Congregation Beth Israel Oldest Orthodox Congregation in Metro New Orleans |
By the 1880's, the Dryades Street neighborhood held a number of small Orthodox congregations, divided, generally, along the lines of the various nationalities of the community. In 1904, a number of these congregations merged to form a single Modern Orthodox synagogue, which they named Beth Israel. |
With the help of both the Orthodox and Reform communities of the city, they were able to purchase the imposing home of former Mayor Joseph Shakespeare in the 1600 block of Carondelet Street. The congregation moved into its new home in 1906 and experienced rapid growth. For many years, Beth Israel was the largest Orthodox congregation in the South. |
The Shakespeare home was demolished and a beautiful and impressive new Byzantine structure, featuring a seating capacity of 1,200, was constructed in 1924. In 1926, Beth Israel continued its expansion by building the Menorah Institute - the educational, social and cultural arm of the congregation - around the corner from the synagogue. |
The second Beth Israel synagogue building, ca. 1930's |
Original home of Congregation Beth Israel, sketch ca. 1890's. Until his death in 1896, this was the home of Joseph Shakespeare, two-term mayor of New Orleans in the 1880's. This building was demolished in 1924. |
Menorah Institute, Euterpe Street, shortly after construction. |
In 1963, Beth Israel purchased land on Canal Boulevard, constructed a new building and moved there in 1971. The levee failures caused between 9-11 feet of water to inundate the Lakeview neighborhood in 2005. The flood devastated the synagogue's interior and, despite efforts to save them, all seven of its Torah scrolls were destroyed, as well as, over 3,000 prayer books and all of the furnishings. Most of the synagogue's congregation members lived in the Lakeview area and lost their homes in the flood. Beth Israel was unable to renovate the building on Canal Boulevard. |
Above and below, current photos of (above) the old Beth Israel synagogue on Carondelet and (below) the old Menorah Institute building on Euterpe Street. |
After the levee failures, Beth Israel's congregation began sharing space with Congregation Gates of Prayer, a Reform synagogue in Metairie. In 2009, the congregation purchased land adjacent to Gates of Prayer and, in 2010, a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Beth Israel synagogue was held. |
The link to this page is: http://old-new-orleans.com/NO_BethIsrael.html Website: Congregation Beth Israel Back to Old New Orleans Whispers - Home |
Photo directly above is courtesy of Infrogmation and Flickr Creative Commons. |