Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, abbreviated as KI, is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue located at 8339 Old York Road, Elkins Park, just outside the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Founded in Philadelphia in 1847, it is the sixth oldest Reform congregation in the United States, and, by 1900, it was one of the largest Reform congregations in the United States. The synagogue was at a number of locations in the city before building a large structure on North Broad Street in 1891, until 1956 when it moved north of the city to suburban Elkins Park.
The congregation has been led by eight rabbis since its first rabbi commenced in 1861 – and most have been prominent both in the Reform Jewish movement and in other areas of American culture. Rabbi David Einhorn was the most prominent Jewish opponent of slavery when the Civil War began, and from that point on KI was known as the "Abolitionist Temple." Its third rabbi, Joseph Krauskopf was the founder of the Delaware Valley University and was a friend of President Theodore Roosevelt. The fifth rabbi, Bertram Korn was the author of the leading book on Jewish participation in the American Civil War, served as chaplain in the Naval Reserves, and was the first Jewish Chaplain to achieve the rank of a Flag officer in any of the armed forces, when he became a Rear Admiral in 1975. The sixth rabbi, Simeon Maslin served as president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis from 1995 to 1997. The current rabbi, Dr Lance Sussman is an historian and the author of numerous books on American Jewish history.
Prominent members of the congregation include Judges Arlin Adams, Edward R. Becker, Jan E. DuBois, and Horace Stern, members of the Gimbel family, and businessmen Lessing Rosenwald, William S. Paley, Simon Guggenheim, and Walter Hubert Annenberg. Albert Einstein accepted an honorary membership in 1934.
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