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near East Monument street. At present one part is occupied by the meeting-house of an African congregation; and the rest is a dumping-ground for refuse. A deed dated Dec. 26, 1801, conveys this same burying-ground from Charles Carroll to Levi Solomon and Solomon Etting, for a consideration of five shillings and another, dated Dec. 29, 1801, for a consideration of f 80 current money, conveys it to the same parties from Wm. McMechen and John Leggett. Interment is known to have been made in it as late as 1832, the very year in which the oldest Jewish cemetery now in use was established. No indications can be discovered of the removal of remains buried in it when the cemetery was abandoned. On the testimony of a resident close by, the last tombstone was removed, surreptitiously, presumably for building purposes, as recently as from forty to fifty years ago. With the advent of the Etting family the history of the Jewish community in Baltimore becomes more consecutive. It is uncertain when the Etting brothers, Reuben and Solomon, together with Levi Solomon, their uncle, came to Baltimore The Etting from York, Pa. On Jan. 4, 1796, SolFamily, omon Etting's name appears in the "Advertiser" as one of five persons authorized "to receive proposals in writing for a house or suitable lot " for a bank to be established in Baltimore Town. But there are indirect indications In that the family settled in Baltimore before 1787. the list of stockholders of the same bank, published at the end of 1796, appear the following names Solomon, Kitty, Reuben, Shinah, and Hetty Etting; Jacob F., Philadelphia, Benjamin, and Hetty Levy; and Levy and Myer Solomon. In the first directory of "Baltimore Town and Fell's Point," also published in 1796 the year of the incorporation of Baltimore as a city there are, in addition to the above,



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Kahn, two Harts, three Jacobs, Philip Itzchkin, Benjamin Lyon, Solomon Raphael, and Isaac Solomon; and in the lists of letters remaining at the post-office occur the names of Hhym Levenstene and Benjamin Myers. It is a conservative estimate, then, to

Baltic

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

put the Jewish population of Baltimore in 1796 at

fifteen families.

In 1798 the Collmus family arrived from Bohemia; in 1808 the six sons of Israel J. Cohen came, with their mother, from Richmond, Va. The Cohens and the Ettings played a prominent part in the history of Baltimore Jewry, and in that of the city also. Both families acquired an enviable reputation

and

Baltimore

After 1826 the recorded history of the Jews of Baltimore ceases to be the history of prominent individuals, and becomes that of a community. Almost coincidently with the removal of civil Religious disabilities occurs the first of a series of Worship regular meetings for religious services, Organized, whose continuity has been uninterrupted. According to the recollections of one participant still living, this meeting took place in Holliday street, near Pleasant street, at the house of Zalma Rehine, a former resident of Richmond, Va., and an uncle of Isaac Leeser. This may possibly have been the beginning of the congregation Nidche Israel, now known as the "Baltimore Hebrew Congregation," or more familiarly as the "Stadt-Schul," probably because almost simultaneously with its origin another settlement of Jews, at Fell's Point an outlying and at first separate disbegan to crystallize into a congregation, still trict called the " Fell's Point Hebrew Friendship CongreThe gation," and regularly organized since 1838. Nidche Israel soon found it necessary to rent rooms on North Exeter street, near what is now Lexington street. Thence the congregation moved to a one-story dwelling off High street, near the bend between Fayette and Gay streets, or near what is now Lexington street, the entrance being through a narrow alley. In 1837 a three- story brick building was bought, at the southwest corner of Harrison In 1845 the congregation restreet and iEtna lane. moved to Lloyd and Watson streets, the new synagogue being dedicated by the Rev. S. M. Isaacs of New York and the Rev. Isaac Leeser of Philadelphia, together with the ministers of the congregaHere it wortion, A. Rice and A. Ansell (Anshel). shiped until April 6, 1889, when the fine building now occupied was erected on Madison avenue and The date of the congregational Robert street. charter is Jan. 29, 1830 (supplementary act, 1851). The incorporators were Moses Millem (Mulheim), Joseph Osterman, John M. Dyer, Louis Silver, and

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Levi Benjamin.

The

first

rabbi of the congregation

was the above-

mentioned Abraham Rice (Reiss), whose piety and upright character have left a lasting impress upon the community, especially through his influence upon the youths he taught, some of them its present Rice established a school for instruction leaders. in Hebrew in 1845, and he officiated as the rabbi of the congregation from 1840 to 1849, and again from the spring of 1862 to Oct. 29 of the same year,

and business tact and their members were honored with offices of trust, by corporations Their names figure and in the city government. most prominently in the emancipation struggle of 1818-26, during which time the "Jew Bill" was debated in the legislature of Maryland. This bill proposed " to consider the justice and expediency of extending to those perJews Elected to sons professing the Jewish religion the same privileges that are enjoyed City by Christians." Immediately upon its Council, passage, and its ratification in the leg-

The other rabbis of the conthe date of his death. gregation have been: Julius Spiro, in conjunction with Mr. Rice (1846-47) Henry Hochheimer (184959) B. Illoway (1859-61) Abraham Hofman (186873); Maurice Fluegel (1881-84); A. S. Bettelheim (1886-90) and the present incumbent, Adolf Guttmacher (1891). The burial-ground belonging to the

1825-26, it was applied practically in the election of Solomon Etting and Jacob I. Cohen, Jr., to seats in the city council of Baltimore.

rabbi emeritus;

for integrity

islative session of











congregation was bought in 1832, at which time it covered three acres. The rabbis of the Fell's Point Congregation, now worshiping on Eden street, have been: Aaron Giinz-

burg (1848-56)

Levy



Henry Hochheimer

W.

(1894-96);

Rosenstein (1896).

(1859-92),

now

Willner (1892-94); Clifton H. and the present incumbent, M. This congregation, as well as the