The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah is the oldest Jewish congregation in the Kansas City metropolitan area, founded in 1870 as a Reform synagogue by twenty-five German-Jewish merchant families. Over 150 years it occupied four successive buildings across Kansas City before relocating to Overland Park, Kansas, in 2000, and it remains the primary Reform Jewish congregation in the region.

History

Founding, 1870

On Sunday, October 2, 1870, twenty-five men gathered in a room above a grocery store near the Kansas City riverfront and pledged $800 to establish the city’s first Jewish congregation.1 The founders were merchants, tobacconists, saloon owners, and butchers, most with roots in Germany and German-influenced central Europe.1 They named the congregation B’nai Jehudah — “Sons of Judah” — and organized it along Reform lines from the outset, adopting mixed family pews and a choir of men and women, with services read from Isaac Mayer Wise’s Minhag America, the first siddur published in the United States.21 The first president was B. A. Feineman; the first rabbi was Reverend Marcus Cohen, a mohel brought from Chicago.31

In 1873 B’nai Jehudah became one of the founding congregations of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations — today the Union for Reform Judaism, now comprising more than 1,300 congregations in the United States and Canada — and Feineman was elected to its executive board.43

Growth and the downtown years

The congregation’s first permanent synagogue was dedicated September 24, 1875, at the southeast corner of Wyandotte and Sixth Streets; the Kansas City Times reported that its audience room would “seat comfortably about three hundred and fifty people.”5 The building was sold in the spring of 1883, and in 1885 B’nai Jehudah completed larger, Moorish-style quarters at the southwest corner of Eleventh and Oak Streets, expanded in 1890 with side galleries.25 Both buildings placed the congregation in the commercial heart of a rapidly expanding frontier city, reflecting the central role its founders played in Kansas City’s early mercantile economy.6

The Linwood Boulevard Temple, 1908–1957

In 1905 the congregation began seeking a new home, settling on the southeast corner of Linwood Boulevard and Flora Avenue, in what was then a prosperous residential district south of downtown.5 The new temple, designed in “pure classic style” by the Kansas City firm Howe, Hoit and Cutler and completed in 1908, was among the finest classical-style synagogues erected in the early twentieth century.25 Six Ionic columns anchored the facade beneath cut-stone lettering reading My House Shall Be a House of Prayer for All Peoples.2 Inside, twenty stained-glass windows were designed by John La Farge, one of the most celebrated American glass artists of the nineteenth century, with symbols and Hebrew and English inscriptions chosen by Rabbi Harry H. Mayer to represent ten periods in Jewish history.2

The congregation occupied the Linwood building for nearly five decades, through both World Wars and the Pendergast era, making it the congregation’s longest-tenured single address. After B’nai Jehudah’s 1957 departure the building was purchased by the Scottish Rite Masons and used as a masonic hall; it later passed to the City of Kansas City and is today part of the Robert J. Mohart Multipurpose FOCUS Center.2 The La Farge windows were removed to storage in 1957, with two put on display at the Holmes Road temple.2

The Holmes Road Temple, 1957–2000

By the mid-1950s the Jewish population of Kansas City was shifting southward. In 1952 the congregation purchased 5.5 acres on the east side of Holmes Road at 69th Street, next to the Rose Hill Cemetery, and in 1957 opened its fourth home there — 6840 Holmes Road — in south Kansas City, Missouri.75 The building was designed by Kivett and Myers, the firm of Kansas City architect Clarence Kivett; its tent-form design housed the La Farge glass carried from Linwood and a 16-foot statue of Moses.728 A soaring sanctuary seating 700 was completed on the site a decade later, in 1967, and the building was featured in Architectural Record in July 1969.758 Missouri Preservation later described the temple — an example of post-World War II neo-Expressionism cited in A Field Guide to Contemporary American Architecture — as considered by local historians “one of the two most important buildings ever constructed in Kansas City.”9 Efforts to win historic designation after the congregation’s 2000 departure failed, and the complex was demolished in 2003; University Academy now stands on the site.79

Notable rabbis

Three rabbis stand out across the congregation’s long history for their civic impact beyond the synagogue:

Joseph Krauskopf and Henry Berkowitz, both graduates of the inaugural class at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, served B’nai Jehudah in the late nineteenth century and helped connect the congregation to the national Reform movement at its founding moment.3

Samuel S. Mayerberg (senior rabbi 1928–1960, then rabbi emeritus until his death in 1964) became one of the most prominent voices against the Pendergast political machine. Beginning in 1932 he led a civic cleanup campaign that drew threats and harassment but ultimately helped bring down the machine.32 Mayerberg’s willingness to use the pulpit as a platform for civic reform established a tradition of social-justice engagement that defined the congregation’s public identity through the mid-twentieth century.

William B. Silverman succeeded Mayerberg in 1960, arriving from Nashville — where he had already established himself in the fight against segregation — and carried that tradition into the civil rights era.37 Silverman worked actively with the Greater Kansas City Council on Religion and Race during the 1960s, pushing for the fair housing legislation Kansas City enacted in 1967 and building coalitions between the Jewish and African-American communities.7 In 1961, at Silverman’s invitation, Martin Luther King Jr. made his second visit to Kansas City and spoke at the Holmes Road temple on nonviolent resistance to segregation.7

Current location and status

In April 2000, the congregation dedicated its new building at 12320 Nall Avenue in Overland Park, Kansas — including a 300-seat chapel, social hall, pre-school, and library — tracking the broader southward and westward migration of Kansas City’s Jewish population into Johnson County over the preceding decades.47 The Overland Park campus, known simply as The Temple, continues to operate as an active Reform congregation of more than 1,000 member families, and remains the oldest and largest synagogue in the Kansas City metropolitan area.48

Cultural significance

B’nai Jehudah has functioned as an anchor institution of Kansas City’s Jewish civic life since 1870. Several families whose names are woven into Kansas City’s broader commercial and philanthropic history — including the Helzberg family, founders of Helzberg Diamonds, and the Bloch family, founders of H&R Block — maintained deep ties to the congregation. The congregation’s principal records (1870–1989, 36.2 linear feet) are held by the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati, with a smaller collection of newsletters and publications (1950–2011) at the State Historical Society of Missouri.310 Its centennial history, Roots in a Moving Stream (Frank J. Adler, 1972), remains the standard institutional account, and the congregation hosts a full digital copy.11

Sites associated with B’nai Jehudah

PeriodAddressNotes
1875–1883SE corner Wyandotte & Sixth Streets, Kansas City, MOFirst permanent synagogue, dedicated 1875-09-24; seated ~350; sold spring 18835
1885–1907SW corner 11th & Oak Streets, Kansas City, MOMoorish-style; expanded 1890 with side galleries25
1908–1957SE corner Linwood Blvd & Flora Ave, Kansas City, MOHowe, Hoit and Cutler, architects; La Farge windows; now the Robert J. Mohart Multipurpose FOCUS Center2
1957–20006840 Holmes Road (69th & Holmes), Kansas City, MOKivett and Myers, architects; sanctuary added 1967; demolished 200372
2000–present12320 Nall Avenue, Overland Park, KS 66209Current home of The Temple4

Sources

See also

Footnotes

  1. The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah (official) — “A Moment in Our History” (adapted from Adler, Roots in a Moving Stream) — asserts: on Sunday, October 2, 1870, twenty-five men met in a room above a grocery store near the riverfront and pledged $800 to begin Kansas City’s first Jewish congregation; founders were merchants, tobacconists, saloon owners, and butchers, most with roots in Germany or countries under German influence; Reform from the beginning, with mixed family pews and a choir of men and women; first rabbi Marcus R. Cohen, a mohel from Chicago; services read from Minhag America, the first siddur published in the United States, by Isaac Mayer Wise. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. Synagogues of the South, College of Charleston — “Kansas City, MO ~ Congregation B’nai Jehudah (1908).” — asserts: Linwood Boulevard temple by Howe, Hoit and Cutler, 1908, one of the finest classical-style synagogues of the early 20th century; cut-stone lettering “My House Shall Be a House of Prayer for All Peoples” above six Ionic columns; first building (1875) used ten years; 1885 Moorish-style Oak Street temple expanded 1890 with side galleries; Linwood senior rabbis Harry H. Mayer (1908–28) and Samuel S. Mayerberg (1928–57); Mayerberg’s 1932 civic cleanup campaign against machine rule; 20 La Farge windows with symbols chosen by Rabbi Mayer, removed to storage 1957, two displayed at the Holmes Road temple; Holmes sanctuary by Kivett and Myers, demolished 2003; the Linwood building purchased by the Scottish Rite Masons and, by 2021, part of the Robert J. Mohart Multipurpose FOCUS Center. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12

  3. American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati — “Kansas City, Missouri — Congregation B’nai Jehudah Records” (MS-715), finding aid — asserts: records 1870–1989, 36.2 linear feet; first president B. A. Feineman, first rabbi Reverend Marcus Cohen, a mohel from Chicago; 1873 founding congregation of the UAHC with Feineman on its executive board; rabbis Joseph Krauskopf and Henry Berkowitz were graduates of the first class at Hebrew Union College; Samuel S. Mayerberg served 1928–1960, then rabbi emeritus until 1964; William Silverman of Nashville began at B’nai Jehudah in 1960; richest series are the Mayerberg, Fane, and Adler correspondence files. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  4. The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah (official) — “History.” — asserts: oldest synagogue in the Kansas City metropolitan area and one of the oldest Reform congregations in the nation; historically the largest membership among local Jewish congregations, currently over 1,000 member families; founding member of the Union for Reform Judaism, which now numbers more than 1,300 congregations in the U.S. and Canada; the building at 12320 Nall Avenue, Overland Park, dedicated April 2000, with a 300-seat chapel, social hall, pre-school, library, and Judaica shop. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. Clio — “The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah.” — asserts: first permanent building at the southeast corner of Wyandotte and Sixth, dedicated September 24, 1875, seating about 350 per the Kansas City Times; sold spring 1883; new temple at the southwest corner of 11th and Oak completed 1885; congregation began exploring a new home in 1905, approving a “pure classic style” design for the southeast corner of Linwood and Flora, erected beginning May 1907; 5.5 acres purchased on the east side of Holmes Road next to Rose Hill Cemetery; the Holmes temple featured in Architectural Record, July 1969; early-years rabbi turnover, with first ordained rabbi Ignatz Grossman hired 1878. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  6. Kansas City Public Library, Missouri Valley Special Collections — B’nai Jehudah Temple photographs, via The Pendergast Years — asserts: period photographs of the Oak Street temple (west side of Oak south of 11th) and the Linwood Boulevard temple at the southeast corner of Flora Avenue and Linwood Boulevard. ↩

  7. Clio (Ellie Rieber) — “Temple B’nai Jehudah (1957-2000).” — asserts: fourth home at 6840 Holmes Rd, occupied 1957–2000; tent-form design with the La Farge glass from Linwood and a 16-foot Moses statue; sanctuary seating 700 finished a decade after 1957; 5.5 acres at 69th and Holmes purchased 1952 next to Rose Hill Cemetery; Mayerberg’s retirement and succession by Silverman, who had fought segregation in Nashville; Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the temple in 1961 at Silverman’s invitation; KCMO fair housing legislation 1967 endorsed by rabbi and congregation; historic-designation efforts failed and the building was demolished in 2003, with University Academy now on the site. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  8. Wikipedia — “The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah.” — asserts: the congregation is the oldest and largest in the greater Kansas City metropolitan area; the 1908 Linwood temple is credited to Frank M. Howe (Neoclassical); the Holmes Road building (1967) was by Kivett and Myers in Modernist style; current campus at 12320 Nall Avenue, Overland Park. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  9. Missouri Preservation — “Temple B’Nai Jehudah” (Places in Peril listing, 2003) — asserts: the Holmes Road temple was considered by local historians one of the two most important buildings ever constructed in Kansas City; an example of post-WWII neo-Expressionism listed in A Field Guide to Contemporary American Architecture among the most significant religious examples of Modernist architecture. ↩ ↩2

  10. State Historical Society of Missouri — “Congregation B’nai Jehudah Collection” (K0649) — asserts: 1 cubic foot of newsletters and publications, 1950–2011, from the oldest Reform temple in Kansas City. ↩

  11. Frank J. Adler — Roots in a Moving Stream: The Centennial History of Congregation B’nai Jehudah of Kansas City, 1870–1970 (Kansas City: The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah, 1972; 466 pp.). Full digital copy hosted by the congregation — asserts: the standard institutional history; the congregation’s own published historical accounts are adapted from it. ↩

See also

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On the record — ks.city/wiki/buildings/bnai-jehudah-temple · last revised 2026-08-05