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September 5, 2008
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1. Rabbi's Message
2. History of the Congregation
3. About Malden

A History of the Congregation Beth Israel, Malden

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Beth Israel Decline

But by the early 1960s, many of Malden's younger Jews had begun to leave for the suburbs of Swampscott, Marblehead, Peabody, Brookline and elsewhere. Beth Israel West suffered as a result of the decline in the Jewish population of Malden and never attracted the numbers it was meant to.

In the following years, the congregation was saddled with a large mortgage and a declining and aging membership from which to draw its revenue. An increasingly expensive older building on the east side of town and significant attrition in its membership left the congregation facing the next decade with difficulty and uncertainty.

The 1970s and early 1980s was an especially challenging period for the congregation financially. Changes at Beth Israel were inevitable, and the first came in 1976 with the retirement of its rabbi after 27 years at the pulpit.

As national president of the Rabbinical Council of America and a recognized religious Zionist leader, Rabbi Charles Weinberg had brought prestige and credibility to Malden's Jewish community. And now he was gone.