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Historic Kesher IsraelHistoric Kesher Israel in Philadelphia, PA

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History

1796

Built as the city’s first Universalist Church in 1796 and converted into an Eastern European immigrant synagogue in 1889.

1883

Bnai Jacob synagogue was founded in 1883 and purchased the vacant church and converted it to a synagogue in 1889. As a condition of the sale, the Unitarian Society removed the graves from the church yard; they were reinterred at Fernwood Cemetery

1894

Rodephe Tzedek, another neighborhood shul founded in 1887, merged with Bnai Jacob in 1894. They formed a new congregation called Kesher Israel.[6] The synagogue's charter was filed on June 21, 1894 and approved by Judge M. Arnold, July 14, 1894, in Common Pleas No. 4, Philadelphia County.

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