HNT HISTORY ARCHIVES
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DECADE 1
Dreams and Actions Mark the First Decade

"Dream and action are not so far apart as it is often thought," wrote Theodore Herzl in the epilogue of Aultneuland—Old New Land, a novel about what Palestine might become in Jewish hands. Herzl, founder of the World Zionist Organization and namesake of our synagogue, was an assimilated Jew, a Viennese journalist whose life changed because of anti-Semitism. By the time he died in 1904, at age 44, he was a political Zionist. In the US and Britain other significant changes were taking place. In 1902 Solomon Schechter came from England to head the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Conservative Judaism's rabbinical seminary in New York. In 1907, Britain took the Sinai.

The dreams of the founders of Herzl Congregation culminated in action when they signed incorporation papers in the Autumn of 1906. Back then, Sephardic Orthodox ritual was used for services and Ezra Fislerman was elected first congregation president. In 1907, Herzl Cemetery was incorporated and in 1909, the congregation purchased cemetery property at 156th and Dayton Avenue North in Seattle. According to Johnny Cohn, whose father and grandfather selected the cemetery property, horse-drawn carriages were used to travel the 13.5 miles from the synagogue to the cemetery for funerals.

The cornerstone of Herzl's first synagogue was laid at 16th Avenue and East Fir in Seattle. Founder Wolf Warshal's daughter Freddie Meyers (a current member of HNT) remembers the small white building. The first High Holy Day services were held there in 1911 but the first rabbi, Rabbi Ludwig Brooks, began officiating in 1909 in members' homes. He was followed by Rabbi Samuel Friedman in 1914. After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Austro-Hungary attacked Serbia and World War I began. In 1915, the Congregation President was Sam Mosler and the Ladies Auxiliary (later Sisterhood, now Women's League) held a congregation bazaar to help pay off the mortgage. By 1916, Freddie was six. She recalls Sukkot candy, saying "Succos was always a big party." And so we end the first decade with sweet celebration and the promise of our founders: "As long as there is one Jew, there will be a Herzl."