A Brief History

In May of 1963 Sol Abrams, executive director of the Hebrew Institute (now the Agency for Jewish Learning), invited teachers from his faculty to bring friends to attend a meeting of a new congregation he was trying to form. Dr. Abrams led an Erev Shabbat service, using the prayerbook of the Hebrew Institute¹s Junior Congregation.  A teen-aged boy named Ronny Landay served as cantor. 

A Hebrew Institute faculty member named Martin Lowy had suggested the idea of forming a new prayer and study group to Dr. Abrams. Lowy had noticed that many of his friends and colleagues were not involved in any of the local congregations and might be interested in a different type of prayer and study group. After a few meetings which ended with little decided or done, the May meeting described in the first paragraph was held. Dr Abrams was requested to draw up a set of principles which might serve as guidelines for the group. He was also asked to suggest a name.

At a meeting two weeks later, a statement of principles was read and adopted. The group formally voted itself into existence and adopted the name Dor Hadash (new generation). Seventeen people were at the meeting, six more than had been at the previous meeting. The vote was 14-3.

On June 14, 1963, the first formal service of Congregation Dor Hadash was held in the Burke Auditorium of the Hebrew Institute. The service was led by David and Marsha Lubell and cantored by Ronny Landay. About 40 people attended. Eventually we moved into the Wolk Chapel at the Hebrew Institute (at Forbes and Denniston Avenues), which became our home for 32 years.

The group, in its passionate idealism, resisted formal organization, but soon it became clear that some kind of administration was necessary in order to accomplish our aims. In an effort to avoid the repellent kind of politics that we had seen at other congregations, we called our chief administrator a chairman, rather than a president, and made a term of office six months in duration.

The first chairman was Bernard Mohr, followed in the course of five years by Howard Braun, Nathan Witt, Esther Klionsky, Victor Mizel, Nathan Herz, Bernard Klionsky, Phyllis Mizel, Al Braunstein, and Joe Artman. In the first year (Mohr and Braun) the congregation totalled 20-30 families. In the second year (Witt and E. Klionsky) it had grown to 40 families. The third year, 1966-1967, Victor Mizel and Nathan Herz were the chairmen and the congregation had grown to 58 families.

On March 8, 1966, Dor Hadash received a charter for the establishment of a synagogue and study group from the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County. The charter was signed by Victor Mizel, Nathan Witt, Bernard Klionsky, Seymour Coburn, Leo Rosenzweig, Howard Braun, Harold Blatt, Merle Charney, Nathan Herz, and Solomon Abrams. In the next two years the congregation grew to 76 families.

The following paragraph is a quotation from the earliest extant Information for Membership Chairmen:

It is the policy of Congregation Dor Hadash that everyone who wishes to worship with the Congregation at its services is welcome to do so. The Congregation does not require membership as a perquisite (sic: "requisite" is the intended word) for attending any of its religious services....

The congregation is a volunteer enterprise whose members take turns and participate...

...The established fee is $35.00 per family for the year, or $20.00 for a single membership or a student....

...The Congregation has no Sunday school, Hebrew school, or cemetery....

In 1967 Herbert and Herta Buky joined the Congregation. Herbert Buky had been a night club singer in Germany before WWII. He escaped Germany in the nick of time and underwent many adventures before landing in the U.S. He had a rich baritone voice and knew a beautiful version of Unetanetokef. It soon became a tradition for him to come up to the bima at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services and sing it. It was one of the rare occasions when Dor Hadashites refrained from singing along and just listened. The beautiful timbre of his voice and the expression in his singing filled the Wolk Chapel and made all of us feel the power of that prayer.

Though we wished him well, we all felt bereft when he retired and he and his wife moved to Florida. Later, we were saddened when we learned of the passing of the two of them.

We had another exclusive at our High Holiday Services. In the first years there was no member who felt capable of blowing the shofar. Sol Abrams recommended that we hire a teen-aged boy named Joey Friedman. Most of us were used to services in which some man turns purple and ekes out some horrible squeals from the ram¹s horn. Joey Friedman was able to get the shofar to sound like a musical instrument. It was truly wonderful to hear. His tekiah g¹dolah at the end of Yom Kippur never failed to end that awesome day with an awesome blast. It was perfect.

Eventually the congregation acquired members who were adept at blowing the ram¹s horn and we stopped hiring Joey. The sound of his playing now is tucked away into the memories of the old-time Dor Hadashites along with Mr. Buky¹s singing.

Also in 1967 the by-laws were amended to change the title of our chief administrator to President, and to lengthen the term of office from six months to one year. The first person to hold the title was Alfred Braunstein.

At first the young congregation used the Hebrew Institute¹s Junior Congregation¹s prayer books, but it was soon decided that we needed to have our own siddurim. A committee was formed to investigate. The committee examined nearly every non-Orthodox siddur on the market. Aware that many of our members were unable to read Hebrew, the committee members were particularly interested in a siddur with accurate and well-written English translations. Finally the choice was the Reconstructionist siddur, whose translations, while not great, were far better than those of the other choices.

Encouraged by the prayer book and member Esther Tucker, many members became interested in the Reconstructionist movement. Groups were formed to study Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan¹s works. Talks about Reconstructionism were given at Friday night services. In 1968 it was proposed as an amendment to the by-laws that Dor Hadash join the Federation of Reconstructionist Congregations and Havurot (FRCH). The amendment was defeated.

In 1969, the amendment was proposed again. That time it passed and Dor Hadash officially became a Reconstructionist congregation.

Over the years Dor Hadash has celebrated its significant anniversaries with a dinner and a show. The show was usually the brainchild of some of the congregation wits: Stan Angrist, Len Belov, Phyllis Mizel, and Esther Tucker. Some of the most memorable moments were as follows:
 

• Mama Yenta, the gypsy fortune teller, reading the beets in a cup of borscht. "Onward Reconstructionists" to the tune of  "Onward Christian Soldiers"
• The perpetual Cantor Search Committee interviewing has-been Luciano Pavarotti, who could sing Kol Nidre in French.
• A & B Kosher Catering, "Observant but Flexible"
• The Karison Heeler Show with the rock group Shrei
• The Okra Winstein Show on rabbis who abuse their congregations.

Some of the particularly memorable ones were Ronny Landay, our first one, who went away to school and eventually came back to us for a while, Mark Dinkin, who was inspired by his experience with us to become a professional cantor. (We couldn¹t afford him now.) We had a rabbi¹s daughter, Sharon Siegel, who was studying music therapy at CMU. She left to go to a job, but came back once to do the high holidays. Finally, in 1987, the Cantor Search Committee hired Cheryl Klein and thereby put itself out of business.

One of our principles from the earliest days was that none of us is qualified to preach a sermon. However, we wanted to make a learning experience out of our services. Therefore, we chose to ask a member to speak on some topic of Jewish interest. The topics varied as widely as the interests, professsions, and experiences of our members. One of our very best speakers was Nathan Witt. He would deliver insightful, informative talks with perhaps a few words scrawled on a card. He inevitably had his audience in the palm of his hand. Howard Braun affectionately dubbed him "No-note-Nathan."

In 1971 some of the large congregations of Pittsburgh complained to the United Jewish Federation about the Hebrew Institute, which received support from the Federation, renting out space to the two rabbi-less congregations, Dor Hadash and Young People's. The president of each was required to go to the Federation to defend the existence of his congregation. Ram Kossowsky, our president at the time, made the very telling point that Dor Hadash was providing a Jewish experience for many people who would otherwise not belong to any congregation. To quote directly from his letter:

...The uniqueness of Dor Hadash is ...reflected in the cross section of its membership. Much discussion has recently been devoted to the alienated Academics; yet, almost half our members carry the title Doctor, representing mostly the academic world. These people were attracted to Dor Hadash by its uniqueness. If it were not for Dor Hadash, they would most probably be lost to the Jewish Community. In fact, numerous of our members were outside of the Jewish Community until they found our Congregation.... In summary, gentlemen, Dor Hadash is a Jewish Congregation that offers yet another view of Judaism -- a Congregation that does not compete with, but rather complements, the existing congregations....

For three years we rented space from Temple Rodef Shalom. The facilities there are beautiful and we were very well treated. However we were beginning to outgrow the elegant little Cohen Chapel and had to hold High Holiday services at the Jewish Community Center. Eventually we were offered a semi-permanent home at the Jewish Education Institute (JEI), where we meet now.

For many years we stayed with the town-meeting kind of business meeting. The meetings were held monthly, at some member's home, and attended by the officers, committee chairs, and any members who wished to attend. As the congregation grew, that format became more and more unwieldy. Finally, in 1986, the then president, Dan Leger, called an urgent congregational meeting at the Wolk Chapel. "The congregation has reached a crisis," he said, and went on to explain that in order to continue functioning, we had to reorganize the administration to have a Board of Directors conduct the business of the congregation. Eventually, the by-laws were amended and a Board was established.

The make-up of the Board has been changed here and there as need required, but it remains today our principal administrative entity, making all the everyday decisions. Once a year the membership gathers for an annual meeting at which officers are elected, any amendments to by-laws are voted on, and other important business is conducted.

The congregation is kept fully informed about the proceedings of the board by way of the newsletter, Kol Dor Hadash (the voice of Dor Hadash), and announcements and flyers. The original newsletter was called "Notes and Comment," and was a typewritten page or two consisting of a calendar and a bit of news. Before that members were informed of service dates and times via post card.

As time progressed and computers entered into everyday use, the Kol evolved under various editors to what it is today -- a bi-monthly publication, nicely formatted, and full of useful information and enjoyable articles, poems etc.

Until 1998, the Kol had a cartoon in every issue. After Leonard Belov died there was nobody to take over that task.

We've had our ups and downs; third generation Dor Hadashites, B¹nei Mitzvot, Brisses, and Baby-namings were some of the very happy memories. Our best service leaders, speakers, Torah readers are always willing to participate in the High Holiday services, and the committees involved in the planning work very hard to make them come out right. OK, so one year we held our High Holiday services in the gym at the JCC, but it was still Dor Hadash and the services were beautiful. And that seems to be our hallmark -- we come through when it really counts. Ad mea v'esrim v'od! (To one hundred twenty years and beyond!)