During the 1950s in the Glen Cove metropolitan area, if you wanted to affiliate with a synagogue, you had two choices: Congregation Tifereth Israel (an orthodox-conservative temple) or Temple Sinai in Roslyn (the nearest Reform temple), approximately 10 miles away. About 30 of the 40 Glen Cove area families who were members of Temple Sinai gathered in the home of Paul Ressler on December 5, 1955 and began planning a new Reform congregation.
Our congregation held its first Shabbat service on February 10, 1956, in facilities offered by Friends Academy on Duck Pond Road, in the school auditorium. About 100 persons attended that memorable Friday evening service featuring Mildred Feingold on piano and Rabbi Davis and Cantor Robert Spiro officiating. Shortly after, the UAHC temporarily assigned former army chaplain Milton Schlager as our congregation’s first permanent Rabbi. In fact, he stayed until illness forced his departure in 1959.
On March 8, 1956 Kal Macklin, was elected as the first president of the congregation and Ressler was elected as the first vice president. At different times our fledgling congregation was offered the facilities of the Carpenter Methodist Church , the Masonic Temple (which housed our mobile ark), the Neighborhood House, and the Friends Academy. In searching for a permanent home, our congregation briefly considered the Reynolds property. But the price tag of $275,000 put it out of reach. In the end, we bought for $55,000 a 4.5-acre estate on Crescent Beach Road , complete with a half-century old home owned by an accountant named Herrick. That white pillared building often was referred to as our “castle in the woods.”
On Sunday, May 19, 1957 the congregation, now 120 families strong, held services consecrating the Crescent Beach Road building as the North Country Reform Temple . In the next year, work was performed to convert the home to a synagogue: the porch was enclosed and combined with three front rooms to form the sanctuary.
In 1959, Rabbi Schlager resigned his position for health reasons, and Rabbi Alton Winters was selected to replace him. During Rabbi Winters’ 12-year tenure, NCRT underwent a number of changes. Rabbi Winters conducted services which reflected his classic Reform Judaism training. He was an excellent speaker, appreciated for the intellectual content of his sermons. He established advanced study groups based upon the particular interests of members of the congregation. Confirmation classes were formed and our students were encouraged to continue their religious studies. Although our membership fluctuated, the number of families remained consistent with a core group of reliable and hardworking congregants. In 1971, Rabbi Winters felt the need to move on and, with the blessing of our congregation, left Glen Cove for Florida .
Rabbi Morton Kaplan and his family joined our congregation in September 1972. Rabbi Kaplan continued the traditional Reform Judaism practices established during Rabbi Winters’ tenure. He was very interested in the musical aspects of the service, and along with Cantor Harold Firestone, encouraged the congregation and its children to participate in newer adaptations of traditional songs. Rabbi Kaplan was well-liked by the congregation for his interest and compassion not only to our members, but to their extended families. However, in early 1974, the Kaplans moved out of New York .
Rabbi Laurence Kotok was NCRT’s fourth rabbi, arriving in 1974. Over the course of his nearly 25-year tenure, he began introducing elements of traditional Judaic practice and rituals. He worked with both Cantor Firestone, and his successor, Cantor Gail Hirschenfang, adding more Hebrew to the liturgy and music of the service.
In 1978 NCRT elected its first woman president, Susan Cort. That same year, the sanctuary was enlarged. In 1982, our synagogues kitchen was renovated as part of a three-year renovation project, and named in memory of Sylvia Svonkin, a longtime member and former Sisterhood president. But shortly thereafter, a maintenance accident set fire to the synagogue during the early morning hours of February 17, 1982. The blaze raced through the building and before it was extinguished, the synagogue was totally destroyed. Still reeling from the devastation, dozens of congregants crowded the home of Temple president Harold Berkowitz, and along with Rabbi Kotok, we made plans to rebuild and to keep our congregation intact.
The outpouring of aid from our community enabled all Temple activities to continue over the two years it took to construct the new building. Congregation Tifereth Israel , the nearby Conservative synagogue, offered the use of its lower level sanctuary for services and Bar/Bat Mitzvahs. The religious school was housed at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Highland Road . High Holiday services were held at New York Institute of Technology, and the following year at C. W. Post College , both in Greenvale. We continued our Scholar-in-Residence weekends at Sea Cliff Methodist Church, and Passover Seders at Trinity Episcopal Church in Roslyn. During this period, the NCRT office operated from a trailer, located in the parking lot of our gutted building. In the meantime, a fundraising effort was launched and money began pouring in from other congregations, civic groups, foundations and individuals, both Jewish and Christian. An architect and contractor were hired and the offices were moved from the parking lot to the Village Square in downtown Glen Cove .
Groundbreaking ceremonies were held on August 21, 1983 and on February 10, 1985 our new synagogue building was dedicated during a most memorable ceremony. Rabbi Kotok, president Joseph Saxl, immediate past president Wally Green and other Temple officers lead a procession of congregants and their families through the snow-covered streets of Glen Cove to our new home. The procession walked past St. Paul’s Church, where it picked up the children of our religious school who had been attending classes there, and moved on to Congregation Tifereth Israel, where we reclaimed our Torah scrolls and continued on to the new building. Five days later, the first Shabbat service was held in the new sanctuary, and our building was formally dedicated in May. At that time, we added Ner Tamid (“Eternal Light”) as our Hebrew name, and the congregation was then to be known as North Country Reform Temple-Ner Tamid . Rabbi Kotok continued as our spiritual leader until 1996, when he accepted a position with a synagogue in Rochester, New York.
In the years since our beginning, the men and women of our congregation have worked together setting goals, sharing responsibilities, and attending services side by side. We have had a very active Sisterhood and Men’s Club. We have had a number of female Temple presidents and several female cantors. And in September 1996, we welcomed Rabbi Janet Liss to lead our congregation. She begins a new era in the twentieth century of Reform Judaism.
Acknowledgments from the NCRT Temple History Committee and Many thanks to those who contributed to this project.
FOUNDING MEMEBERS
Our founding members (those who signed the contract that established North Country Reform Temple ) were:
Lester Barth
Kalman Macklin
Herman Meltzer
Paul Ressler
Al Silver
Bernard Steinberg
Leon Stier
Charter members: includes the seven above founding members, and:
Robert and Dorothy Flicker Asch
George and Debbie Brown
Arthur and Rhoda Finer
Monroe Fink
Jerry and Bernice Levy
Charles and Rae Litchman
Jack and Norma Tayne
Sid and Adele Trause
Joe and Harriet Unger
Ray and Selmajean Zurer
PAST PRESIDENTS
North Country Reform Temple Presidents :
(All terms begin June 1, and are for two years unless * is shown)
1956 Kal Macklin
1958 Lester Barth
1959 Herman Meltzer*
1960 Louis Segall
1962 Sidney Rothstein
1964 Jack Tayne
1966 Erwin Schaeffer
1968 Bert Freiwirth
1970 Arthur Finer
1972 Joseph Unger
1974 Bernard Sloane
1976 Cal Greenbaum
1978 Sue Cort
1980 Harold Berkowitz
1982 Wally Green
1984 Joseph Saxl
1986 Joel Siskind
1988 Susan Bruckman
1990 Norman Russakoff
1992 Lois Molin
1994 Donald Brown
1996 John Schwartzman
1998 Steve Frome
2000 Michael Kotkin
2002 Skip LeBlang
2004 Mary George
2006 Lee Launer
2008 Paula Frome
2010 Kathy Nadel
2012 Peggy FitzGerald
North Country Reform Temple Sisterhood Presidents:
(The term of office is from June 1st to June 1st of the following year.)
1956-57 Florence Cohen
1957-59 Edith Goldberg
1959-60 Shirley Silver
1960-62 Charlotte Abelson
1962-63 Sylvia Svonkin
1963-65 Harriet Steinberg
1965-67 Eve Krolick
1967-69 Sue Cort
1969-70 Natalie Kushell
1970-72 Barbara Richer
1972-74 Edith Grant
1974-76 Fran Belasco
1976-77 Sylvia Svonkin
1977-78 Charlotte Abelson
1978-80 Emily Gibbs
1980-82 Michelle Siskind
1982-84 Lenore Sotsky
1984-86 Rita Linchitz
1986-88 Leta Medina/Paula Frome
1988-90 Amy Tabor
1990-92 Susan Bloomfield
1992-93 Amy Tabor
1993-96 Lori Kotkin
2010-11 Ilana Schenk
2011-13 Alissa Woska
