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:
“In 1862 the congregation of the church forwarded the church bell to General Beauregard to be melted into cannon, “hoping that its gentle tones, that have so often called us to the House of God, may be transmuted into war’s resounding rhyme to repel the ruthless invader from the beautiful land God, in his goodness, has given us.””
—Federal Writers’ Project Of The Wor, 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)