Cincinnati Spotlight: Isaac M. Wise Temple

In August 1866, a new synagogue was dedicated in downtown Cincinnati at 720 Plum Street. Then named the Plum Street Temple, it is today known as the Isaac M. Wise Temple for the rabbi who built it, and is one of the oldest surviving synagogues in the United States.

Wise, the founder of Reform Judaism, sought to modernize the practices of the Jewish religion, instituting policies that included the addition of a choir and organ in the temple, shifted the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, did away with the need to cover one's head during prayer, and allowed men and women to attend services in the same space at the same time. Wise went on to found Cincinnati's Hebrew Union College, the first rabbinical school for Reform Judaism.

The temple building was designed by James Keyes Wilson and features a synagogue architectural style popular in nineteenth-century Germany that used elements of Byzantine and Moorish architecture. Today only one other synagogue in this style, located in New York, survives anywhere, due to Hitler's dedicated campaign of destroying synagogues throughout Germany and much of the rest of Europe.

As the temple's website describes, the building is an amalgamation of many different elements from different cultures: "the tall proportions, three pointed arched entrances, and rose window suggest a Gothic revival church; the crowning minarets hint of Islamic architecture; the motif's decorating the entrances, repeated in the rose window, and on the Torah Ark introduce a Moorish theme; the 14 bands of Hebrew texts surrounding the interior were selected by Rabbi Wise and were chosen primarily from the Book of Psalms." The building has gone through careful updates and renovations over the years, introducing electricity, repairing the organ, and preserving the original floors, pews, pulpit, and fixtures.

After Wise's death on March 26, 1900, the Temple voted to change its name to honor its founder. The Temple began to open a series of centers located in nearby buildings for various educational and charitable purposes, including the opening of a shelter for the homeless during the Great Depression, when it is estimated that more than 500 men slept at the Temple every night. The Temple was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.