Communal Building

1913-1954

Indianapolis’ Jewish Community has comprised approximately one percent of the city’s population since the arrival of the first Jewish immigrants to the capital. Immigration came in distinct waves over time with representation coming from people of different national origins. Cultural and religious practices were different for Jews of different national origin.

The first Jewish immigrants in Indianapolis appear to have come from Poland and Germany in the late 1840s. Over the next thirty years, the Jewish population grew to approximately 500 and established ethnic enclaves on the city’s near south and east sides. The close-knit German Jews shared great pride in their German heritage, an aspect they cultivated through synagogues, clubs, benevolent associations, a cemetery at South Meridian and Kelly streets, and a school.

Grainy newspaper image showing a multistory building. — *Communal Building, 1913* **Credit:** Indianapolis Star View Source

In 1875 the American Turners, another group of German immigrants (not of the Jewish faith) built a gymnasium called the Hoereth Athletic Club at 17 West Morris Street. The Turners used the facility as a turnverein until the Jewish Welfare Federation purchased the building for its Jewish social and educational activities after the organization outgrew its former base at the Nathan Morris House (1904-1913) in 1913. The building was dedicated as the Communal Building on October 19, 1913. Rabbi Morris Feuerlicht suggested the name to reflect that the building was for the whole Jewish community. The structure also housed the Jewish Community Center (JCC) which was established in 1914. The Jewish Federation built a log cabin at the site of the Communal Building, the Kahn Memorial Log Cabin, which served Boy Scout Troop No. 50 in 1915.

During this time the building was the site of many social and benevolent activities for those groups of Jews coming to the southside community from war-torn Europe. These new immigrants received help with naturalization, English language tutoring, and enrichment classes. Social functions such as weddings, bar mitzvahs, lectures, and parties took place at the building. The Communal Building had many innovative services as well. One of the first baby clinics, initially established at the Nathan Morris House, transferred to the Communal Building. Jewish dentist Philip Falender established one of the first dental clinics at the building on January 21, 1920.

The Communal Building, and the Nathan Morris House before it originally focused on helping immigrant and indigent Jews. However, by the mid-1920s that cohort began to prosper and acculturate. They moved to the north side of Indianapolis, no longer in need of the Communal Building’s services. With this move, the Jewish Federation re-evaluated its mission and goals.

A nurse stands in front of a newspaper covered table and demonstrates a procedure. Five young women stand around the nurse to observe the procedure.

Public health class at the Communal Building, ca. 1920s Credit: Indiana Historical Society View Source

A group of 11 young girls sit together in a small room. Each girl is working on a sewing project. An older woman watches the girl's progress from the back of the room.

Sewing class at the Communal Building, ca. 1920s Credit: Indiana Historical Society View Source

A group of children sit on the floor of a large open room. A woman sits in a chair in the middle of the children.

Story Hour at the Communal Building, ca. 1920s Credit: Indiana Historical Society View Source

A group of people sit in rows of chairs facing the front of a classroom.

Residents from the Sephardic community attend a citizenship class at the Communal building, ca. 1929 Credit: Indiana Jewish Historical Society Collection of the Indiana Historical Society View Source

Earlier in 1916, wealthy German Jew Raphael Kirschbaum bequeathed $60,000 to the Jewish Federation. In 1925 the Federation used the money to purchase the Indianapolis Club at 23rd and Meridian streets. After remodeling the building, it became the new community center for the northside Jewish population. Dubbed the Kirschbaum Center in November 1926, it offered similar services as the Communal Building but without philanthropy. While the Communal Building strove to uplift and Americanize the newly arrived Jews, the Kirschbaum Center aimed to fill leisure time constructively through physical activity and adult education courses for educated Jews. For many years the Jewish population had these two community centers serving both sides of Indianapolis.

The Jewish Community Center Association formed in 1926. It was an autonomous affiliate of the Jewish Federation that represented the new middle-class Jews. The organization oversaw the activities at the Communal Building and the Kirschbaum Center. The Federation appointed one quarter of the Association’s board members to retain some control.

During the years of the Depression, the New Deal Work Projects Administration (WPA) workers staffed the activities at the Communal Building and the Kirschbaum Center. Unemployed Jews used the services available at both centers which resulted in a brief spike in attendance. But by 1933 with only 25 percent of the city’s Jewish population living on the south side, the area was no longer the center of the Jewish Community, leaving the services of the Communal Building unused.

After years of neglect during World War II, the Communal Building and the Kirschbaum Center fell into disrepair. The Jewish Federation identified inadequacies in both buildings and discontinued programs at the Communal Building in 1946. At the same time the Communal Building was established as part of the Community Fund and the Council of Social Agencies. A year later Concord Community began leasing the building for $1 per year. By 1954 the building was renamed the Concord Community Center. The Concord Community purchased the building in 1958.

Further Reading