Dr. Kenny Friedman wrote a wonderful detailed history of Shearith Israel and here are a few more details of interest I can add, having davened there for over twenty years back in the day.
In the 1960’s on Simchas Torah, members circled the shul bimah but did not dance. They walked Torahs around the bimah only singing. The only dancing was by the Rabbi, President and Chazzan, and they held a Torah and danced three steps forward and three steps back on the Bimah. So it was an unusually dignified atmosphere. That would change in the mid 60’s when Herbie Taragin returning from a Yeshiva and Moishe Simon began to dance wildly creating a whole new hakafos experience. The old Yekkas were alarmed and it created a real stir. A Mr. Jerry Senker would yell out “Tzom Kiddoshim” and kids waving flags answered “BAH BAH.” An hour after hakafos, boys and girls, in a large group walking together, walked about two miles to Ner Israel on Garrison Boulevard to experience their hakafos and Rabbi Shmuel Bloom and Rav Sheftel Neuberger sing “Amar Rebbe Akiva” standing and jumping on chairs and the Yeshiva went wild.
Rabbi Michoel Forshlager, a talmid of the Avnei Nezer, and probably the greatest talmid chochum ever in the USA, would give a shiur in the shul in the late 1940’s. He died in 1958. Who said he was the greatest Gaon ever to come to America? None other than Rav Aharon Kotler, who said he would never paskan in a room if Forshlager was there. Rav Forshlager refused to take a semicha from the Avnei Nezer and it is said he never got a semicha, yet every gadol would seek his learning and some told him they would give him semicha on the spot so he could paskan for them.
Mixed dancing at the shul dinner ended in 1939 as Rav Elchonon Wasserman made every Rav in Baltimore sign his kol koreh assuring such activity.
What is interesting is that one weekend, Rav Shimon Schwab had to be in New York. He gave the key to his home to a shul member to keep an eye on the home. Guess what happened. While the Rav was in New York, the person he entrusted with a key organized a mixed dance in the basement of the Schwab home!
After Rabbi Schwab left for Washington Heights in 1959, the shul hired Rabbi Mendel Feldman. Rav Feldman actually ran a business in Jacksonville, Florida, but was a known huge talmid chochum. For the first two years he kept his gartel under his jacket or kapata but in year three he wore the gartel over his jacket or kapata and came out of the closet with his chassidus.
On Yom Kippur by Kol Nidrei one year the lights went out towards the end of davening. I made my way to the Rabbi’s office and it was pitch dark. Rabbi Feldman hearing my voice said, “Eli, something is very wrong in the world for our lights to go out at Kol Nidrei. Sure enough, the next morning we learned the Yom Kippur War broke out.
Shearith Israel only accepted Shomer Shabbos members. When someone applied for membership, an inspection committee would visit their home. They checked three things. The kitchen, the bedroom to see if their were two separate beds, and if the family was totally Shomrei Shabbos.
One worshipper, a non member and a kohen, was totally Shomrei Shabbos. But he had a sick, bed-bound wife, and on Shabbos morning he would turn the TV on for her before shul. As a result, he never became a member or would duchan and during duchaning would go out of the shul. He was a baal tzedakah and rented apartments to many who were not able to pay rent and he discounted such individuals.
The shul had a very large weekly seudas shlishis. Possibly 50 persons attended weekly and Suburban Almond Smash was a favorite beverage. As a job, I was to bring mayim achronim to three places as most Yekkas did not wash before benching. I brought a dish and glass of water in front of the Rabbi and Chazzan Boehm, and another to Kurt Flamm and Henry Cohn, and the third place was to Louis Miller, our Chazzan Sheni . One week, Mr. Miller was away and a Baal Teshuvah sat in his place. As always, I brought the pink dish and green glass and placed it where Mr. Miller usually sat. The confused Baal Teshuvah looked at the glass of water and looked at me three times and he picked up the glass and drank the water.
Dr. Eugene Kaufman was head of HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) but he also led a coed Oneg Shabbos group on Shabbosim. Kurt Flamm gave a Mishnayos class every Shabbos to a group of young boys. Our Shammos, a Mr. Herman, gave out M&M’s to all children way before they had a hechsher. Later Albert Leiter became the Shammos. At shul board meetings, city councilman Leon Rubenstein would always follow Robert’s Rules carefully keeping the meetings orderly.
There was a Sephardi, a doctor who sat in the back quietly and no one really knew who he was, a Doctor Abraham Abraham. After a few years davening in the shul he was offered a position at Shaare Zedek Hospital in Yerushalayim. He went to see Rav Ruderman and in one hour of speaking Torah and halacha to the Ner Israel Rosh Yeshiva, the Rosh Yeshiva was willing to give him semicha. He would become the main posek at Shaare Zedek for many years.
When someone had a simcha, after the Torah was returned to the aron, the Rabbi, President and bal simcha stood by the bimah and all davening men would go up the steps to the aron and wish mazel tov to the bal simcha. Each gave a dollar and the “Aleph Rad” line was celebrated. A Rad was like a dollar back in Europe. I have never seen this in any other shul!
In the lady’s section there was a “Lady in Yellow,” Batsheva, the sister of and half sister of Pitsy Siegel and Elaine Mintzes. Batsheva would eventually move to Yerushalayim next to the Wolfson Apartments and she had a weekly shiur on Shabbos for Berel Weins shul for ladies in her home. She always wore yellow clothing and in Yerushalayim she was also known as the “Lady in Yellow.”
In 2025, the wooden pews were taken out of the shul and tables followed in their place. Years before there were alterations to the lady’s mechitzah as the shul was becoming more yeshivish.
Until I was eight years old, I davened at Shearith Israel on McCullough Street. There was a Chazzan Derdyk and I remember the copper spittoons on the floor in many rows for those who chewed tobacco. Our family moved in 1958 to Jonquil Avenue and then attended Shearith Israel on Glen Avenue.
Lastly, there are three tiny windows over the aron kodesh near the ceiling. There are interesting theories but none proven why the non- Jewish architect designed them. So if you see me I will explain the unproven yet interesting theory.
Eli W. Schlossberg
Author of My Shtetl Baltimore and Take a Walk Through My Shtetl
Contact: Eli.schlossberg@verizon.net, 443-621-0298
Baltimore Jewish History 
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