Iconic Williamsburg: Rabbi Kalman Solomon

Rabbi Kalman Solomon founded Ahavas Sholom Beis Aaron at 98 Scholes Street back in the late 1800’s, and it turns out that Rabbi Solomon led quite a life in old Williamsburg, including triumphs and tragedies, as he led the Shul at 98 Scholes for close to four decades, and finally retiring to Crown Heights, which was then the new neighborhood. 

Pioneering Spirit

Rav Kalman was born in Russia in the year 1859. His parents were R’ Avrohom Yitzchok and Miriam Solomon. Not much is known about his childhood, but he married Annie Sturm of Austria. 

He arrived in the United States with his wife and five children in the spring of 1889, and immediately settled on Graham Avenue, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. A mere three years after his arrival here, he began organizing his first shul, where he also served as the cantor. Thus began his rabbinic career in America, and he would proceed to head congregations in Brooklyn for half a century. 

The wedding of the Rabbi’s daughter Bertha took place at the shul around the year 1910, as we read: “Surrounded by numerous relatives and friends, the wedding ceremony of Miss Bertha Solomon, the daughter of the Rev. Dr. and Mrs. K. Solomon to Leon Jacobs was performed last evening. The ceremony took place at the synagogue, 98 Scholes Street, of which the bride’s father has been the rabbi for upward of fifteen year, and was performed by Rev. Dr. Ph. Jaches  of Manhattan. 

The Rabbi also suffered twin tragedies, with the passing of a daughter and son at an early age during his lifetime. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on June 18, 1924: “Nathan M. Solomon, 38 years old, died yesterday morning of complication of diseases after an illness of two weeks. The funeral services were held today at 1 o’clock at 289 New York Avenue. His daughter, Florence, died in 1930 at the age of 31, and his wife was nifteres in the year 1926 

The Jewish Hospital 

Rabbi Solomon was a pioneer—both in Williamsburg, where he founded a congregation at a very early point, and when he sold Ahavas Sholom Beis Aaaron around 1931, he moved to Crown Heights, where the Jewish community was first being established. In Crown Heights, he Solomon’s resided at 374 Eastern Parkway, and Rabbi Solomon served as the rov of Temple Isaac on Crown Street. 

A possible draw for Rabbi Solomon to Crown Heights may have been his appointment as a chaplain at The Jewish hospital. Located at the corner of Classon Avenue and Prospect Place, the hospital was yet another charitable endeavor of wealthy New York Jews who founded many hospitals in that era. 

And when Rosh Hashanah was being observed in the year 1934, the Standard Union wrote, “1,000,000 Boro-Queens Jews to mark New Year at Sundown… Services in the Jewish Hospital will be conducted by the Rev. Kalman Solomon, assisted by Rabbi L.S. Essex on the second floor of the main building.”  

Rabbi Solomon’s service to the hospital was valuable enough that its chapel was dedicated in his memory. Thus, we read in the Brooklyn Eagle, Dewey to Autograph Jewish Hospital Mural. “Governor Dewey will autograph a 16-panel mural on the pediatrics floor of the Jewish Hospital during a visit to the hospital Tuesday… the Governor will tour the hospital, the research laboratory, and the Rabbi Kalman Solomon chapel on the second floor of the institution starting at 3:00 p.m.

Passing

Upon his passing in October of 1937, the New York Times wrote: “Rabbi Kalman Solomon of Congregation Temple Isaac, 554 Prospect Place, Brooklyn, died yesterday of a heart ailment in his home at 374 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, at the age of 78. He founded in 1893 and was Rabbi for thirty years of Congregation Ahawath Sholem Beth Aaron in Williamsburg. He had officiated at holiday services for the sick at the Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn. 

Rabbi Solomon was interred in Bayside Cemetery in Queens, and his humble stone reads, here lies Kalman ben Avrohom Yitzchok, a lasting monument to a pioneer of Brooklyn Jewry for half a century.