[Beth-El Congregation's Second Synagogue]

Photograph of the second synagogue of Beth-El Congregation, Fort Worth's Reform Jewish house of worship. The photo appears to have been taken in 1948 after the temple was refurbished due to a 1946 fire that gutted the interior. The red-brick building, at 207 W. Broadway Ave., has two-stories plus a basement with a social hall and kitchen. The building's facade has a frieze above the entry with a quote from Psalms ("Give Ear, O Lord, Unto My Prayer") as well as two menorahs above the frieze. There are also stained-glass windows around the entrance and along the length of the building. A handwritten note on the back of the photo says, "Exterior 2nd Temple. 207 W. Broadway."
Date: 1948
Creator: J. Allison
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Floating Star, Interior of Beth-El Congregation Sanctuary]

Photograph of the floating star which was suspended from the ceiling as part of the interior design of the sanctuary when Beth-El was rebuilt in 1948 after the 1946 fire. The interior designer was the Hungarian-American architect Erno Fabry.
Date: 1948
Creator: Joe Weisberg
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

["Presentation," party for Jewish Debutantes]

Photograph of the "Presentation" party for Jewish Debutantes of 1949 at the Beth-El Congregation's social hall at 207 W. Broadway in Fort Worth. The women are arranged in a curve away from the photographer and are holding bouquets of flowers and wearing formal ball gowns. The women from left to right: Charlotte Sue Louis (Alterman), Ruth Hendelman (Berkowitz), Marilyn Caughy (Raff), Harriet Friedson, Sara Kantrovich (Carr), Katherine Spiegel, Bessie Rutlader (Gaines), Rhoda Cohen (Schultz), Mary Sankary (Herman), Ellen Sankary (Smith), Idelle Engelberg (Luskey), Margie Weisblatt (Goone), Adele Nathan (Friedman).
Date: 1949
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History
[In Memoriam] (open access)

[In Memoriam]

Wolf & Klar Jewelers' 163 employees signed a certificate giving a Torah to the Beth-El Congregation in 1947 in memory of company founder Alex Wolf. The synagogue, at 207 W. Broadway, was gutted in a 1946 fire and lost most of its Torahs. A photograph of Alex Wolf is in the upper-left corner and a Wolf & Klar Jewelers' logo which says "In Memoriam" is in the lower-right corner. The text at the top of the certificate says: "In loving memory and respect for our beloved founder, Mr. Alex Wolf, we the employees of Wolf & Klar Companies, dedicate this torah to Beth El congregation, as a memorial to his love and kindness of his fellow men."
Date: 1947
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Congregation Ahavath Sholom Confirmation Class, 1949]

Photograph of the 1949 confirmation class of at Congregation Ahavath Sholom. There are four girls in white dresses, holding bouquets and standing in a line. One boy stands at the center in the front row in a dark suit and tie. The teachers, Helen Levenson and Charlotte Siegel, and Rabbi Charles Blumenthal and Rabbi Isadore Garsek are standing behind them. The group is posed on the bimah (altar) at the synagogue. The students are Sandra Zaetler, Pearl Katz, David Rubin, Barbara Walensky, and Lillian Sankary.
Date: May 29, 1949
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[1940 Ahavath Sholom Confirmation Class]

Photograph of the 1940 Ahavath Sholom confirmation class standing around the altar of the synagogue located downtown on Taylor Street in Fort Worth, Texas. From left to right, the members of the photograph are: Front row: Bertha Haller, Gloria Sheinberg (Swann). Back row: Rabbi Philip Graubart, Margie Cohen (Levingston), Dorothy Bergman, Jennie Moses (Winkler)(teacher), Dorothy Cohen, Shirley Garston (Cohen), Annie Kaplan, Betty Daiches (Sher).
Date: 1940
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

AZA Banquet

Photograph of an Aleph Zadik Aleph (AZA) Banquet in the ballroom of Fort Worth's Hebrew Institute in the 800 block Taylor Street. The banquet room contains a stage and a piano in the background of the photograph. Members are seated at long tables. From left to right, the members of the photograph are: Cooks (back left, standing): Joe Zenick, Manny Solomon, P.D. Mallin, Sidney Cohen, "Uncle" Lou Cohen. Head Banquet Table (along the stage in the back, to the right of the cooks): Mary Frances Ginsberg, Robert Lidell, Ann Lidell, Rabbi Isadore Garsek, Sadye Mae Garsek, Rabbi Prero, R.D. Moses, Idelle Engelberg, Reuben Daiches, Mrs. Reuben Daiches, Mickey Goldman, Charlotte Max Goldman, unidentified, Adelene Zeff. Members seated at the foreground tables are listed from bottom right to back left. Table 1, row 1: Hy Glickman, Rose Glickman, Ada Robinson, M.Y. Robinson, Mr. Schwartz, Mrs. Schwartz, Mary Sankary, Ann Cohen, Ben Cohen, Selma Tiras, Miss Sankary, unidentified woman, Max Gilbert. Table 1, row 2: Goldie Tills, Joe Tills, Mrs. Kruger, Mr. Kruger, Herb Berkowitz, Adele Natkin, Sue Louis, Gloria Holtzman, Herbert Cooles, Mr. Gilbert, Charlie Levinson, Sam Anton, Bess Levinson, Sarah Anton. Table 2, row 1: Joe Siegel, Leon Tiras, Joe …
Date: March 11, 1947
Creator: Photographic Engineers
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History
[George Marshall's Sympathy Card] (open access)

[George Marshall's Sympathy Card]

A letter from General George C. Marshall, the United States Army Chief of Staff, expressing his condolences for the death of an unidentified soldier. The text reads: "General Marshall extends his deep sympathy in your bereavement. Your son fought valiantly in a supreme hour of his country's need. His memory will live in the grateful heart of our nation."
Date: 1945
Creator: Marshall, George C. (George Catlett), 1880-1959
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Portrait of Harold Gilbert]

Photograph of Private 1st Class Harold Gilbert, a soldier from Fort Worth, Texas. In this portrait, he is pictured from the chest up, wearing his uniform and beret. Gilbert was killed en route from England to France in 1944, when his troopship was torpedoed by the Germans in the English Channel. Fort Worth's Rubin-Gilbert AZA chapter (the B'nai B'rith youth group for boys) is named after him and Lt. Alvin Rubin, who also died in the war.
Date: 1944
Creator: W. C. Stripling Company
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History
[Western Union Telegram] (open access)

[Western Union Telegram]

Photostat of a telegram from the United States Secretary of War to Mrs. Rose H. Gilbert, expressing his condolences for the death of her son, Private Harold Gilbert.
Date: January 14, 1945
Creator: United States Secretary of War & Dunlop
Object Type: Letter
System: The Portal to Texas History
[Letter to Gilbert Family] (open access)

[Letter to Gilbert Family]

Photostatic copy of a typed letter from the United States Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, to Max Gilbert. The letter awards Gilbert's son, Harold Gilbert with a Purple Heart for his service, and it expresses Stimson's condolences for the death of Harold Gilbert.
Date: February 13, 1945
Creator: Stimson, Henry L. (Henry Lewis), 1867-1950
Object Type: Letter
System: The Portal to Texas History
[Letter to Gilbert Family] (open access)

[Letter to Gilbert Family]

Two photostat copies of a typed letter from William J. Voelker Jr. to Mrs. Max Gilbert, mother of Private Harold Gilbert. The letter describes the attack that killed Harold Gilbert, and discusses the details of Gilbert's burial in Normandy, France on on Dec. 27, 1944.
Date: April 30, 1945
Creator: Voelker, William J., Jr.
Object Type: Letter
System: The Portal to Texas History
[Letter from Harry Goldstein] (open access)

[Letter from Harry Goldstein]

Typed letter to the family of Private Harold Gilbert from a fellow soldier named Harry Goldstein, sent from Marseilles. The letter describes the sinking of a troop transport ship, Dec. 25, 1944, in which in which Gilbert was killed.
Date: August 9, 1945
Creator: Goldstein, Harry
Object Type: Letter
System: The Portal to Texas History
[Letter to a Gold Star Mother] (open access)

[Letter to a Gold Star Mother]

Typed letter from Amon Carter and his son, Amon Carter Jr. to "a Gold Star Mother." Gold Star Mothers is a support organization formed for mothers who lost a son or daughter in World War II. The letter expresses condolences and comfort to Rose Gilbert and was accompanied by a gift basket of grapefruits, as noted in the letter.
Date: December 22, 1947
Creator: Carter, Amon Giles, 1879-1955 & Carter, Amon G., Jr.
Object Type: Letter
System: The Portal to Texas History
[Memorial Service Flyer] (open access)

[Memorial Service Flyer]

Flyer announcing a community memorial service to be held at the Ahavath Sholom Synagogue in Fort Worth, Texas. The memorial service was in memory of local soldiers "fallen in battle," and was officiated by Rabbi Samuel Soskin and Rabbi Charles Blumenthal. The soldiers remembered were: Richard Burt, Harold Gilbert, Alvin Rubin and Walter C. Sanders.
Date: 1946
Creator: B'nai B'rith Lodge
Object Type: Pamphlet
System: The Portal to Texas History
[Ladies Cemetery Society Minutes] (open access)

[Ladies Cemetery Society Minutes]

Handwritten minutes for the Ladies Cemetery Society commenting on the death of Private Harold Gilbert, the son of the society's recording secretary, Rose Gilbert. The text notes: “The absence of the secretary ...who had the misfortune of losing her son, Harold, Dec. 25, 1944, in the European Theater of the war, made the meeting a sad one; each and every one of the members present were in tears.” On the second page of the minutes, the group’s long-time president Mrs. Becky Goldstein recalls how she and Mrs. Gilbert used to “go out to collect dues at 25 cents each. Mrs. Gilbert furnished the horse and buggy.”
Date: January 16, 1945
Creator: Mehl, Mrs. I. N.
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Young Judea Convention]

Photograph of the members of Young Judea, a Jewish youth organization in Fort Worth, Texas. The organization held a regional conclave at the Ahavath Sholom Synagogue, where over one hundred members and group advisors posed, on the front steps in the 800 block Taylor Street, for the photograph. Many people in the photograph are unidentified. From left to right, bottom to top, here is a key to the known members: Row 1 (kneeling): Sylvia Wexler, Stanley Raskin (wearing a hat), Adele Natkin (wearing a white jacket). Row 2: Rabbi Samuel Soskin, Rabbi Philip Graubert, Cantor Israel Ashery, Ann Friedson (wearing a hat with flowers), Sally Kruger (heavy-set woman in the middle of the row), Israel N. Mehl (fourth from the right). Row 3: Bobby Rosenthal (smiling and wearing hat), Harry Perlman (third from left), Leon Schwartz (middle of row, looking to his right and frowning), Irv Rovinsky (last boy in the row, wearing a coat and tie). Row 4: Shirley Levine (fourth from the left in the middle of the row), Morris Sankary (sixth from the left, tall boy with rimless glasses), Shirley Garsten (behind Morris Sankary and to the right, wearing a white collared shirt), Mr. Louis Cohen, advisor …
Date: 1940~
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Portrait of Alvin Rubin]

Photograph of Lieutenant Alvin Rubin, an Air Force pilot from Fort Worth, Texas. He is pictured from the chest up, wearing his uniform. Rubin was killed in an plane crash over Dakar, French Africa on March 15, 1944. A graduate of Paschal High, he was a past chapter president of AZA, the B'nai B'rith youth group for boys. Fort Worth's Rubin-Gilbert AZA chapter is named after him and Pvt. Harold Gilbert, who also died in the war.
Date: March 1944
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[1946 Ahavath Sholom Confirmation Class]

Photograph of the 1946 Ahavath Sholom confirmation class standing around the altar (called a bimah) of the synagogue located downtown in the 800 block of Taylor Street in Fort Worth, Texas. From left to right, the members of the photograph are: Front Row: Rabbi Charles Blumenthal. Middle Row: Bessie Rutlader, Roselle Cooles, Ruth Spigel, Mary Sankary, Ruth Hendelman, Marilyn Coughey, Margie Weisblatt, Pearl Sankary. Back Row: Marshall Hillman, Sammy Hoffman, Sherwin Rubin.
Date: June 1946
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History