Owensboro, Kentucky
The Founding of Owensboro
White Americans first settled in Owensboro in 1797 when William Smeathers/Smothers settled along the Ohio River. The settlement was originally named "Yellow Banks" for the color of the soil along the river. The town renamed to Owensborough in 1817, after Abraham Owen, an army colonel from Kentucky who died at the Battle of Tippecanoe.
Because of the town's location along the Ohio River, Owensboro quickly became a trading hub for tobacco and alcohol. Owensboro's primary export was chewing tobacco, with Red Man Chewing Tobacco being manufactured in Owensboro. The location along the Ohio River also saw numerous bourbon whiskey distilleries open up in Owensboro. Green River and Glenmore whiskeys both operated out of distilleries in town.
Jews in Owensboro in the 19th Century
Initial Jewish Settlement in Owensboro
The earliest Jewish settlers in Owensboro arrived in the 1840s. Among these initial settlers was Marcus Suntheimer. Suntheimer was a German immigrant who opened a store in town. In the 1850s, a number of Jewish immigrants from the Alcase region along the French and German border. Almost all of these immigrants opened shops in town, and many of them were successful. For example, Marcus Suntheimer owned about $8,000 in property by the start of the Civil War.
Despite the chaos and tumult of the Civil War and Reconstruction years, a number of Jews arrived in Owensboro and found success. Bernard Baer arrived from Prussia in 1861, Joseph Rothchild immigrated from France in 1858 and moved to Owensboro in 1865, and Moses Levy arrived from Alcase in 1872. Each of these men opened businesses in Owensboro, with Rothchild and Levy both opening dry goods stores in town. By the end of the Reconstruction Era in 1877, a local newspaper noted of Jewish business owners: "from one end of Main Street to the other their business banners will be found upon the outer walls...The city owes much of its commercial reputation to the vim and enterprise of this class of people." By 1882, Jews operated a wide array of businesses in Owensboro, including eight of the city's thirteen clothing stores.
These early Jewish migrants also had a profound impact on civic life in Owensboro. Bernard Baer sat on the Owensboro city council for several years and served as mayor pro tem at one point. He would unsuccessfully run for mayor in 1882. Joseph Rothchild served on the Owensboro school board for several years until his death in 1888. Moses Levy, a Confederate war veteran, was active in the Daviess County Confederate Association and his daughter Rose became a founding member of the Daviess County chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy.
Sol Wile & Sons
One of the early immigrants to Owensboro was Solomon Wile. He immigrated from the German state of Baden in 1855 and arrived in Owensboro in 1861.
In 1865, Wile bought a lot on Main Street (now Second Street) and opened a department store. In 1881, Wile tore down the original building and build an elegant two-story building with a galvanized iron front and large plate glass windows. The new store opened in September 1881 under the name "Sol Wile & Sons". Sol died in 1886, and his funeral procession was one of the largest seen in Owensboro.
Sol's sons Benjamin & Joseph took over the family business and renamed it Wile Bros. (pictured above) Benjamin operated the store until his retirement in 1912 and Joseph ran the store until his death in 1926. Following Joseph's death, the Wile family sold the business off.
Establishing a Jewish Community
The earliest Jewish organizations in Owensboro founded in the run-up to the Civil War. By the beginning of the war, Owensboro's Hebrew Benefit and Burial Society already organized. They would buy a plot of land for a Jewish cemetery in 1862 for $75 (an amount equivalent to roughly $2500 in 2024). Three years later they established Owensboro's first organized congregation, Adath Israel.
Initially, Adath Israel gathered at member Sam Moise's store before moving to a local school building. Nine years after their founding the congregation finally bought land on Daviess Street for a temple (now at the corner of Daviess and Fifth). The building cost $4,000 (somewhere between $110k and $115k today) to build and took three years to complete.
Adath Israel has a Moorish revival facade, with Gothic style windows and doors. It could seat 200 people for services, although the congregation only had thirteen families when the temple opened.
Rabbis come to Owensboro
Joseph Glueck (1881-1894)
Though Adath Israel would never grow into its 200-seat synagogue, the temple flourished well enough to employ a number of full-time rabbis during its life. During the congregation's early years, Adath Israel employed seven different rabbis. Finally, in 1881 the congregation hired Joseph Glueck, who would serve as rabbi for thirteen years and be Adath Israel's longest-tenured spiritual leader. During Glueck's tenure as rabbi, Adath Israel grew to 31 families and had 46 children in its religious school.
David Feuerlicht (1894-1896)
In 1894, Glueck left Adath Israel and the congregation hired David Feuerlicht. Feuerlicht served as rabbi at Adath Israel for only two years. He died in 1896, leaving the congregation without a full-time rabbi for the next several years. An interesting feature of these early rabbis was their background. Most of the early rabbis were not ordained as Reform rabbis and none belonged to the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
Student Rabbis (1896-1903)
When Rabbi Feuerlicht died in 1896, the congregation decided instead to rely on student rabbis from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. These student rabbis primarily came to Owensboro to lead holiday services and special events. However, most of time between 1896 and 1903 the temple relied on lay leaders to lead services. And while they did not have an employed rabbi during this period, Adath Israel maintained weekly Shabbat services.
Nathan Krass (1903-1907)
The arrival of Nathan Krasnowetz (shortened to Krass when he arrived in Kentucky) marked a change for the temple. Krasnowetz was the first (and only) ordained graduate of Hebrew Union College to serve as a full-time rabbi to the congregation. When he arrived in 1903, immediately after graduating, Adath Israel had a membership of about 100 people.
A notable moment from Krass's time as rabbi was his response to the 1905 Odessa pogroms. He spoke on the violence and discrimination directed at Jews in the Russian Empire (Odessa is now part of Ukraine). Krass even managed to raise $300 from his congregants for the Jewish Relief Fund (equal to about $11,000 in 2024). When the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer ran a story about his speech, non-Jews across Owensboro poured in with donations.
Krass left Owensboro for Lafayette, Indiana in the fall of 1907 where he became a rising star within American Judaism, even serving as the chaplain for the 1908 Democratic National Convention.
Theodore Levy (1910-1920)
Following Krass's departure for Lafayette, Indiana in 1907, Adath Israel looked to Arthur Zinkin. Zinkin served Owensboro for only three years before he too took another pulpit elsewhere.
Following the departure of Zinkin, Adath Israel looked for a bit of rabbinic stability, turning to Owensboro-native Theodore Levy. The son of Moses and Allie Levy, Theodore grew up working in his parents local store, a role, interestingly, he continued while serving as rabbi. While the local paper claimed he "studied at a Jewish college in the North," it is largely unclear if he was an ordained rabbi or not.
After 9 years as Adath Israel's rabbi, Levy died tragically in 1919 at the age of 31. Following Levy's death, Adath Israel increasigly utilized student rabbis from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and did not employ another full-time rabbi.
Bibliography
Institute for Southern Jewish Life, "Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities - Owensboro, Kentucky," https://www.isjl.org/kentucky-owensboro-encyclopedia.html
Christina Clary, "Newberry-Wile Building," Clio, https://theclio.com/entry/97943https://theclio.com/entry/97943