One of the most strikingly diverse architectural typologies in the Southeast is that of the Jewish synagogue. In the American Jewish Yearbook Vol. 20 (1918-1919), it is listed that by 1860, between 150,000 and 200,000 Jews resided in the United States.  Yet out of this burgeoning immigrant population, a minority of around 50,000 Jews who emigrated to the United States by 1860 settled in the South.  As Jewish populations in Southern townships began to form congregations of critical mass over the second half of the 19th century, the resulting emergence of Southern synagogues served as physical manifestations of the complex and nuanced pressures of cultural assimilation met by these migrant communities across the region. 

Whereas key southern ports such as Savannah and Charleston boasted some of the earliest synagogues in North America, a significant wave of synagogue construction took place just after 1860, reflecting a wave of Eastern European Ashkenazi migration. During this time, growing Jewish communities formerly occupying existing communal spaces, from abandoned churches to storefronts, began to establish themselves within their local civic contexts by constructing their own spaces of worship in keeping with an established architectural vernacular.  Composed of largely Classical, American Gothic, Eastern European, and Moorish stylistic elements sprinkled with patriotic symbolism, early Southern synagogues were both architectural chameleons and carefully crafted liminal spaces.  Organized around communal principles of the Jewish faith while cautiously adapted to their vernacular surroundings, these initial synagogues served as spatial thresholds between a diaspora’s origin and destination: an embodiment of the promises of economic stability, prosperity, societal acceptance, and civic identity for Jewish migrants in the New World.

The following journey, through the support of the Institute of Classical Architecture’s Kyle Danley Taylor Memorial Scholarship for Architectural Studies, aims to examine the diversity of historic synagogue architecture in the Southeast, offering a comparative survey of a building typology that exemplifies the very essence of American architecture as a fusion of Old and New World precedents.

A Visit to Chicago’s Newberry Library Postcard Collection

A visit to the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience - New Orleans, LA

 The Temple - Atlanta, GA

Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Established : 1867 (Reform)

Date Constructed : 1931 (3rd Location)

Architect : Philip T. Shutze

Style : Neoclassical (Rococco)

The oldest Jewish congregation in Atlanta, The Hebrew Benevolent Congregation was established in 1860 to serve the needs of German-Jewish immigrants to the city. One of Philip Trammell Shutze’s most notable designs, the 1931 sanctuary features Roman elements referential to the Baths of Caracala in a distinguished Neoclassical style, adorned with both Jewish and US National symbolism characteristic of the postwar Reform Movement, including the United States seal as the ceiling medallion from which the sanctuary’s main oil lamp hangs. The following analysis draws particular attention to the Roman architectural references present in Shutze’s proposed and realized plans of The Temple, likewise highlighting the Temple’s ornate detailing and acoustical properties.

Shutze’s rome-prize-inspired Temple Plans

Realized Design

Temple Exterior

Temple Interior

Acoustical Analysis

Shutze’s Architectural Ornament

An alignment of American Patriotism and Southern Jewish Identity

Touro Synagogue - New Orleans, LA

From Orthodox to Reform

Steel-reinforced Byzantine Construction

Synagogue Interiors and symbolism

Testing the Sanctuary Acoustics and Mechanics

Temple B’Nai Israel - Natchez, MS

Congregation B’Nai Israel Established : 1840 (Reform)

Date Constructed : 1905 (2nd Location)

Architect : H. A. Overbeck

Style : Neoclassical (Restrained)

“B’Nai Israel” means “The Children of Israel”. Designed by architect H.A. Overbeck, of Dallas, Texas, this elegant synagogue re-introduced Classicism to the religious architecture of Mississippi after a lapse of almost 30 years. The temple has a carbon copy in Dallas designed by the same architect, and features the height of modern amenities for it’s time, from centralized heating, to electricity, celebrated in the intricate brass chandeliers, sconces, and light fixtures scattered throughout the sanctuary. The temple also features an elaborate organ, visible just above the ark, and detailing resemblant of many turn of the century civic projects along the Mississippi, highlighting Natchez’s golden age of trade and influence along America’s great river.

News of the Temple’s Construction in Natchez’s THe Daily Democrat - Saturday march 25, 1905

Examples of exterior iconography

Sanctuary Interior

Stained Glass Designs

A Celebration of Electricity

Sampling the Temple’s Acoustics

A visit to the Temple’s Attic CUpola

Temple Gemiluth ChAssed - Port Gibson, MS

Congregation Gemiluth Chassed

Established ca. 1840s (Reform)

Date Constructed : 1892

Architects : Bartlett and Budemeyer

Style : Moorish

“Gemiluth Chassed” has multiple alleged meanings, from “Gift of the Righteous” to “Bestowal of Loving Kindness”. The unusual Moorish–style red brick temple served as the hub of the Jewish population of Port Gibson for more than 80 years, as the oldest surviving synagogue in the state and the only building of this architectural style. This particularly stands out in comparison to it’s religious neighbors, in the form of over five different denominations of Christian churches along the town’s main street (“Blues Highway”), each with it’s unique steeple and style.

Influences of Byzantine Revival

Comparison of Port Gibson Steeples

Temple Interior

Interior Details

Two Generations of Preservation

The temple building, while no longer housing an active congregation, for two generations has been under the protective care of local residents, the Lum Family

Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim - Charleston, SC

Congregation Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim: Established 1749 (Orthodox and later birthplace of US Reform movement)

Date Constructed : 1867 (2nd Location)

Architects : Cyrus Warner (based on designs by Tappen & Noble)

Style : Greek Revival

“Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim” translates to “Holy Congregation House of God”. Having founded the congregation in 1749, it is claimed to be the first Reform synagogue located in the United States. The current 1841 synagogue was built by enslaved African descendants owned by David Lopez Jr, a prominent slave owner and proponent of the Confederate States of America, after the original synagogue was destroyed in a fire in 1838.  The present Greek Revival building is the second oldest synagogue building, and the oldest in continuous use, in the United States; in addition, it has the oldest continually operating Jewish cemetery in the United States. It is a single story brick building, set on a raised granite foundation.

Temple Exterior - a plethora of pediment precedents in Charleston

Re-designing for Music

Sanctuary Interior

Acoustical Analysis

B’Nai Brith Jacob Synagogue - Savannah, GA

Restoring the Temple Interior

Temple Mickve Israel - Savannah, GA

Congregation Mickve Israel : Established 1820 (Orthodox evolved into Reform)

Date Constructed : 1876 (3rd Construction)

Architect : Henry G. Harrison

Style : Gothic Revival

“Mickve Israel” translates to “Hope of Israel”. One of the oldest synagogues in the United States, it was organized in 1735 by mostly Sephardic Jewish immigrants of Spanish -Portuguese extraction from London who arrived in the new colony in 1733. They consecrated their current synagogue, located on Monterey Square in historic Savannah, in 1878. It is a rare example of a Gothic-style synagogue, which was particularly ‘en vogue’ in American civic and religious architecture at the time of the current temple’s construction. Just 5 years later the Brooklyn Bridge, one of America’s most profound examples of Gothic-styled civic infrastructure, would be completed in 1883.

Mickve SAnctuary Interior

Interior Details

Temple Stained Glass

Temple Beth Israel - Macon, GA

Congregation Kahal Kodesh Beth Israel Established : 1859

Date Constructed : 1902 (2nd Construction*)

Architect : P. E. Dennis

Style : Neoclassical

“Kahal Kodesh Beth Israel” translates to “Holy Congregation House of Israel”. *The picture to the left shows the first iteration of the temple, finished in 1874, which was located just blocks away from the congregation’s current location. Allegedly, a farmer’s market sprang up across from the second location after the temple was built, and the noise and odors eventually convinced the congregation to move once again. The congregation’s current landmark neoclassical temple (see images below), is topped with a central dome, and the sections of the dome’s interior radiate from a stained glass window symbolizing the all-seeing eye of God. Smooth columns with Ionic and Corinthian elements and additional stained glass windows provide the major decorative elements.

Temple Interior Layout

Deep Gratitude for the contributions and guidance of the following individuals throughout this journey

Samuel Gruber - Founding/Managing Director, Gruber Heritage Global, Syracuse University

Kenneth Hoffman - Executive Director, Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience

Adrien Genet - Touro Synagogue Resident Historian, 5th generation congregant

Cantor Kevin Margolius - Cantor, Touro Synagogue

Carter Burns - President, Historic Natchez Foundation

Danielle S. Willkens - Associate Professor, Georgia Tech College of Architecture

Rebekah Coffman - Curator of Religion and Community History, Chicago History Museum 

Linda Bergman - Docent, Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Synagogue

Mark Swick - Director, Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Synagogue

“Bubba” Rosenthal - President of the Congregation, Congregation Mickve Israel 

Danny Filson - Director of Administration, SCAD

Ryan Jarles - Director of Preservation -  Historic Savannah Foundation

Doug Lum - Second generation owner/preservationist, Temple Gemiluth Chassed 

Boyd Architects - Lucas & Rachel Boyd, Founding Partners

Yossi Refson - Rabbi, Chabad of Charleston

Lawrence F. Bernstein - University of Pennsylvania Emeritus Rose Professor of Music

Mark McDonald - President and CEO of the Georgia Trust

Rabbi Loren Filson Lapidus - Senior Associate Rabbi, The Temple in Atlanta

Institute of Classical Architecture - Midwest and Southeast Chapters - Lynn Amaroso, Jacques Levet, Judy Talley, Julie Hayes

The Taylor Family

———————

All above research, illustrations, aural histories, and memorable travels are dedicated to Burke Klein Schloss

———————