In 1907, Teddy Roosevelt was President, George Bernard Shaw, Houdini and the Ziegfeld Follies dominated the theater, Oklahoma became the 48th state, John Wayne and Barbara Stanwick were born, music was broadcast on radio for the first time, and Congregation Ezrath Israel was founded in Ellenville.

Today, the Congregation is led by Rabbi Moshe Frank, who holds a Master's Degree in Classical Jewish History from the Bernard Revel Graduate School at Yeshiva University.

"Ask your elders," Rabbi Frank told the Congregation, alluding to the importance of the Torah in the keeping alive of tradition and history. "We are the living Jewish cornerstone of the community."

Congregation Ezrath Israel has been celebrating their Centennial this year, culminating last Sunday, with the completion of a new Sefer Torah, the first commissioned and paid for by the Congregation.

"It's amazing in outline and form," said Moshe Greenblatt as he watched Scribe/Sofer Rabbi Schmuel Scneid, of Muncie, NY, hand ink the new Torah's final five letters, which translate to "Israel."

A Sefer Torah is a specially hand-written copy of the holiest book within Judaism and venerated by Jews. It is used in the ritual of Torah reading during Jewish services.

“The Scribe must wash his hands each time he writes the word 'God'. I knew an old man who worked in what I call a Scriptatorium, who could recognize the Scribe by looking at the letters,” recalled Greenblatt, one of approximately sixty Congregation members and other participants, some of whom traveled more than 250 miles to attend the ceremony.

The last letter of the Torah was bought by Rabbi Frank's daughter for 36 dollars, but she was too shy to come up to witness the scribe. After the last letter was written by Rabbi Scneid, visiting scholars and members danced in a circle and the entire room clapped to "Hamalach Hagoel ("The angel who redeems me from evil") played by Cantor Scholmo Bamberger.

The shul's new president, David Buchman, called the celebration "a historic moment" and "awe inspiring," as he suggested the founders would be happy to see their work continuing a century later.

Curious on-lookers stepped out from their homes to watch as members led a procession out of the synagogue, down Center Street, around the block down Route 209 and back up Warren Street, and ending at Rabbi Herman Eisner Square.

The Square was named after Czechoslovakia-born Herman Eisner, an Auschwitz concentration camp survivor, who became Rabbi of Congregation Ezrath Israel on May 5, 1949. Under his leadership, a new synagogue was built in 1972.

The Centennial celebration concluded with dinner and speeches by Republican State Senator John J. Bonacic, a long-time synagogue member, and New York State Assembly member Kevin Cahill (D-Ulster, Dutchess).

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