Beth El

Synagogues  /  Temple Beth ElTemple Beth El, founded as Congregation Bethel was the first synagogue to be established in Buffalo in 1847. Soon after its formation it changed its name to Temple Beth El. The congregation moved several times within the city, eventually...

Temple Beth Tzedek

Temple Beth Tzedek

Synagogues  /  Temple Beth TzedekTemple Beth Tzedek was established in 2008 through the merger of two existing synagogues associated with Conservative Judaism: Temple Beth El and Temple Shaarey Zedek. Initially located in the former Temple Shaarey Zedek synagogue in...

Temple Beth Zion

Temple Beth Zion

The first and largest Reform synagogue in Western New York, Temple Beth Zion began as an orthodox congregation when it formed in 1850.

Temple Sinai

Temple Sinai

Synagogues  /  Temple SinaiFounded in 1952 in Amherst, NY, Temple Sinai was the first suburban and the first Reconstructionist synagogue in Greater Buffalo. In 2012 it merged with Temple Beth Am to form the world’s first jointly constituted Reconstructionist-Reform...

Temple Shaarey Zedek

Temple Shaarey Zedek

Synagogues  /  Temple Shaarey ZedekPart of the stream of Conservative Judaism, Temple Shaarey Zedek formed in 1968 through a merger of two North Buffalo synagogues: Temple Emanu-El and Temple Beth David-Ner Israel. It committed itself to a suburban home in Getzville,...

Young Israel of Greater Buffalo

Young Israel of Greater Buffalo

Synagogues  /  Young Israel of Greater BuffaloYoung Israel of Greater Buffalo began as an informal orthodox minyan in 1973 and formally incorporated in 1974. It built its synagogue on Maple Road in 1979 and has retained this congregational home over the entirety of...