[16] The synagogue name was chosen by a vote of the membership, and the services were led by George Brandenstein, who served as cantor, and was paid $150 (today $5,100) a year.

Younger members of the congregation found no specific fault with Brandenstein, but wanted "a change", and succeeded in dismissing him and electing an entirely new board of officers.

[29] Though this attempt also failed, in the following year the three congregations carried out combined activities, including a picnic and a celebration of the 100th birthday of Moses Montefiore.

[34] Sparger was Hungarian by birth, a graduate of the Prince Rudolph University of Vienna, and, according to a contemporary New York Times article, "belong[ed] to the extreme liberal school of Hebrew theology".

[35] Though more seats had been added to the synagogue by narrowing the aisles,[2] as a result of Sparger's innovations Beth Elohim outgrew its Pearl Street building, and a new one was sought.

[35] After a three-year search, in 1885 Beth Elohim purchased the building of the Congregational Church at 305 State Street (near Hoyt) for $28,000 (today $950,000), and moved in that year.

[18] By the turn of the twentieth century English had replaced German in the services and official minutes, and the second days of holidays eliminated.

Plans were made to erect a new synagogue building there with a sanctuary seating 1,500 people, at an anticipated cost of $100,000 (today $3.4 million).

[14] Designed in the Classical Revival style,[14] this "monumental example"[47] of "austere neo-Classical grandeur"[48] had five sides, representing the five books of Moses,[14] a sanctuary that ultimately sat 1,200,[4] and was capped by a saucer dome.

The basement held classrooms, an auditorium, and administrative offices, and behind the Torah ark was a combination Rabbi's study/Board meeting room.

[49] 1909 was also the year Judah Leon Magnes proposed and founded his Kehilla, a "comprehensive communal organization for the Jews of New York", which operated until 1922.

"[54] The doorway and balcony at the east end of the building had "a distinctly Moorish flavor, featuring symbolic ornament: the Star of David, the Menorah, and the Lion of Judah.

He worked with Bishop David Greer and Rabbi Stephen Wise to expose conditions in New York's tenements,[58] dissociated himself from Tammany Hall candidates,[59] tried to secure a re-trial for Leo Frank,[60] and opposed some of the views of Samuel Gompers.

[71] During the Great Depression synagogue membership decreased significantly; experiencing financial difficulties,[2] the congregation stopped paying its mortgage.

Speaking to a mixed black–Jewish audience at the church, Lyons informed the listeners that he was planning to attend the second Joe Louis versus Max Schmeling boxing match in order to protest Adolf Hitler's "view that a bout between a German and a Negro was improper".

Lyons denounced the Nazi racial ideas, which he noted discriminated against blacks as well as Jews, and encouraged the audience to boycott all German-made goods until "Hitler comes to his senses".

[10] After his death, the Central Conference of American Rabbis described Lyons as the "dean of the Brooklyn rabbinate from the point of view of service".

[74] The synagogue's fortunes improved in the 1940s, but in 1946, its bank threatened to foreclose on its buildings, in anticipation of their sale to the local Catholic diocese,[2] as the congregation had not paid the mortgage in many years.

[10] The congregation succeeded in convincing the bank to re-negotiate its mortgage,[2] and reduce the outstanding loan, and Max Koeppel led a drive to pay it off completely.

[10] While serving as assistant rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Shalom of Philadelphia, Sack had been instrumental in the founding of the Reform movement's National Federation of Temple Youth in 1939,[76] and had presented a paper at its first biennial convention.

[77] Starting in 1943 he spent 18 months in the Pacific Theater of Operations of World War II as an army chaplain; at one point he had to substitute peach juice for Passover wine.

[80] They planned "for a meeting of non-Zionist Reform Rabbis to discuss the problems that confront Judaism and Jews in the world emergency", to be held in Atlantic City.

At this time the origins of the membership began to change, as Jews of Eastern European descent started joining the congregation.

The members, however, created one of the earliest nursery schools in the neighborhood, which, along with the Brownstone Revival movement in Park Slope, helped draw Jewish families back into the temple and revitalize the membership.

A native of Vineland, New Jersey, and 1999 graduate of Hebrew Union College, she had previously served as cantor of Temple Avodah in Oceanside, New York.

The nearby Old First Reformed Church—with which Beth Elohim had had close ties since the 1930s—offered its premises for the holiday (Sunday night and Monday), and accommodated over 1000 worshipers.

[1] Bachman, a graduate of University of Wisconsin–Madison with a 1996 rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College, became Beth Elohim's first new senior rabbi in 25 years on October 25, 2006.

[101] Epstein, born in the Bronx and raised in New Milford, Connecticut, attended Wesleyan University and Hebrew Union College, and served as the coordinator of the Institute for Reform Zionism.

[103] Barrington Rhode Island native Marc Katz graduated from Tufts University and studied at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem before becoming Beth Elohim's rabbinic intern in 2009.

[104] In June 2015, Andy Bachman departed to join the 92nd Street Y as the Director of Jewish Content and Community Ritual, and in addition, he founded "Water Over Rocks," a non-profit dedicated to memory and civic responsibility.