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Property Features
2023- resurveyed as part of Milwaukee Houses of Worship thematic survey.
Original cost was $500,000. Neo-classical synagogue with a cut Indiana limestone exterior.
""This synagogue represents the merger of Milwaukee's two oldest Jewish Reformed congregations, Emanu-El and B'ne Jeshurun. See Louis Swichkow, A History of the Jews in Milwaukee, for a history of the congregations. In 1922, having outgrown a downtown synagogue, Emanu-El (established 1869) constructed this building on suburban Kenwood Boulevard. Five years later, B'ne Jeshurun (established 1858) merged with Emanu-El to form Milwaukee’s oldest and largest Jewish temple. Members worship in a severe but dignified building, designed in an unadorned classical style. Only the cornice and columns at the main entry and the pediments over the Stowell Avenue side entries punctuate the flat limestone walls. An incised Star of David is the gable’s only feature. The façade’s focus point is a generous segmentally arched stained-glass window that lights the domed auditorium. The design solves the problem that faced many early twentieth century non-Orthodox Jewish congregations when choosing an architectural style. Jews did not have an architectural tradition in Europe to draw upon. Christian ecclesiastical architecture seemed inappropriate, and the only so-called ""Jewish style,"" the one based on Islamic and Byzantine architectural models, was often identified with America’s Orthodox congregations. So Emanu-El, a Reform congregation, turned to the secular Neoclassical style for their new building, much as Christian Scientists did for their new churches."" (Paul Jakubovich, Buildings of Wisconsin entry.)"
National And State Register Of Historic Places Listings
Architecture & History Inventory
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The Emanu-El Fair Tattler. vol.1, no. 2
December 14, 1880
The Emanu-El Fair Tattler, vol. 1, no. 2, distributed on December 14th, 1880. This particular issue announces the engagement between Mr. Sim. Kander and Miss Lizzie Black, "one of the prettiest and...
