 Baith Israel hired Marcus Friedlander as rabbi in 1887 . Born in Congress Poland in 1862 , he left Russia for England before he was twenty . Though speaking little English at the time , he graduated there from the London Theological Seminary , before emigrating to the United States . He was 24 years old when he assumed the post at Baith Israel , at the time the youngest man in New York state to be appointed to so significant a position of Jewish leadership . Friedlander served until 1893 , when he resigned to take a more lucrative position in California at the First Hebrew Congregation of Oakland . After Friedlander left , his name was , for reasons unknown , deleted from the synagogue histories , and the financial records and minute books dating from his tenure were removed from Baith Israel 's archives . He was succeeded by Joseph Taubenhaus , the brother of Dr. Gottheil / Godfrey Taubenhaus , the rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim ; another brother , Jacob / Jean Taubenhaus was a famous French chess master . 
