On New Year’s Eve in 1885, the people of Mt. Vernon, Indiana, gathered in such numbers that many had to be turned away at the door of a newly opened synagogue. The small Jewish community — barely 30 families — dedicated its modest house of worship after years of holding services in borrowed spaces: a schoolhouse, the Masonic Hall, the German Lutheran Church.
That night, the town joined together and celebrated. Christians, elected officials, Jews and visiting clergy packed the sanctuary until there wasn’t even standing room. One speaker, Manuel Cronbach, rose to address the crowd. “In the synagogue we are Jews,” he said. “In the church you are Christians — but in our homes we are friends… and in America, the land of religious freedom and toleration, we are fellow countrymen.”
That moment was not unique. Across Indiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, synagogue dedications were often civic events. They brought together entire communities — Jews and non-Jews alike — to mark the visible presence of Jewish life as something to be welcomed and celebrated.
In 1867, Lafayette’s Jewish congregation dedicated a new synagogue with music from a choir of synagogue members and a local German social club. Rabbi Isaac M. Wise, the founder of American Reform Judaism, told the assembled crowd that Israel’s messianic hope was being realized through justice, liberty, and shared public life in America.
In 1902, when the Sons of Israel synagogue was dedicated in South Bend, 500 residents lined the street to watch two Torahs carried in a decorated carriage, while American flags and red, white, and blue bunting adorned the new building. The congregation — just 22 members, many of them recent immigrants — raised the funds themselves. Non-Jews were also asked to support the effort, and Mayor Schuyler Colfax III spoke at the cornerstone ceremony the year prior. Two years later, in 1904, Indianapolis Mayor John Holtzman took part in the dedication of the United Hebrew Congregation’s new building at Madison Avenue and Union Street.
This tradition endured. Decades later, it resurfaced in Valparaiso. After a fire destroyed Temple Israel in 1985, a nearby Catholic church, St. Paul’s opened its doors, allowing the congregation to worship in their parish hall until a new synagogue was built. When that new building was dedicated in 1986, both the mayor and Monsignor John Charlebois took part in the ceremony.
These aren’t isolated stories; they’re part of a larger pattern in Indiana history — a pattern of interfaith welcome, civic dignity and shared celebration of religious freedom.
This legacy feels especially urgent now. According to the Anti-Defamation League, antisemitic incidents in Indiana rose by more than 700% between 2020 and 2024. Indiana now ranks 12th nationally for incidents reported at Jewish institutions, despite Jews making up just 0.4% of the state’s population. From bomb threats and vandalism to public harassment, the landscape for Jewish life in Indiana feels more fragile than it once did.
But Indiana hasn’t always been this way.
In 1885, Cronbach’s dedication speech in Mt. Vernon didn’t just welcome Jews into a building — it welcomed non-Jews into a shared civic vision. “We want you to become better acquainted with us,” he said, “to learn our manners and customs, visit our synagogue … though we differ ever so widely on doctrinal points, we are striving for the same results, hoping for the same heaven.”
That invitation still stands. These earlier generations knew something that can’t be forgotten: pluralism isn’t a threat to civic life — it’s the foundation of it. And welcoming minority faith traditions into the public square doesn’t diminish anyone’s beliefs. It strengthens the fabric of the whole community.
What does it look like for Hoosiers today to live this ethic? What would it mean for cities and towns to once again show up — not only in times of crisis, but in moments of celebration and solidarity?
Indiana’s past reminds us that we don’t have to choose between difference and unity. We’ve done this before. And we can choose it again.
Austin Reid Albanese is a writer and historian whose work has appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Jerusalem Post and other publications.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Amid today’s rising antisemitism, Indiana’s history offers a different vision | Opinion
Reporting by Austin Reid Albanese / South Bend Tribune
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