Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

settlement in

Brazos County, Texas Brazos County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 233,849. The county seat is Bryan. Along with Brazoria County, the county is named for the Brazos River, which forms its western border. The ...

, began in 1865. This history includes the present Jewish communities and individuals of Brazos County and

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

Temple Freda

One of the first Jewish temples in Brazos County is Temple Freda, which was built in 1912 and added to the

U.S. National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on September 22, 1983. Temple Freda is one of the three oldest religious buildings in the county. The temple is named for Ethel Freda Kaczer (1860–1912), wife of the president of the Jewish community when the

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

was built. The temple being named after a woman is unique for a Jewish place of worship.International Survey of Jewish Monuments record for Freda Temple
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Congregation Beth Shalom

Congregation Beth Shalom was established officially in 1968 as a member of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (the Reform movement). Congregants originally met and worshipped at the Texas A&M Hillel Center. Due to differences, Congregation Beth Shalom left Hillel to meet at different locations in Bryan/College Station including a public school, the Unitarian Church and the College Station Community Center, until a permanent location in Bryan, Texas was obtained. The building was purchased from a Baptist church in 1990, however, the building was originally built by Mormons. Regular services are conducted by a collection of student rabbis, retired rabbis, part-time rabbis, and by congregants. A weekly religious school is also operated.

Texas A&M Hillel

Texas A&M Hillel is the oldest Jewish campus organization in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

using the name "Hillel."Texas A&M Hillel History
Texas A&M Hillel Retrieved on 2008-07-09 Founded in 1920, three years before the founding of the first official Hillel Foundation at

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

, Texas A&M Hillel began as the TAMC Menorah Club and was organized in 1916 by

Jacob Joseph Taubenhaus Jacob Joseph Taubenhaus (1884–1937) born in Safed, Palestine on October 20, 1884, was Chief of the Division of Plant Pathology and Physiology of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (now Te ...

. He and his wife Esther founded the "TAMC Hillel Club" in 1920, with assistance from Rabbi David Lefkowitz. In 1958, Texas A&M Hillel opened up a building of its own.

Peter Tarlow Peter E. Tarlow (born May 4, 1946) is a rabbi and was the executive director of Texas A&M Hillel from 1983 to 2013. He is a scholar in the area of tourism safety, a consultant for the tourism industry, and the founder of Tourism & More Inc. He wo ...

, a rabbi, was the executive director of Texas A&M Hillel from 1983 to 2013.

Chabad at Texas A&M University

Chabad Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (), is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty. Chabad is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, particularly for its outreach activities. It is one of the largest Hasidic group ...

, also known as the Rohr Chabad Jewish Student and Community Center at Texas A&M University, was founded in June, 2007. In 2007, the organization began participating in an international inititiative among Jewish students to write a Torah scroll.

Temple Freda

Congregation Beth Shalom

Texas A&M Hillel

Chabad at Texas A&M University

See also

References

Further reading