Congregation Sha'arai Shomayim is the oldest

Jew 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""T ...

ish congregation in the state of

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

and one of the oldest

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congregations in the

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. Located in

Mobile Mobile may refer to: Places * Mobile, Alabama, a U.S. port city * Mobile County, Alabama * Mobile, Arizona, a small town near Phoenix, U.S. * Mobile, Newfoundland and Labrador Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Mobile ...

, the congregation was formally organized in 1844. The current synagogue for the congregation is the Springhill Avenue Temple.

History

The first permanent Jewish presence in Mobile can be documented back to 1763. Most of these early Jews were merchants and traders, having moved to Mobile after the French lost their

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possessions to

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in the Treaty of Paris. Jews were not allowed to officially reside in colonial French Louisiana due to the infamous

Code Noir The (, ''Black code'') was a decree passed by the French King Louis XIV in 1685 defining the conditions of slavery in the French colonial empire. The decree restricted the activities of free people of color, mandated the conversion of all e ...

, a decree passed by France's King

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ve ...

in 1685. It is known that the code was rarely enforced in the colony, but there is no documentation of Jews residing in Mobile at that time. The first prominent Jewish citizens of Mobile were George Davis, an

Englishman The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common history and culture. The English identity is of Anglo-Saxon origin, when they were known in ...

from

Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population of ...

; Dr. Solomon Mordecai from

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; and Philip Phillips, an attorney from Charleston, South Carolina. Phillips was later elected to the

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and then to the

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. By the time of Phillips election to Congress in 1853, over fifty Jewish families were living in Mobile. Although no records survive that document the spiritual activities of Mobile's earliest Jewish citizens, on June 22, 1841 Congregation Sha'arai Shomayim purchased plots in the city's Magnolia Cemetery. Despite the earlier purchase of burial plots, the congregation did not become officially organized until January 25, 1844 when a constitution and bylaws were registered with the Mobile County Probate Court. The constitution was signed by Israel Jones, president; David Solomon, vice-president; L.H. Goldsmith, treasurer; and D. Unger, B.L. Tim, and Roshon as trustees. The congregation's full name in the document is listed as Sha’arai Shomayim U - Maskil El Dol or Gates of Heaven and Society of Friends of the Needy. At the time of organization, the congregation had over fifty contributing members. They then began planning the erection of a place of worship.

Early synagogues

During 1844 and 1845, Congregation Sha'arai Shomayim held services on Friday evenings and '' Shabbat'' morning in private homes. On March 13, 1846, the congregation appointed its first

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

, Benjamin da Silva. On December 27, 1846, they dedicated their first temple, the Emanuel Street Synagogue, located between Government and Church Streets. The first marriage ceremony was performed there on July 25, 1847. In late 1848, Benjamin da Silva moved to

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

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church in 1846. Baruch Emanuel gave up leading the congregation in early 1853, before services had been held in the new building. Julius Eckman was appointed as the new rabbi but quickly fell into disfavor. He was succeeded by Dr. Isaac Schatz. The congregation suffered a catastrophe on December 11, 1856 when the new synagogue burned down. A stove in the basement caught the wooden building on fire. The congregation turned to selling

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in order to rebuild on the same site. Several non-Jews contributed to the rebuilding, among them Dr. Josiah C. Nott and N. St. John. A month after the disaster the congregation published a thank you notice in the '' Mobile Daily Register'' to "our fellow citizens of Mobile" for their assistance after the fire. By the end of March 1857 the members had collected $3,555 in donations and on June 2, 1857 the congregation broke ground for a new synagogue. The new building would be

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

ed brick in the

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style with Ionic columns.

The Civil War years

With the coming of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...

, Congregation Sha'arai Shomayim saw many of its members serving in the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

. Men known to have served include Moses Holberg, S. Pickard, Adolph Proskauer, Joseph Proskauer, S. Rosewald, M.H. Rochotsch, L. Siegel, J. Sonnentheil, S. Stein, Nathan Strauss, and Leopold Strauss. Congregation members known to have died in the conflict include Joel Jones and Conrad Weill. The congregation created a Hebrew Military Relief Association with a mission of aiding Confederate soldiers and their families. Its initial assets were $1,416.

Cemetery

The congregation's old cemetery in a section of Magnolia Cemetery was full by the 1870s, making a new cemetery a necessity. The congregation purchased land for the new cemetery, now known as

Sha'arai Shomayim Cemetery Sha'arai Shomayim Cemetery, also known as the Reformed Temple Jewish Cemetery, is a historic Jewish cemetery located in Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was established by Congregation Sha'arai Shomayim in 1876 after their previous cemetery, Je ...

, from William and Caroline Leinkauf on March 17, 1876. They adopted a number of resolutions for governing the new cemetery and placed the lot prices at $50 per lot. The new site, near Magnolia Cemetery, was consecrated on December 3, 1876. The cemetery was laid out by Samuel Brown, the congregation's vice president. He had live oaks planted around the perimeter of the grounds, and in 1890 the ornamental cast-iron gate and fence was installed. The first burial was that of Israel Jones, on December 28, 1876. One of the most notable interments to ever take place in the cemetery was that of Esau Frohlichstein on May 14, 1914. He was one of fourteen American soldiers killed in the U.S. siege of

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

during the Mexican Revolution. Thousands of Mobilians took part in his burial service and his marker is inscribed with a letter that he wrote to his parents the night before the attack. In part it reads, "Don't be afraid if I get killed. For the old saying 'Rather die a hero than live a coward' will land at Vera Cruz in about four hours."Sledge, John Sturdivant. ''Cities of Silence: A Guide to Mobile's Historic Cemeteries'', pages 80-89. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 2002.

Later synagogues

Plans for a new and larger synagogue began to take shape in the first decade of the 20th century, with the cornerstone for the new temple laid on June 6, 1906 at the corner of Government and Warren Streets. Alabama Lieutenant Governor

Russell McWhortor Cunningham Russell McWhortor Cunningham (August 25, 1855 – June 6, 1921) was an American Democratic politician who was the acting Governor of Alabama from April 25, 1904, to March 5, 1905. He was lieutenant governor when Governor William D. Jelks fell il ...

was the featured speaker for the event. A building fund of $25,400 had been accumulated, but the congregation president, Jacob Pollock, estimated that $5000 more was needed to complete a structure that would "honor the Jewish population of Mobile." Construction continued and the new Government Street Temple was dedicated on June 21, 1907. The dedication had been delayed by a week due to the organ not being completed. Eight rabbis took part in the dedication processional:

Maximilian Heller Maximilian Heller (January 31, 1860 – March 30, 1929) was a Czech-born American rabbi. Life Heller was born on January 31, 1860, in Prague, Bohemia, Austrian Empire, the son of well-to-do wool merchant Simon Heller and Mathilde Kassowitz. He c ...

of New Orleans; Henry Ettleson of

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; Bernard Ehrenreich of

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

; Jacob Schwarz of

Pensacola, Florida Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principa ...

; David Marx of

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; Max Raisin of

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;

Morris Newfield Morris Newfield (January 31, 1869 – May 7, 1940) was a Hungarian-born American rabbi from Alabama. Life Newfield was born on January 31, 1869, in Homonna, Hungary, the son of Seymon Sabbuttsi Newfield and Lena Klein. His father was a Hebrew sc ...

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

, and

Alfred Geiger Moses Alfred Geiger Moses (1878-1956) was an American rabbi associated with Reform Judaism and the founder of Jewish Science,Umansky, E. M. (2005). ''From Christian Science to Jewish Science: Spiritual Healing and American Jews''. Oxford University Press ...

. The Government Street Temple served the congregation for many years, but after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

the population of Mobile was shifting westward out of downtown and the congregation found the Government Street Temple difficult to keep in good repair. After discovering that repairs would amount to more than $20,000, the building committee decided to sell the old building for not less than $100,000 and build a new structure. On July 18, 1952, the committee announced that it was buying a lot on Springhill Avenue for $40,000 and hiring architect T. Cooper Van Antwerp to design a new synagogue, with a budget of $250,000. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on February 21, 1954 for the new temple. Then, on September 2, 1955, a dedication ceremony for Springhill Avenue Temple was held with Dr. Julius Mark, Senior Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El in

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, delivering the dedication sermon. Today the congregation has continued to grow to its present size of about 250 families.

References

External links

Spring Hill Avenue Temple, Congregation Sha'arai Shomayim
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sha'arai Shomayim Jews and Judaism in Mobile, Alabama Religious organizations established in 1844 Reform synagogues in Alabama Buildings and structures in Mobile, Alabama 1844 establishments in Alabama