Unlike later immigrants, none of them were greeted by the Statue of Liberty. She didn't make an appearance until 1886.

The three men and their families eventually made their way to Chicago, where they first settled in a neighborhood that is now part of the Loop. The city's first Jewish shtetl, decades before the West Side took on those characteristics, the neighborhood replicated in many ways the small Jewish villages of Eastern Europe.

Sachs, Flaxman and Levine, however, were adventurers. They had shown their pioneer spirit when they left Russia and they showed it again in the early 1870s when they moved away from Chicago's Jewish ghetto and settled in a "frontier outpost" beyond the city limits. The neighborhood, near the Chicago Stockyards, is now known as Canaryville but was then the independent Town of Lake.

The pioneers and their families thrived there. Sachs became a grocer, Flaxman specialized in "gents' furnishings" and Levine and his wife operated a saloon. They also worshipped together in a storefront. Although they and the few other men who joined them couldn't afford a rabbi, they eventually gathered enough members for a minyan, and Solomon Levine provided a Torah that his family in Europe had sent him. By 1874 they had chosen a name for their congregation from the Book of Isaiah: "Rodfei Zedek," or "Pursuers of Righteousness."

Today Congregation Rodfei Zedek is celebrating its 130th anniversary. Of course, the congregation is no longer in Canaryville, which is now a Chicago neighborhood, and it is an egalitarian Conservative synagogue after its beginnings in the largely Orthodox tradition of the European shtetl.

But if Sachs, Flaxman and Levine were still around they might still recognize their pioneering spirit in the modern Rodfei Zedek. After weathering several moves and changing demographics that found most synagogues and Jewish institutions moving away from the South Side, the congregation today is, by all accounts, going strong and has in the last five years instituted a successful experiment with shared space and Jewish synergy.

Over its long history Rodfei Zedek has become known in the Chicago Jewish community and beyond for having illustrious rabbis with long tenure (only four in the last 87 years), for its many members from the University of Chicago community and the intellectual character they lend to the synagogue, and for its remarkable continuity -- grandchildren and great- grandchildren of members are celebrating their b'nai mitzvahs today, says Rabbi Elliot B. Gertel, its current spiritual leader. In addition the synagogue has produced several well-known rabbis, not to mention musical comedy star Mandy Patinkin, who grew up at there.

Although the synagogue remains a vital partner in the Jewish life of the Hyde Park community, loyal members who have moved to the North Side or the suburbs still return for services and special occasions. And five years ago, Rodfei Zedek consolidated its position in the community by replacing its old building with a new one and partnering with the Hyde Park Jewish Community Center, which is now located on its site, to create what Rabbi Gertel calls "a shtetl in a big city with the advantages of both."

By the 1890s Rodfei Zedek had sufficient membership-some 50 families- to move from the storefront to its first building, a small frame structure located at 42nd St. and Union, according to "Rodfei Zedek: The First Hundred Years" by Carole Krucoff. (The book is available from the synagogue). It was fashioned on the Orthodox model, with women sitting in an upstairs balcony, and worship was in the Eastern European style, with "kids running around ... every now and then the Shammos would 'give a klop' on his big book and declare: 'Zol zein shah' (let there be quiet)," according to an early historian.

In 1899 the congregation obtained a state charter, becoming a religious corporation under Illinois law. Things were looking up until, around the turn of the century, a fire broke out in the little wooden synagogue and everything was lost but the precious Torah scroll, which was rescued by a passing congregant who ran into the burning building, although onlookers tried to restrain him. He emerged unscathed with the scroll in his arms.

Members were determined to keep their congregation together, however, and after several years of worshipping in a rented hall they purchased their second synagogue building, a former Baptist church on 46th Street between Wabash and Michigan avenues.

The move marked a real change in demographics. The synagogue was no longer surrounded by Canaryville shanties but was located in the midst of a section of fashionable homes and apartment buildings known as Grand Boulevard, named for the elegant avenue that formed its heart (today's Martin Luther King Drive).

For the next few decades Rodfei Zedek functioned either without a rabbi or with a series of rabbis who stayed for brief periods. Then in August 1919 Rabbi Benjamin Daskal, just 25 years old, became the congregation's spiritual leader. He functioned as the rabbi and later rabbi emeritus until his death in 1974, a remarkable term that launched a blend of tradition and modernity that, congregants say, characterizes Rodfei Zedek even now.

Chicago attorney Walter Roth is one current member who still recalls the days with Rabbi Daskal. Roth, who came to Chicago from Germany in 1939, attended Hebrew school at Rodfei Zedek during Daskal's tenure. Later Roth's son Ari was one of the first students at a Rodfei Zedek branch of the Solomon Schechter Day Schools, which opened in 1967 at the synagogue. (The school later merged with the Orthodox Akiba School to become the Akiba- Schechter Jewish Day School, which is located next to Rodfei Zedek and loosely affiliated with it.)

Roth, who now lives in the Gold Coast, says that through changing neighborhoods and a decline in membership the congregation has kept its "special character-a great deal of family feeling, tightness, tradition and loyalty. The fact that I'm still a member speaks for that. Membership has shifted heavily to University of Chicago people," a fact that he says helps to preserve "the uniqueness of it. It has a very enlightened program."

Another longtime member, Irving Paley, who served as president of the congregation from 1981 to 1985, says the synagogue "has gotten better than when I was president. We had more members and there was an exodus from the South Side to the suburbs, but we've managed to hang on and I think we're here to stay."

He credits the synagogue's history of illustrious rabbis and "distinguished membership," which includes many University of Chicago faculty members, as "giving us some sort of a distinction."

"We have a good healthy cadre from the old days and they stay even when they move away," he says, noting that members come from as far as the Self- Help Home on Chicago's far North Side. (The congregation also provides on- site services at Self-Help and other geriatric institutions.)

"I think we're a happy bunch," Paley says. "I still manage to do my Haftarah, even as old as I am. Rabbi Gertel keeps us going with his sermons and his humor and our Kiddushes are wonderful too."

Like Paley and Roth, many members cite Rodfei Zedek's ability to change with the times as one of its underlying strengths. That flexibility began early. During Rabbi Daskal's term he made numerous innovations, including the introduction of a late Friday evening service and the use of a uniform prayer book for all services.

With a membership roster of 125 families, the congregation was outgrowing its building again, and in 1924 members laid the cornerstone for a new building on land purchased a year earlier on South Greenwood Avenue in the Hyde Park neighborhood.

Another significant event occurred in 1927 when Rodfei Zedek officially joined the United Synagogue of America, the Conservative movement's synagogue membership organization. Innovations in ritual practice in line with the Conservative movement continued under Rabbi Daskal.

By 1942 the longtime spiritual leader had become emeritus and a new rabbi was installed, by all accounts one of the most innovative, charismatic, brilliant and beloved leaders in the history of Chicago Jewry. Rabbi Ralph Simon led the congregation for 44 years and continued on an emeritus basis until he and his wife moved to California in the early 1990s. Simon died in 1996 at age 89.

Among his many achievements, he founded Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, the first camp in the Ramah system, and held a host of leadership positions in both local and national Jewish and civil rights organizations. He also built Rodfei Zedek into one of the leading Conservative congregations in the country. When the Jews of Hyde Park began moving to South Shore and then moving away from the South Side altogether because of changing demographics and "white flight," Simon "kept Rodfei Zedek a strong anchor in a multi-racial, multi-ethnic transitional neighborhood," according to Rabbi Wayne Dosick, who grew up at the synagogue and is the author of a number of books on Jewish tradition and practice. Simon inspired him, along with his own son, Rabbi Matthew Simon, to join the profession, Dosick says.

Longtime member Charles Bernstein agrees that "the atmosphere at Rodfei Zedek has stood us in good stead": One of his sons is a rabbi, one is a rabbinical student in Israel and one is the youth director of a suburban Chicago synagogue. "It has sent people out into the world," Bernstein, a Chicago attorney, says.

He and his wife, Roberta, have been members since around 1976 and recall a time when Rodfei Zedek had close to 1000 members and was one of 16 Orthodox or Conservative synagogues on the South Side. "Now it's a smaller congregation than it was then and we are the only Conservative synagogue on the South Side, along with one Reform temple (KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation)," he says. "But we've survived."

"I'm a fourth-generation South Sider, and we native South Siders are a stubborn, individualistic group," says Bernstein, whose great-grandfather bucked the prevailing Jewish trend and settled in South Chicago. The congregation itself, he says, "has been very staunch about being a beacon of Conservative Judaism on the South Side. When the demographics of Hyde Park changed, Rodfei Zedek continued and made a further commitment by building a new building. It's remarkable. It's a very stable congregation, not a flash-in-the-pan congregation."

Even after 30 years, Bernstein says he still finds the synagogue "a very welcoming place, a very intellectual place. Everybody is very open and there are no cliques as much as you find in other synagogues. And they're not looking for a new rabbi every six months."

Thea Crook, who has worked at Rodfei Zedek since 1988 and is now its executive director, says she can attest to the synagogue's commitment and welcoming spirit. When she and her family were looking to immigrate from their native South Africa, she visited Chicago and found an ad seeking an education director at Rodfei. Not only did she get the job, but the synagogue served as the sponsor for her and her family to come to the United States.

For her, one of the distinguishing elements of the congregation is that "some synagogues have staff people who do what our lay leadership does-all the budgeting, for instance, is done by the vice president of finance." As for herself, "when people treat you well, you want to work harder all the time," she says.

Judith Phillips-Balter, who is now the synagogue's Torah reader and leader of a volunteer Torah-reading program, was born in Hyde Park and into Rodfei Zedek-her parents were members before she came on the scene.

"Some of my earliest memories are of the Rodfei Zedek building on Greenwood," she says. "I started going to shul with my father when I was about three. It was awesome to me. I remember that on the High Holidays they had these maroon velvet chairs." In those days, she recalls, students went to Hebrew school four days a week plus Sundays. "All my friends from public school went to Rodfei Zedek for Hebrew school, and it was a close knit group. We had a reunion a few years back. All kinds of people from my past came and it was really moving," she says.

She credits some of her Rodfei Zedek mentors, including Rabbi Simon, with helping her to read Torah even before the synagogue became officially egalitarian, and with encouraging her to earn a master's degree in ancient Hebrew at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute and, more recently, a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies.

Her synagogue memories also include a time when, after a divorce, she was a single parent with very little money. "Rabbi Simon was extremely kind and helpful and they made me feel at home," she recalls. That "nice atmosphere" remains to this day, she says. "There's a wonderful minyan and it's not just ultra-elderly men. There are a large number of women in my age range." The whole synagogue, she says, is like "a very cohesive and lovely group, like having a large friendly extended family."

Under Rabbi Simon's leadership the congregation continued to grow and by 1948 it was clear that yet another expansion move was necessary. The synagogue acquired property at 5200 S. Hyde Park Blvd.-Rodfei Zedek's current address-and built a community hall and sanctuary on to a brick mansion that already existed on the site. An educational center was added in 1965.

The decision to move out of South Shore yet still remain on the South Side was a historic one. Although some South Shore residents worked to create an integrated community like Hyde Park, those efforts for the most part failed. The neighborhood became primarily African American, and Rodfei Zedek membership had dropped 15 percent by 1966.

The synagogue's leaders decided to turn their attention to Hyde Park, realizing that many Jewish families were leaving South Shore for that neighborhood or were moving to Chicago's Near North Side, an area within easy reach of Hyde Park. By the time the congregation celebrated its centennial in 1974, a critical time had passed and the synagogue appeared to be entering a period of "stabilization and consolidation," as then-president Joseph Abbell put it in an address to the congregation.

By the last decades of the 20th century, the congregation was again facing the need for change. The membership was stable at some 250-300 families but still smaller than the 800-1000 families of the past, and the physical facilities were disintegrating. Rabbi Vernon Kurtz, who served for 12 after Rabbi Simon's retirement, had left for his present position as rabbi of North Suburban Synagogue Beth El in Highland Park and, in 1988, was replaced by Gertel.

One momentous development had occurred during these years: The synagogue became completely egalitarian, welcoming women as well as men to perform all functions, including Torah reading and participating in minyans. But there was still the need to do something about the physical structure. The synagogue leadership determined that it would cost more to repair the building than to tear it down and build a new one.

After much discussion, a decision was made to do just that, rebuilding a more compact structure on the same site. The decision "for us was a representation that we had come to grips with the realities of the current situation and future," Edward Hamburg, who was president at the time, says. "There was just no going back to the glorious past in the '50s and '60s, when we were one of the premiere Conservative congregations in the universe. On the other hand, the (new) building represents one where it showed yet again the process of Rodfei Zedek adapting to its past.

"You can't be around 130 years if you don't adapt to changing circumstances," says Hamburg, who many members credit, along with Gertel, as being the engine that drove the new construction.

Getting enough money for the new building "was not an easy task," Hamburg admits. "It required significant fund-raising capabilities that many thought was totally outside of the bounds of our ability. But we exceeded our goal." In addition, he says, "I was impressed with how the congregants responded. Old-line members as well as newer ones all were equally supportive of the effort."

Crook, the executive director, says Gertel was "a real visionary" in the effort. "He was here less than six months when he drew up the first rough plan of what the building should look like," she says. "In the old building there was so much hallway and corridor and so little space. Here every square inch is usable. We have a wonderful atrium where we have had weddings and b'nai mitzvahs. It's been terrific, and Rabbi Gertel was the one who saw it way before anybody else."

Several fortuitous events contributed to the success of the new space. The plan originally had been to include Akiba-Schechter Jewish Day School and the Hyde Park JCC as partners in the new building, but the school decided more space was necessary and bought part of Rodfei Zedek's land, on which they built a new wing. Now the school is next to the synagogue and they share a loose partnership with many joint programs.

The JCC plan, however, worked out beautifully, Gertel says. The community center, which had formerly held programs at Rodfei Zedek, KAM and other sites, is now housed in Rodfei's building, and the synagogue reaps the benefit of its gym and exercise rooms. The relationship "is very good; it nourishes both groups," Gertel says.

In addition, the synagogue is also home to the Philip H. Cohen Institute, which partners with the Jewish Braille Institute in New York to produce Braille and large-type books for the Jewish blind.

The old building was torn down in 1999 and the congregation held services at a nearby hotel for a year; the new facility was dedicated in September 2000. A handsome, airy modern structure, it incorporates elements from the older building, such as its magnificent stained-glass windows, in an attractive and respectful way.

The decision to tear down and rebuild "took a lot of guts," Crook says. "People were saying, the community is dying; you're downsizing. That was not the case. We were stable." She, too, says the synagogue- JCC partnership "has been excellent. We respect the skills they bring and they respect the skills we bring. I think it's been a model that should be replicated everywhere in the country. There are only a finite number of dollars and when we start working on economies of scale it can only be a good thing."

Dr. Robert Channon, the current president, agrees that the new building "is likely to be much more efficient in terms of running" the synagogue. And Akiba-Schechter "is much more appealing to many of our own families because they have a brand new school," he says.

He also sees a virtue in being smaller. "Each event, whether a baby naming or a bar mitzvah or an aufruf can be personally celebrated. We're certainly not a mill where there are three aufrufs and three bar mitzvahs celebrated every week. We are able to respond to particular needs. Of course, if 150 new families wanted to join us we would certainly welcome them."

Channon points out, as does Gertel, that Rodfei continues its long tradition of being a very active participant in the Jewish life of the Hyde Park community, joining with "sister synagogue" KAM, the Hyde Park Chabad and the Newberger Hillel Center at the University of Chicago for events like a Purim Carnival and Walk for Israel.

And of course when the Chicago White Sox won last year's World Series, a Rodfei Zedek contingent was at nearly every game.

A number of members mention as one of the synagogue's main strengths its mix of ages and lifestyles, from academics and professionals to retired persons. Sara Segal Loevy, the immediate past president, says that what she and her family, who have been members for 25 years, love about the congregation is that "the members span all age groups from young members in their 20s and 30s to those in their 90s. It creates a very vital congregation because we are not isolated in terms of practice or in terms of age. There is a wonderful family feeling. We admire small children and we celebrate 90th birthdays."

The congregation, she says, has had a stable membership for the past decade or so but is beginning to grow slowly. Even more importantly, "we see ourselves as a Jewish linchpin of the South Side along with KAM, Akiba- Schechter and the JCC. There are two very strong poles, these committed, stable congregations. I think that's very important for the city as well as for the Jewish community. We create our own diversity within the community," she says.

Hamburg, the former president who was instrumental in launching the building effort, agrees that that effort was successful but says, "There is still a lot more work to maintaining a synagogue than developing a physical infrastructure. We are now turning our attention to the programmatic and liturgical aspects. It's no longer just the physical. We reshaped the physical infrastructure, sized it more appropriately and got our finances under control. These are foundational elements to the real hard part of maintaining a synagogue, all the stuff it takes day to day to make a synagogue work in people's lives."

He is pleased, he says, that Rodfei Zedek has learned the lesson of "the way an institution exists over time is to adapt, not just to pine for the past but to make real efforts to change the circumstances. We've got a lot of work to do, but we have a good foundation."

Gertel, meanwhile, points out that the congregation is stable at about 300 member families and is "vital, with a lot of activities," including a daily minyan, a strong Sisterhood whose involvement in the congregation dates back to 1906, a Men's Club, a large library and a host of educational activities for all ages.

The synagogue will celebrate its 130th anniversary with two symposia, "In Pursuit of Justice: Justice in Health and Medicine in a Jewish Context" on Feb. 26 and "Economic Justice in a Jewish Context" on April 23. (See Community Calendar for more details.)

His own vision for the future, he says, involves a "synergy" that includes more programming with KAM and the other Jewish institutions of Hyde Park.

"We don't say 'used to be' in talking about the congregation," he says. "Just because it isn't as large as previously doesn't mean it's any less strong. There is a certain gentility to the congregation and its culture. Children feel nurtured here, and we've always had a large older population. It's a real mix of older and younger."

Recalling a synagogue reunion that drew many former members in 1993, he says, "The feeling for the synagogue was very strong. That spirit has always been strong, and people have it to this day."