Congregation Beth Israel

Congregation Beth Israel is a Reform Jewish synagogue located at 615 Court Street, Honesdale, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Founded in 1849 by German Jews, its 1856 synagogue building was the smallest in the United States. The congregation was originally Orthodox, but rapidly moved to "Classical Reform". In the 1930s and 1940s an influx of more traditional Eastern European Jews prompted a change from Classical Reform to Traditional Reform. The congregation was always small, and went through long periods where it had no rabbi. During other periods, particularly from 1939 to 1954, rabbis' tenures were very short, often a year or less. As of 2014, Allan L. Smith, had served as the congregation's rabbi for over 40 years. The current Rabbi is Elliott Kleinman. The synagogue building was the second oldest in the United States still occupied by its original congregation.

Synagogue data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).