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Jews have always been a part of Washington’s history. Individual Jews are known to have lived in Washington from its earliest days. Isaac Polock, grandson of the founder of the Newport Synagogue, worked as a builder in the city in 1795. Alfred Mordechai, a soldier in the United States Army, settled in Washington in 1828.

The beginnings of the Jewish community can be traced to the mid-19th century. An 1862 account reports that slightly more than 50,000 people lived in Washington, of those about 2000 “Israelites” as Jews were then called. Only two or three families were Sabbath-observant.

The “First Hebrew Congregation” of Washington, D.C., begun in the home of H. Lisberger in 1852, was a modest operation with prayers officiated by Rev. Samuel Weil in a second-story rented facility large enough to accommodate some 200 guests. The congregation was split between those looking for traditional prayers and those more comfortable with changes advocated by the relatively new Reform movement. When Reform advocates switched the language of the Haftarah on Shabbat morning, it was not to English — it was to German! And, the first minutes of synagogue meetings were also written in German.

In 1863, the synagogue purchased a building until then used by a Methodist Church. This would serve as their home for a little more than the next decade. Inside the new building seating was separate; ladies were in the gallery and men sat on the main floor. An organ, however, was used. This forced 35 of the 80 members to bolt the congregation.

A renowned leader of Washington Jewry at the time was Adolphus Solomons (1826-1910), a Sephardic Jew whose father had immigrated to the United States in 1810.

Solomons was an influential Washingtonian who had strong White House and congressional connections. In 1851, Secretary of State Daniel Webster appointed Solomons “special bearer of dispatches to Berlin.” President Ulysses S. Grant offered Solomons the position of Governor of the District of Colombia (which Solomons declined). Solomons did not shun his Jewish affiliation. On Feb. 12, 1883 the U.S. State Department sought Solomons’ advice and assistance regarding the distribution of charity funds to Americans in Ottoman Palestine. He later played a prominent role in Jewish education.

Synagogue

The city’s first building constructed as a synagogue, Adas Israel, was dedicated in 1876 in the presence of President Grant, presumably invited by Solomons. That served as the congregation’s home until 1908, when it moved into a larger facility. Adas Israel started as an Orthodox synagogue, but in 1948 it affiliated with the Conservative movement. Today the historic building is used as the Lillian & Albert Small Jewish Museum and as the headquarters of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington. The building is not in its original location. In 1969, its foundation was dug up, and the structure was moved to save it from destruction during highway construction. A visit to the historic synagogue is certainly worthwhile.

Soldiers

There have been times when it became necessary to lay down the plowshare and take up weapons. The National Museum of American Jewish Military History is a small museum that documents Jewish service in the American armed forces.

The museum, run by the Jewish War Veterans, an association founded in 1896, is based upon the personal stories and histories of the organization’s members.

Julius Klein, for example, had a very different service during World War I. He was born in Chicago in 1901, and while he was still a youth, his family moved to Berlin. When World War I broke out, Klein became a war correspondent (at age 14). His career, however, was abruptly interrupted in 1917, when the United States entered the war and Klein was declared an enemy alien in Germany. During World War II Klein was one of the founders of the Psychological Warfare Section of the War Department, then served as a commander in the South Pacific.

For many years all gravestones of fallen soldiers were absolutely standard, always headed by a cross. During World War I, Oscar Gruber fell in battle in France. His became the first military gravestone to bear a Magen David.

Not all activities of Jewish War Veterans were military. The JWV also played a strong political role to further Jewish causes. As early as March 23, 1933 the JWV mustered 2,000 members to march in New York, advocating a boycott of German products. Stickers on display in the museum read, “For Humanity’s Sake — Don’t Buy German Goods.” And, throughout the 1930s, the JWV lobbied and pressured to allow Jewish immigration, both to the United States and to Palestine. Activities, sometimes, did get violent. One display window shows clashes between JWV members and Nazis in New York on April 20, 1938.

One of the most memorable items on display in the museum are the words of Chaplain Eli A. Bohen. On April 29, 1945 Bohen was part of the U.S. force that liberated Dachau. For two days he was too shaken to write, but on May 1 he finally was able to compose a letter to his wife. He still could not describe what he had seen, but he wrote, “No possible punishment would ever repay the ones who were responsible.”

The museum certainly does not compete with many of the major attractions of Washington, but for the Jewish tourist it provides interesting glances into an aspect of American Jewish history.

Dr. Jay Levinson is an adjunct professor at John Jay College of criminal justice, New York.