News-Record.com

Nancy, this synagogue may be "a rarity" to you but you might want to do a bit more research on non-christian religions in the South before making such comments.

Congregation Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim was established in 1749, and became the first Reform Jewish congregation in the United States. It's in Charleston SC and is still going strong.

"In the year 1854 a small group of Jews met in Charleston, South Carolina for worship according to the Ashkenazi ritual of Orthodox Judaism and called themselves Berith Shalome. Just a few blocks away from its present site, the foundations were laid for what is today the oldest Orthodox Shul in the South and one of the oldest Ashekenazic congregations in America. Founded by immigrant Polish and Prussian Jews, the congregation was continually strengthened by waves of Eastern European arrivals who found their way to Charleston through out the 19th and 20th centuries."

" Internal tension within the membership led to the establishment of a second Orthodox Shul, Beth Israel Congregation in 1911. Those strains were eased by1955 and a newly merged Brith Sholom Beth Israel Congregation opened its door sat the present facility on Rutledge Avenue."

In Savannah, Congregation Bnai Brith Jacob was founded in 1861 and still serves the community. Congregation Mickve Israel, also in Savannah, is a real oldie since it was founded in...
1733. ( they celebrated their 275th year of worship this past July.)

How about Beth Ahabah in Richmond- first services there in 1904.
Or Temple of Israel, founded 127 years ago in Wilmington NC?

Jews didn't kust appear in the south in the last decade, y'all.

I guess I disagree with you on what rarity means. Yes, there are synagogues that are older -- and several older than Temple Emanuel in North Carolina -- but to me, rarity means there aren't many at that milestone in 2007.

" Rarity" means just that, and a religion writer , if she researched other religions, would have taken note that there are many synagogues in the South which have been serving their members for well over 100 years. There are plenty of them- and most are in the larger or older cities in each southern state.

Now there aren't tons of synagugues/shuls- at least not compared to the sheer volume and 31 flavors of Baptist churches in this corner of the US, but bear in mind that once a temple was founded in the south, people would walk/ride in a wagon - whatever means of Sabbath transportation their branch of Judaism approved- MILES to get to Temple.

Baron Hirsh Congregation in Memphis is over 130 years old.

Tree of Life in Columbia SC was founded in 1896.

We have a Jewish Cemetery in Columbia dating back to 1822. The orignal synagogue in Columbia , built in 1846, fell victim to the fires set by Sherman as did most of the rest of the buildings there due to his evil and unforgivable orders to torch.

The Jewish community first organized a meeting place in 1887 in a rented building on Main Street.

Heck, even Ed Cone wrote a blog article about Jews in the South 2 years ago. It's a good read and would have been a great reference source.

http://edcone.typepad.com/wordup/2005/11/nr_column.html

" Rarity" means just that, and a religion writer , if she researched other religions, would have taken note that there are many synagogues in the South which have been serving their members for well over 100 years. There are plenty of them- and most are in the larger or older cities in each southern state.

Now there aren't tons of synagugues/shuls- at least not compared to the sheer volume and 31 flavors of Baptist churches in this corner of the US, but bear in mind that once a temple was founded in the south, people would walk/ride in a wagon - whatever means of Sabbath transportation their branch of Judaism approved- MILES to get to Temple.

Baron Hirsh Congregation in Memphis is over 130 years old.

Tree of Life in Columbia SC was founded in 1896.

We have a Jewish Cemetery in Columbia dating back to 1822. The orignal synagogue in Columbia , built in 1846, fell victim to the fires set by Sherman as did most of the rest of the buildings there due to his evil and unforgivable orders to torch.

The Jewish community first organized a meeting place in 1887 in a rented building on Main Street.

Heck, even Ed Cone wrote a blog article about Jews in the South 2 years ago. It's a good read and would have been a great reference source.

http://edcone.typepad.com/wordup/2005/11/nr_column.html

Semantics seems to be at play here. What difference does the year in which someone/something reaches the centennial mark?

I believe that Alice has you on the point there Nancy.

Shalom

Seems to be that Nancy is saying that Jewish temple and synagogues weren't very common in the South 100 years ago -- or that a lot of the ones that were here back then didn't last to the present day.

I wonder what is the median age for a Jewish congregation in the South... as opposed to other regions?

I'd appreciate it if Nancy would post my follow-up response which listed even more old and on-going shuls/Temples/synagogues in the South and cited an article by a local writer about Jews in and native to the South.
For her own reasons she seems to have censored it. It's her blog, but still...

I happen to think it just might open the eyes of those (mainly protestants) who seem to view all Jews as being " recent transplants" from " up north"and therefore having contributed nothing to the history and culture of this part of the US.

Eric, here's some info which might interest you. It's from the Tree of Life's website (TOL is a reform congregation in Columbia SC)

"The early Jewish community of Columbia ( meaning late 1700's onward) played an active part in the development and growth of the city. Two prominent members of the Jewish community, Dr. Mordecai Hendricks De Leon and Mr. Henry Lyons, were elected mayors of Columbia before the Civil War, and Jews were leaders in the city's business and professional life.

By the year 1830, Columbia's Jewish community represented the highest ratio of Jews to the total population of any city in the United States."

I'd bet our part of the US has some of the oldest Jewish places of worship in the US- particularly since the ports of " Carolina" and GA were some of the earliest ports of entry into what became the US.

I don't censor -- am not sure what you are talking about Alice, but I'll check to make sure your post actually got here.

Also, and maybe I'm just not getting your point, but I never said Jews just showed up in the South a decade or even a centennial ago. History shows that Jews, like many others, weren't always permanent settlers. They, like many others, also followed the railroad in finding places to settle. It would be absurd for anyone to think that the first temples represented the first Jews. Many Jews, like people of other faiths, worshipped in homes and other places before officially organizing.

Take the story for what it is: the 100th celebration of a synagogue in the South. Rarity is still my word; and nothing posted here comes close to making it inaccurate. Rarity doesn't mean only one, it makes one of not very many. So unless there's something that moves this conversation forward, this will be my last post on the topic.

Alice I do have to apologize: I did find your comment in the junk file. I'm not sure why the filter caught it -- and I'm waiting for our Web people to find out, because I know that otherwise it will appear as if I'm censoring you. Honestly, I never do that. What would be the point? As you guys know, I don't know everything. I do promise to check daily to make sure comments aren't needlessly caught up there.

I however did look at the comment, and nothing in it changes my viewpoint or original statement (you yourself don't mention very many).

"Take the story for what it is: the 100th celebration of a synagogue in the South.".........

exactly nancy ! some seems to 'pick' on certain words and try to redirect the overall gist of the post (arguing for argument sake).
i would agree that having only two synagogues in the triad is fairly rare, considering where i come from (ft.lauderdale,fl) there are synagogues far too numerous to count.

nancy,interesting thing you said about your 'filter' - i've posted several times and they never made it to the site - i just figured they were lost in cybernet space :-)- silly me i never thought to accuse you of censoring my comments.

The number of Jewish places of worship is interesting, but not of prime importance - which is the considerable influence for the good that they have had in their various locations. God is not as impressed with numbers so much as with fruitfulness. And just a cursory reading of history will show that Jews have indeed been very influential in building up and improving sourthern society over the years.

Since the Jewish people are the primary caretakers of the Torah on earth, they have a tremendous resposibility to enlarge the stature and implementation of God's moral Law in the culture around them. To the extent that they are true to the commandments of God, I not only commend them, but consider myself a fellow laborer in establishing God's Law/Word in our society.

When Jews seek to follow and increase the Law in a society, they serve not only God but their fellow man. If they depart from the Law, as many liberal and humanistic "Christians" have done, they also stand under God's judgment (as the Tenach clearly demonstrates).

And so the standard of assessing whether a congregation (Jewish or Christian) is a faithful and God-honoring one is the extent to which they keep God's moral Law, not how big they are or how many of them there are. This includes rejecting abortion and perversion; which some heretical Jews AND Christians embrace, to one extent or another. Either you truly believe in Adonai or you don't; either you keep his commandments or you don't.

Of course, for the Christian, there is the added obligation to spread the Good News of Messiah's atoning death and resurrection. But we all share the life-giving, society-blessing moral Law.

I realize that Alice is a person of exactness and I appreciate that in her. However, I hope this will be dropped soon. The point is 100 years of wonderful families who have contributed much to Greensboro being in our community. I would say that Buffalo Presbyterian is a "rarity" being the oldest congregation in our city - and perhaps in the south. I hope Alice did not teach English; her students would have hated writing and all the red marks she would have put on their papers.

Alice your first rebuttal was taken - you should have dropped it then.