The Congregation
Mobile's Reform Jewish community had its beginnings in the 1820s. The Sha'arai Shomayim congregation was the first Jewish congregation in Alabama and one of the oldest Reform congregations in the United States. It was made up of German Jewish immigrants. It was granted a charter by the state on January 25, 1844, with fifty-two families under the name of Sha'arai Shomayim Umaskil el Dol, or Gates of Heaven and Society of Friends of the Needy. They organized the first synagogue in Alabama, the St. Emanuel Street Temple, dedicated on December 27, 1846. They went on to build three more synagogues, after outgrowing the others. They moved to the Springhill Avenue Temple on September 2, 1955.
Read more about this topic: Sha'arai Shomayim Cemetery
Famous quotes containing the word congregation:
“He believes without reservation that Kentucky is the garden spot of the world, and is ready to dispute with anyone who questions his claim. In his enthusiasm for his State he compares with the Methodist preacher whom Timothy Flint heard tell a congregation that “Heaven is a Kentucky of a place.””
—For the State of Kentucky, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“re-enact at the vestry-glass
Each pulpit gesture in deft dumb-show
That had moved the congregation so.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)