 Jews
have lived in South Carolina from the earliest days of the Carolina
Colony. The Jews of Charleston founded one of the New World's
earliest synagogues, Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, in 1749, and
it remains today the oldest continuously operated synagogue
in North America. Jews came to the Columbia area in the late
eighteenth century and by 1822 had organized the Hebrew Burial
Society, which continues to this day as the Hebrew Benevolent
Society at the same location across from Finlay Park. Columbia's
Jewish community founded the nation's seventh Jewish religious
school in 1843 and the city's first synagogue, Shearith Israel
(Remnant of Israel), three years later.
The early Jewish community of
Columbia 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 highly educated and prosperous Jewish community
represented the highest ratio of Jews to the total population
of any city in the United States.
The tragic burning of Columbia
on the Sabbath evening of February 17, 1865 brought an end
to the vibrant early Jewish community of Columbia. In the
course of the fire, which engulfed downtown Columbia, the
synagogue on Assembly Street and most of the Jewish businesses
were destroyed. A majority of Columbia's Jewish community
left the city shortly after the war to seek greater opportunities
elsewhere.
By the 1890's, a new wave of
Jewish immigrants, mostly eastern Europeans, had arrived in
Columbia. On January 15, 1896, a group of eighteen members
of the Jewish community met in city hall chambers and organized
the Tree of Life Congregation. Shortly after its organization,
Tree of Life affiliated with the Reform branch of Judaism,
an affiliation which continues to this day. |
