Shalom: Building a Jewish Community in Johnson County
The recent relocation of the majority of the local Jewish community to Johnson County is part of a century-old pattern of relocation and change. Jewish residents and institutions — synagogues, businesses, schools, and charitable organizations — have moved and adapted to changing needs since the 1850s, when Jewish immigrants first arrived in the Kansas City area.
Pioneers
Jewish settlers journeyed to the Kansas City area in the 1850s as the Kansas Territory opened for settlement. Kansas City had yet to emerge as a major regional city, serving instead as a stopping place for immigrants traveling further west. Herman Ganz, Kansas City’s first permanent Jewish settler, arrived in 1856. With his brother Bernhard, he established a men’s clothing store in Westport and struggled during the Civil War era to make a living. Rumor that Kansas City, Missouri, was destined to become the region’s leading railroad center attracted new entrepreneurs such as Louis Hammerslough. The Hammersloughs extended their extensive clothing manufacturing operations to include kansas City in 1858. Hammerslough readily achieved financial success and recognition in Kansas City.
Meanwhile, the expanding railroad and meat packing plants attracted settlers from Germany, Poland, and Lithuania to the river port towns of Armourdale and Wyandotte in Kansas. Settling in the West Bottoms, these families soon established clothing and dry good stores along Minnesota Avenue and Kansas Avenue in Armourdale.
The synagogues were organized during the 1870s to serve the religious needs of a growing community: Temple B’nai Jehudah and Ohev Sholom. Formed under the banner “Progress and Reform” in 1870, Temple B’nai Jehudah served the Reform Jewish families who were living in Kansas City, Missouri, as well as a small Jewish community across the river in Kansas City, Kansas. (Reform Judaism allows congregations to adapt ritual practices to suit the community’s desires and lifestyle, whereas the Orthodox denomination follows classical Jewish law from the written and oral Torah. The Conservative tradition holds the religious middle ground between Orthodox and Reform Judaism.) Soon, the Orthodox community in Kansas City, Kansas, established a congregation that suited their more traditional practices. Initially known as Congregation Gomel Chesed, the first High Holiday services were held at Mulberry in 1877; daily prayer services were conducted in members’ homes. In the 1920s, they joined with Congregation Shearith Israel to establish Ohev Sholom, “Lovers of Peace.” By this time, the Kansas City, Kansas Jewish community. Along with most other residents, had abandoned the flood-prone West Bottoms to live in Armourdale, Rosedale, and Argentine.
New synagogues were formed throughout the city during the 1890s and early 1900s to serve an increasingly diverse Jewish community. Keneseth Israel, established in 1878 was among the congregations formed by a growing Orthodox community. Their first house of worship, completed in 102 at 15th & Locust, was hailed as Kansas City, Missouri’s first fully Orthodox synagogue.
In 1915, part of Keneseth Israel’s membership left to establish a new, conservative synagogue known as Beth Shalom. The two congregations came back together again in 1924 as Beth Shalom and completed a synagogue at 34th and Paseo. This location was in close proximity to the majority of Kansas City, Missouri’s Jewish community, who by the 1920s were located along Independence Avenue and Admiral Boulevard, and between Prospect Avenue and Oak Street.
Refugees and Relief
As these new synagogues were formed, the Jewish community faced a daunting challenge. Russian refugees immigrating to American cities during the late 1880s and through the early decades of the twentieth century sought assistance within established Jewish communities. Their most immediate needs included job training and English language skills. The Russian refugees’ transition was more difficult than that of the earlier immigrants, who were more skilled and better able to improve their economic standing. The Russian refugees transition was more difficult than that of the earlier immigrants, who were more skilled and better able to improve their economic standing. The Russian refugees also brought a different set of Jewish traditions which was not compatible with the prevailing German Reform community. Yet the Kansas City community's response to their needs established a tradition of humanitarian assistance that continues to the present day.
A Jewish community of approximately 2,000 members in the late 1880s organized numerous charities and relief organizations to assist the new settlers. In 1891 alone, the community resettled 440 immigrants. Larger numbers were re-routed from New York City through Galveston, Texas, during the early decades of the twentieth century. Kansas City's Jewish community swelled to 22,000 by the mid-1920s, the fastest growth rate in the community's history. The population has essentially remained between 19,000 and 20,000 since this era.
Among the relief organizations established to assist refugees was the Kansas City chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women. Formed in 1894 by Mrs. Louis Lieberman of B’nai Jehudah, the Council provided numerous services for newly-arrived immigrants, including free baths and a kindergarten. (See related article, Tzadakah.)
Growth and Prosperity
There were other indications of community growth and prosperity as well. The Progress Club was formed in 1881 and served as the social center for the elite members of Kansas City’s Jewish community. Charity balls and benefit plays were held here to raise money for the National Council of Jewish Women and for refugee resettlement. In 1912, the club became part of Oakwood Country Club.
The Jewish community was also instrumental in establishing the Garment District — one of Kansas City’s most distinguished neighborhoods and industries. During the 1880s, merchants from Leavenworth, Kansas, began moving to Kansas City, Missouri. Moving to the Quality Hill area, they established a a number of clothing manufacturing and tailoring houses, such as Woolf Brothers and Rothchilds. Kansas City’s garment industry expanded five-fold during the 1920s, providing employment and upward mobility for many Russian immigrants. Clothing manufacturing and retail remained an important regional industry through the 1950s.
Jewish merchants were improving their lot on the Kansas side as well. By the 1920s and 1930s, Helzbergs, Krigels, and Feld Chevrolet, among others, were well-established businesses along Minnesota Avenue in neighboring Kansas City, Kansas.
Moving to Johnson County
Kansas City’s Jewish community remained concentrated in Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas until after World War II. There were, however, a few notable exceptions. Charley and Bessie Ashner moved from Wyandotte county to Johnson County in 1927. They operated Greenwood Dairy at 49th and Lamar until the 1950s. Leo Ashner, one of eight children, acquired a portion of the family farm in 1955 and began developing real estate for housing. Later he joined with long-time friend Virgil Bodine to form Bodine-Ashner Builders Inc.
Sol and Dora Finkelston moved their family to Overland Park from Kansas City, Kansas in 1921. Sol operated a dry goods store in downtown Overland park that supplied clothing to the road crews working in the area. The Finkelstons participated in many activities at the local Presbyterian Church, where their sons attended Boy Scouts. Initially ostracized at school, William Finkelston became captain of the basketball team at Shawnee Mission Rural High School. In the 1940s, the Finkelstons relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, to be near other Jewish families.
A more sizeable relocation to Johnson County occurred by 1940. Temple B’nai Jehudah’s membership records indicate fourteen Jewish families lived in Mission Hills. Twenty-five years later in 1965, nearly 60% of the Temple’s membership had relocated to Johnson County. The Temple responded to this trend and an unprecedented demand for membership by forming an independent Reform synagogue in Johnson County. Formed in 1958 as Temple Beth El, the congregation acquired property as 95th and Nall. The synagogue closed in the 1990s.
As did millions of American families, the Jewish community benefited from post-World War II economic growth and prosperity. Growing families with improved financial standing joined synagogues in record numbers, many for the first time. They also purchased new homes in suburban communities such as those in Johnson County. By the 1950s, many synagogues were again faced with relocation, as the majority of their members continued to move to the suburbs.
In Johnson County, this trend brought residents from both Kansas Cities. Members of Ohev Sholom in Kansas City, Kansas, began moving to neighborhoods such as Fairway, Meadow Lake, and Reinhardt Estates during the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s. Ohev Sholom’s leadership first purchased property for a new synagogue in Prairie Village in 1956. The congregation continued to worship at their synagogue in Kansas City, Kansas, until 1961, when a new building at 75th and Lamar was completed.
Johnson County’s abundant supply of new affordable housing attracted families like Shirley and Arnold Levine. Unable to find an affordable home in Kansas City, Kansas, to house their growing family, the Levines purchased a home in Reinhardt Estates in 1951. George and Floriene Leiberman of Kansas City, Missouri, moved to Johnson County in the early 1960s. The quality public school system and housing attracted them to the area. Lieberman considers Johnson County “the number one area that anyone could live. We have the tops of everything: schools, shopping, living environment, and wonderful recreational facilities. [Johnson County has] everything you would want to raise your family.” Despite restrictive covenants which prevented them from living in particular neighborhoods during the 1950s and 1960s, these modern-day pioneers became part of their communities — serving on local school boards and in city government, creating employment opportunities, and contributing to the quality of life in Johnson County.
Another significant Jewish institution was formed in Johnson County in 1966. Recognizing the need for greater Jewish education among the youth, a handful of parents organized the Hebrew Academy. Thirty-three children, kindergarten through third grade, attended classes in four rooms at Ohev Sholom. In 1977, the school was re-named the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy in honor of a widely-respected businessman who aided the school’s efforts. Currently one of only four community day schools in the country, the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy provides Judaic and secular studies for students from kindergarten through senior high school.
An Era of Renewal
Johnson County’s Jewish community continued to grow during the 1970s and 1980s as new housing and commercial developments extended into the southern parts of Leawood and Overland park. While synagogues were purchasing land and planning building campaigns, other institutions were relocating to Johnson County. In 1983, the Jewish Community Center opened a satellite facility at the former Nall Hills Country Club. By 1986, the National Council of Jewish Women, Kansas City chapter, had relocated its offices to Overland Park. Kansas City’s only kosher meat market, Jacobson’s Strictly Kosher Foods is located in Overland park at 95th Street. Perhaps the most noticeable change was the development of the Jewish Community campus in southern Overland Park. Completed in 1988, the campus enhanced the visibility of Kansas City’s Jewish community. Along with the Jewish community center, the Campus houses the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, the Jewish Federation, the Central Agency for Jewish Education and numerous non-profit agencies that serve the entire Kansas City area.
As community-wide services and leadership shifted to Johnson County, synagogues followed their numbers to the suburbs. A demographic study published in 1986 by the Jewish Federation identified the epicenter of the Jewish community as 80th and Roe streets in Prairie Village. The study also noted a gradual movement to the southwest. This was confirmed in the relocation of several synagogues to Johnson County during the 1980s. By the early 1980s, an Orthodox community had developed near 99th and Antioch, the current location of Congregation Beth Israel, Abraham and Voliner (formerly located at 83rd and Holmes in Kansas City, Missouri). Kehilath Israel, a Conservative congregation, moved in 1986 from Kansas City to Overland Park. In 1988, a new Reform congregation, Beth Torah, was organized in Johnson County to provide a “more contemporary Jewish congregation.” Currently, the members worship at the Jewish Community Center, while a new facility is under construction at 127th and Lamar in southern Overland Park.
All of this building and relocating can be misleading. Despite the number of new buildings and institutions formed to serve the area's Jewish community, the population is gradually declining. Statistics reported for 1994 total 19,100 Jewish residents in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Generations of acculturation and ever increasing rates of inter-marriage are the reasons most frequently cited for declining numbers. Despite this trend, most synagogues are experiencing a revitalization among their numbers, as people seek new ways to participate in the Jewish community. The variety of synagogues, institutions, and programs serving the area’s Jewish residents is testimony to a high level of community-wide support and commitment to sustaining Judaism and its traditions.
--ALBUM vol. 9, no. 2 (spring 1996)