 In the congregation 's early years , tensions existed between traditionalists and reformers , and in 1861 , 41 of the latter left Baith Israel to form the Congregation Beth Elohim , a Reform synagogue . That year Baith Israel hired the Reverend Joel Alexander as its religious leader . Alexander , the synagogue 's first full @-@ time rabbi , was a graduate of the Jews Seminary in Münster , and had been ordained both in Posen and by Hermann Adler , the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom . 
