Temple Israel is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 3100 East Broad Street, in Columbus, Ohio, in the United States.

[3] Jerome Folkman started his tenure as the synagogue's longest-serving rabbi in 1947,[8] and the congregation moved to its current location in 1959,[3] a building designed by architect Percival Goodman.

[1] Temple Israel was formed as early as 1846[4] by eleven families[9] of Jews of German background as Bene Jeshurun,[10] the first and oldest Jewish congregation in Columbus.

Lazarus, who had received rabbinical training in Berlin, served as a rabbi, without pay, and services were initially held in an upstairs room in his store.

[3][7][11] By 1868, many members wished to reform the services, and a majority (19 families, including all the remaining original founders) left Bene Jeshurun to form "B'nai Israel".

That year the congregation hired its first full-time rabbi, Judah Wechsler, and erected its first building, at the corner of Friend and Third Streets.

It adopted the Minhag America prayer-book, with prayers in English instead of Hebrew, added choir music (including non-Jewish choir members) to the service, adopted mixed seating (men and women together), insisted that sermons be given in English and German,[7] The congregation also did away with the second day of the three Pilgrimage Festivals and the New Year, and allowed men to pray without wearing head coverings.

[14] Nevertheless, for a time, they kept some traditional practices and views; they "continued to employ a ritual slaughterer",[15] and, in 1872, the synagogue board demanded that officials "put a stop to" Christian songs in public schools.

Though he made no changes to ritual, he did re-introduce some traditional elements to the service: he wore a tallit in the pulpit, and put silver ornaments on the Torah scrolls.

During his tenure, a number of families who took issue with Kiner's leadership left Temple Israel, and formed Beth Shalom Congregation.

[23] Bleefeld, a graduate of the University of Cincinnati, had been ordained at HUC in 1975,[25] and had served as Temple Israel's assistant rabbi from 1975 to 1977.

He also supported the homeless, convincing congregants to use synagogue facilities to house them, and participate in food distribution programs.

[23] Nemitoff had been ordained at HUC in 1981, and had served in pulpits in Houston, Philadelphia, and Boston before coming to Temple Israel.

[3] Nemitoff would serve through 2003, before becoming Senior Rabbi at Kansas City's Temple B'nai Jehudah, where he had been a congregant as a teen.

A graduate of Occidental College, he had been ordained at HUC in 1985, and had previously served at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco, California, Mount Zion Temple in St. Paul, Minnesota and as a Hillel rabbi at Ohio State University.