Faith in Beauty and Progress: Temple Beth El

In the 1920s Harrisburg's acculturated Reform and Conservative Jews found in City Beautiful aesthetics and ideals the architecture and ideology appropriate for expressing publicly their cultural identity as thoroughly modern Americans and Jews. Temple Beth El and Temple Ohev Sholom, both built on Front Street in uptown Harrisburg, stand as the ultimate material outcome and testimony to the synergistic interweaving of early twentieth century American and Jewish progressivism. A book commemorating Temple Beth El's 1928 dedication, produced by J. Horace McFarland's Mount Pleasant Press in 1930, documents in word and image connections between the founding of the congregation, the building of its temple, and the sensibilities and goals of the City Beautiful movement.