The Jewish Community of Atlanta

Tobias Geffen (1870-1970), rabbi, born in Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania (then part of the Russian Empire). He studied under Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Spektor and then in the Yeshiva of Slovodka. In 1903 he immigrated to the USA and was appointed rabbi of Ahavat Zedek congregation in New York City. Four years later he moved to a small community in Ohio and then in 1910 he became rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel, Atlanta, Georgia. He remained in this position until the end of his life. Geffen became widely known for his decision in 1935 to certify Coca-Cola as kosher. Geffen published eight books, written in Yiddish, of responsa, sermons and Talmudic dissertations. He was the leader of the Southern division of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis.

Jewish Orphanage in Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Postcard, 1910s
The Oster Visual Documentation Center, courtesy of the Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv

"Let Them Go", a demonstration for Soviet Jews,
Atlanta, Georgia, USA,1970.
Photo: Gerald Charles Lasensky, USA
(The Oster Visual Documentation Center, Beit Hatfutsot,
courtesy of Gerald Charles Lasensky, USA)

Yoel Levi (b. 1950), musician and conductor, born in Satu Mare, Romania. He immigrated at a young age to Israel. Levi attended the Tel Aviv Academy of Music, earning a Master of Arts degree with distinction, and then the Jerusalem Academy of Music under Mendi Rodan.

Levi won the 1978 International Besancon Competition for Young Conductors and later on studied with Franco Ferrara in Siena and Rome, Italy, with Kiril Kondrashin in the Netherlands, and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, England.

He moved to United States in late 1970s and became an American citizen in 1987. Levi was chief assistant of Lorin Maazel at the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra (1978-1980) and then chief resident with the same orchestra (1980-1984). Levi. He was the music director and principal conductor for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra from 1988 to 2000. Through 2004-2005, Levi continued to conduct two concert weekends in Atlanta each season.

He conducted the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at the 1991 Nobel Prize Ceremony and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1996 Olympics Games in Atlanta.

As of 2005, he is a music advisor to the Flemish Radio Orchestra and is the Principal Guest Conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 2001, he was awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.

Charlotte Buhler(nee Malachowsky) (1893-1974), educational psychiatrist, born in Berlin, Germany, the older of two children. From 1913 till 1918 she studied at universities in Freiburg/Breigau, in Berlin and in Munich, Germany. While in college, she met and married Dr. Karl Buhler, whose work reflected her interest in human thoughts on existence. By 1919, they had two children and Charlotte Buhler graduated as Doctor of philosophy and psychology, Summa cum laudae, at the University of Munich.

From1920 to 1923 she was Privatdozent at the Technische Hochschule in Dresden. Buhler moved to Austria in 1923, and taught at the School of Philosophy of the University of Vienna (which included psychology). She became associate professor in 1929, and was attendant and member of the faculty at the University of Vienna until 1938.

The Institute of Psychology in Vienna was established at the early 1920s within the framework of the Institute of Education of the City of Vienna, which was opened in 1923. Charlotte Buehler, with her husband, Karl Buehler, succeeded in establishing a far reaching network of scientific communications based on behaviorism. While in Vienna, Charlotte focused her research on the cognitive and personality development of children from infancy through adolescence. The goal of this research was to create a unified theory of psychology development of childhood. The Institute was directed by Charlotte Buehler as a modern social, scientific research institution. In 1924 Buhler received a grant from the Laura Spellman-Rockefeller Memorial Fund for a study visit to the United States of America. She spent some time at the Teachers College of Columbia University, New York, and at the Clinic of Child Development at Yale University, New Haven.

Students of the faculty of psychology, under the guidance of Charlotte Buehler, conducted individual research and follow-up of infants and children’s’ behavior. At the famous ‘Wednesdays colloquy’, doctoral students and collaborators continuously reported on their ongoing investigations, upon which the research plans were decided. The results of the research on children’s psychology were published by her in "Kindheit und Jugend" ("Childhood and Youth") in 1928.

The Institute of Psychology was also involved in the welfare policies of ‘Red Vienna’ by observing the behavior of small children at a Reception Center for Children, who had been put into public care. From 1925 till 1938 Buhler was editor of the "Wiener Arbeiten zur Paedagogischen Psychologie". She was also editor of "Quellen und Studien zur Jugendkunde" from 1928. Among her numerous published works are "Soziologische und psychologische Studien uber das erste Lebensjahr" (1927), "Kindheit und Jugend" (1928), "Kind und Familie" (1937), "The child and his family" (1939), "The course of Human Life" and "A Study of Goals in the Humanistic Perspective" (1968).

In 1938, as the Nazis came to power, Buhler and her husband were both arrested for racial and political reasons. They fled first to Norway, where she was admitted as professor of psychology at the University of Oslo and at the Teachers Academy at Trondheim. In 1939 the Buehlers moved on to the UK. In London she became director of Parents Association and director of child guidance clinics. In 1940 they went to the USA, where she accepted the position of professor of psychology at St. Catherine College of St. Paul, Minnesota. Concurrently in 1942/3 she acted as guest professor at Clark College, Atlanta, Georgia. From 1943 until 1945 she was chief clinical psychologist at Minneapolis General Hospital, Minneapolis. Between 1945-1953 Buhler was chief clinical psychologist at Los Angeles County Hospital. Beginning in 1950 she concentrated on private practice of psychology in Beverly Hills, California. Concurrently, in the years 1950-1958 she was assistant clinical professor of psychology at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, Los Angeles. From 1958 she was professor emeritus and visiting professor at Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, Hunter College, New York, (C.U.N.Y.), Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, and numerous European universities. Charlotte was director of the child guidance clinic in Worcester, Massachusetts.

She was co-editor of the journals, Humanistic Psychology, The Nervous Child, and British Journal of Educational Psychology. She was a member of the the American Psychologists Association and the American Association for Humanistic Psychology serving as president from 1965 till 1966.

Charlottes Buhler’s research and writings concentrated on study of the purpose of human existence. She stressed the concept of personal fulfillment and believed that humans could find personal fulfillment by fully using one’s potential, living constructively, setting goals and periodically assessing progress, and establishing a personal system of values.
In 1971 she returned to the Federal Republic of Germany, and settled in Stuttgart, where she worked in her private clinic, in order to spend the last years of her life with Rolf, her son. Charlotte Buhler received a Honorary Medal from the City of Vienna (1964).

Henry (Zvi Hirsch) Gershoni (1844-1897), journalist and author, born in Vilna, Lithuania (then part of the Russian Empire). He studied in the yeshiva (Rabbinical Seminary) there. Later he lived in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he married a Christian girl; later he himself was converted to Christianity. In 1868, writing in Ha-Maggid, the world’s first Hebrew newspaper first published 1856 in eastern Prussia, he confessed to the fact that he had been converted, but also wrote that he regretted it and that he remained loyal to Judaism. In 1869 he arrived in New York. In 1874 he was appointed rabbi in Macon, Georgia, (USA) and in later years proceeded to serve as rabbi in Atlanta and Chicago. When in Chicago he published the weekly "The Jewish Advance" and "the Maccabean”. He returned to New York (1893) and wrote articles on the important topics of the day such as Orthodoxy versus Reform and Immigration to America or to the Land of Israel.

United States of America (USA)

A country in North America

Estimated Jewish population in 2018: 5,700,000 out of 325,000,000 (1.7%). United States is the home of the second largest Jewish population in the world. 

Community life is organized in more than 2,000 organizations and 700 federations. Each of the main religious denominators – Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist – has its own national association of synagogues and rabbis. 

American cities (greater area) with largest Jewish populations in 2018:

New York City, NY: 2,000,000
Los Angeles, CA: 662,000
Miami, FL: 555,000
Philadelphia, PA: 275,000
Chicago, IL: 294,000
Boston, MA: 250,000
San Francisco, CA: 304,000
Washington, DC & Baltimore, MY: 217,000

States with largest proportion of Jewish population in 2018 (Percentage of Total Population):

New York: 8.9
New Jersey: 5.8
Florida: 3.3
District of Columbia: 4.3
Massachusetts: 4.1
Maryland: 4
Connecticut: 3.3
California: 3.2
Pennsylvania: 2.3
Illinois: 2.3

Columbus

A city on the Chattahoochee River and county seat of Muscogee County on the west-central border of the state of Georgia, United States. Located 160 km from Atlanta, Columbus is the second largest city in Georgia.

21st CENTURY

In 2001 the Jewish population of Columbus was 750, a decline of approximately 25% within the last quarter of the 1900’s.  Numbers have continued to shrink during the first quarter of the 21st century. There are two synagogues, a Reform Temple Israel and a Conservative Shearith Israel.

Shearith Israel sold its building to a local church in 2009. The premises, lacking accessibility to people with handicaps, were no longer suitable for its elderly membership. In 2010 the parsonage house was remodeled into a small synagogue. There is only a part-time rabbi.

There is a small Jewish Federation of Columbus Georgia.

HISTORY

There were individual Jewish traders living around Columbus as early as the beginning of the 19th century, even before the town was officially incorporated in 1828. A Jew, Jacob Moses served as mayor in 1844.

A community was formed in 1854 when a group of Jews, the majority immigrants from Germany, established congregation B’nai Israel. They began by meeting in members’ homes, but later rented a building on the corner of 10th Street and 5th Avenue that also served as a school to instruct children in Hebrew and German as well as religious studies. In 1859 they purchased a house on 10th Street and 4th Avenue which they refurbished as a synagogue, accommodating 100 people.

In 1859 there were 20 Jewish families living in Columbus, most of them involved in retail trade. Of 37 Jews listed in the city directory, seventeen were dry goods merchants, and  three clothing merchants. There were seven store clerks and five skilled craftsmen, including four tinners and one shoemaker.

Columbus Jews played an active role in the Confederate economy during the Civil War (1861-1865). Tinsmiths Louis and Herman Haiman, brothers from Prussia, bought Muscogee Iron Works.  By 1863 the company had 400 workers, many young boys, producing 250 swords a day for the Confederacy. By the end of the War, they were also manufacturing pistols. When the hostilities were over, they converted their enterprise to making ploughs for local farmers.  The brothers Simon and Frank Rothschild created a business manufacturing uniforms for the Confederate army.

Raphael J Moses (1812-1893) was one of the most prominent members of the Columbus Jewish community during this period. A lawyer by profession, he settled in the city in 1849. He took up farming and became the owner of a plantation he named Esquiline. He was the first planter to successfully ship and sell peaches outside the South, and is credited with being the first to preserve the flavor of shipped peaches by packing them in champagne baskets rather than pulverized charcoal. By 1860, he owned 47 slaves.

 Moses was the chief commissary officer of General James Longstreet of the Confederate Army.  Moses was responsible for feeding and supplying up to 54,000 Confederate troops and personnel. He performed his duties without looting from private homes during raids on the Union, always paying for what he took, although with Confederate currency.  Three of his sons fought in the army of the South. One, Albert, was the first Confederate Jew to die in battle (in 1862, in Virginia). At the end of the Civil War in 1865 Moses was given the task by Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, to take $40,000 in gold and silver bullion from the Confederate treasury and make certain it was used to help defeated soldiers straggling home after the war. Traveling with armed guards, Moses managed to successfully deliver the gold and silver to Augusta, Georgia where he negotiated with a Union general that it be used to feed former Confederate soldiers. After the war, Moses was elected to the Georgia state House of Representatives where he became chairman of its judiciary committee.

On the negative side of the law, Simeon Stern, who owned a dry goods store in Columbus with his brother, was arrested in 1862 for passing counterfeit Confederate money in return for cotton.

Rabbi James Gutheim (1817-1886) traveled to Columbus every six weeks to lead Shabbat services at B’nai Israel between 1863-1865. Gutheim had left his congregation in New Orleans over his refusal to take a loyalty oath to the Union when the city was captured by the North and was thus a hero to Confederate sympathizers.

After the Civil War, in 1866, the Jews of Columbus organized a local chapter of B’nai Brith. In 1870 they founded a social club, first called Columbus Concordia, and later the Harmony Club.  According to its minutes, its goal was to “alleviate the monotonous evenings and Sundays in this city.” In 1874 the Daughters of Israel, that was to become the Jewish Ladies Aid Society, was formed. Its purpose was to provide charity and assistance to the needy.

When first established, B’nai Israel had functioned as an Orthodox synagogue.  Like many congregations in the Southern US, it gradually adopted Reform practices, and in 1875 became a member of the Reform Union of American Hebrew Congregations. In 1886 the members hired Louis Weiss, who served as their Rabbi for two years.  In 1887, they dedicated a new synagogue constructed in the Byzantine style, which a local newspaper described as one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. By 1891 they had instituted a mixed choir and installed an organ. They had already reduced the celebration of Jewish holidays to one day. By this time a new wave of immigrants from Germany had almost completely replaced the original 20 member families.

 In the 1890’s B’nai Israel found itself in financial trouble and unable to meet its mortgage obligations.  The members of the Jewish Ladies Aid Society wrote to the widow of the French Jewish philanthropist Baron DeHirsch who sent them $2000 to pay off the debt. The congregation installed a memorial window in memory of the Baron and Baroness, and to this day recite their names during Yizkor services. The Ladies Aid Society was very active in keeping the synagogue financially afloat, by running fairs and bazaars where a considerable amount of money was raised.

At the end of the 19th century, immigrants from Eastern Europe began to settle in Columbus. They were traditional in their religious practices and in 1892 they organized their own synagogue, Chevra Sharis Israel, with an initial membership of 15 families. At first, they met in rented spaces, but by 1915 were able to purchase land and build a house of worship on the corner of 1st Avenue and 7th Street. The funds were raised by a group of 11 men, ten of whom were Russian- born immigrants, and nine of whom had immigrated to the US after 1897. Each contributed $100. The building had a stucco exterior, a balcony for women, and could seat 500. Membership in the congregation grew rapidly. In 1909 the women of the synagogue founded the Jewish Ladies Relief Society that would become the Sisterhood.  In 1919 the religious school had 50 students enrolled.

The longer established B’nai Israel, also grew in membership from 48 member families in 1905 to 85 in 1925. A driving force behind its expansion was Rabbi Frank Rosenthal who led the community from 1907 to 1940.  He helped rebuild after the synagogue was damaged by fire in 1907.  He was also active in the general community and involved in local civic organizations. He served as president of the Jewish Welfare Board during World War I, and led services for soldiers at Fort Benning, the large military base set up by the US War Department in 1918 next to Columbus. Unlike other Reform rabbis in the Southern US, he was not opposed to Zionism. In 1919 Columbus Jews set up a local Zionist district affiliated with the Zionist Organization of America.

In 1937 the Jewish population of Columbus was 725, more than double what it had been at the end of the previous century. Most Jews were in the retail trade, but there were some who had become successful in manufacturing. Jews were active and held leadership positions in civic organizations, such as the city Board of Education, Metro Planning Commission, and local medical center.

In 1939 the community mobilized to bring Jews from Germany, bringing a family to Columbus every month, while conditions in Europe made it still possible.  In 1944 the Columbus Jewish Welfare Federation was organized.  It raised funds for Israel during the 1967 and Yom Kippur wars.

Sharis Israel grew during the 1940’s to a membership of 100 families, supporting a full-time rabbi and a shochet. The community changed the name of the synagogue to Shearith Israel. Its growth to 124 member families and its changing needs, led it in 1951 to construct a new building on Wynneton Road, with a sanctuary that could accommodate 300, a smaller chapel, six classrooms for a Hebrew School, a social hall, and a kitchen. It gradually moved away from Orthodoxy, introducing mixed seating and some English in the prayer services. In 1952 it officially joined the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. In 1974 it became egalitarian, calling women to the Torah, and counting them for a minyan. In the 1980’s its membership reached a peak of 150 families. It operated a kosher co-op run by 30 members who ordered meat from Chicago and Atlanta several times a year.

B’nai Israel, which changed its name to Temple Israel grew to 80 families in 1940.  In 1952 it moved to a new building on Wildwood Avenue.  By 1962 it had grown to 119 families, and in 1982 peaked at 182 families.

In 1977 Temple Israel and Shearith Israel merged their 8th, 9th, and 10th grade religious school classes, and in the 1990’s merged the two schools completely. They were to split apart in 2004, as both synagogues declined in membership, and only Temple Israel continued to operate a school.

Charlotte

The largest city in the State of North Carolina, USA.

21^ST CENTURY

Shalom Park is a 54-acre campus that serves as the center of Charlotte’s Jewish community. Located on campus are the Levine Jewish Community Center and its affiliated summer camp, Camp Mindy, a kosher supermarket and restaurant, the Levine-Sklut Judaic Library and Resource Center (the repository of the Charlotte Jewish Archives), synagogues Temple Israel and Temple Beth El, the Charlotte Torah Center, a Chabad, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte. Jewish education institutions located on campus include the Charlotte Jewish Preschool, the Charlotte Jewish Day School, and the Consolidated High School of Jewish Studies (Hebrew High of Charlotte). Most Jews live within 15 miles of Shalom Park.

Charlotte is home to six synagogues: Charlotte Torah Center (Orthodox), Congregation Kehillat Charlotte (Conservative), Temple Israel (Conservative), Temple Beth El (Reform), Havurat Tikvah (Reconstructionist), and Ohr HaTorah-Charlotte (Chabad).

The Charlotte Jewish News is a monthly newspaper that keeps Charlotte’s Jews informed about local, national, and international news of Jewish interest.

In 2009 Charlotte’s Jewish population was estimated at 14,000.

 

HISTORY

Individual Jews settled in Charlotte before the American Revolution (1775-1783), and a number served in the Revolutionary Army. Jewish institutions and congregations, however, were not established until the latter half of the 19^th century.  

In 1850 census 9 Jewish families were recorded as living in Charlotte, and in 1860 the Jewish population was approximately 50 Jews.

During the Civil War (1861-1865) eleven Jewish men from Charlotte served in the Confederate Army. One, Private Louis Leon, kept a diary in which he wrote about the war and his experiences; at one point he mentions that General Robert E. Lee granted special passes to Jewish troops so that they could attend High Holiday services. The Jews who lived in Charlotte tended to be very supportive of the Confederacy, evidenced in part by the fact that at the end of the war a Jewish resident of Charlotte provided Varina Anne Davis (the wife of Jefferson Davis) a safe haven as she and her husband attempted to flee from federal troops.

The late 19^th century saw an influx of German Jews to the United States, with some arriving to settle in Charlotte. These immigrants established Charlotte’s first Jewish organizations. The Hebrew Benevolent Society was founded first, and received permission to establish a Jewish cemetery in 1872. A Bnai Brith Lodge followed a few years later. However, it was not until Eastern European Jews began arriving at the end of the 19^th century that the city’s first congregation was established. Shaarey Israel was formed in 1893. The Hebrew United Brotherhood (later renamed Temple Israel) was established in 1895 and its synagogue building was constructed in 1916.

Temple Israel eventually had to sell its building, a result of the congregation’s financial difficulties during the Great Depression (1929-1939). This setback proved to be temporary, however, and a new synagogue building for Temple Israel was built in 1949. Temple Beth El, a Reform congregation, was established in 1942. Temple Beth Shalom, another Reform congregation, was established in 1970 after a split from Temple Beth El. Eventually, in 1987, Beth Shalom and Beth El would re-merge.

More Jewish immigrants continued arriving in Charlotte during the postwar era. A number of Cuban Jewish refugees arrived after the 1959 Cuban Revolution; Soviet Jews began arriving in 1974.

Shalom Park opened in 1986 and became a center for Jewish life in Charlotte.

Charlotte’s Jewish population was 350 in 1920. By 1937 it had grown to 720. In 1960 the Jewish population was 2,000, a number that doubled by 1984. In 1997 there were 8,500 Jews living in Charlotte.

Notable figures from the Jewish community include Dannie Heineman, an industrialist who founded the Heineman Medical Outreach, Inc. during the late 1940s. Harry Golden, an immigrant from the Ukraine and bestselling author, founded the newspaper Carolina Israelite in 1942, which advocated for integration.  Leon and Sandra Levine served as major philanthropists; the projects they have funded include the Levine Museum of the New South, the Levine Jewish Community Center, the Levine Children’s Hospital, the Levine Scholars Program at the University of North Carolina—Charlotte, and the Levine Science Research Center at Duke University.

 

Anniston

A city and seat of Calhoun County in Alabama, United States

The Jewish community was established after Leon Ullman, a merchant from Talladega, Alabama, moved his business to Anniston. In 1884, along with his brothers, Leopold, August, Abe, and Solomon, he opened Ullman Brothers on Noble Street, the main street of the city. They were followed by other German Jews who identified the business opportunities the developing town offered during the second half of the 19th century, particularly after Anniston was connected to the railroad network in 1883. Joseph Saks, Adolph Adler, and Anselm Sterne and other Jews soon operated thriving businesses.

In 1888 the growing number of Jews in Anniston enabled the establishment of a congregation. Henrietta Sterne, the wife of Anselm Sterne, who came from Albany, GA, where she ran the local Jewish school, opened a similar one in Anniston in 1889. Anselm and Henrietta Sterne, influential members of the congregation, were instrumental in establishing The Ladies Hebrew Benevolent Society, a charitable organization that was open in 1890 with Henrietta Sterne as its first president. She held this position until her death in 1915.

During the first years of Jewish settlement in Anniston the prayers were conducted in private homes or halls. The Ladies Hebrew Benevolent Society led the efforts for the opening of a synagogue in Anniston. In 1891 the land at the corner of Quintard Avenue and Thirteenth Street was purchased, and two years later, on December 8, 1893, Beth El temple was officially inaugurated in the presence of Rabbi Max Heller, the distinguished Reform Jewish rabbi from New Orleans. Upon his return to Louisiana, Rabbi Heller sent the congregation a Bible, which still rests on the bimah, and the Ladies Hebrew Benevolent Society sent the rabbi’s wife a piece of their “fancy work.”

The women’s charitable association continued to gather the funds that ultimately allowed for the furbishing of the temple and its maintenance. In 1907 the temple was presented to the congregation. Beth El of Anniston is the oldest building in Alabama continuously and currently being used for Jewish worship.

Leon Ullman served as the first leader of the congregation. He was followed by Joseph Saks and Anselm Sterne. Joseph Saks, for whom the community of Saks just outside the city of Anniston was named, served as president for more than two decades. In 1900 Anselm Sterne arranged for a student rabbi from the Hebrew Union College to officiate at High Holy Days services. Student rabbis were employed for most of the next eight decades, leading only the High Holy Days services. Only in mid-1950s a student rabbi also began to visit the congregation once and then twice a month. Rabbis from out of town performed at weddings, funerals, confirmations, and bar mitzvah ceremonies.

Harry Shiretzki, the Jewish police chief of Anniston, was murdered by the owner of an illegal moonshining operation during a raid on the business in 1924.

Before and after WW II, a number of Jewish refugees and then Holocaust survivors settled in Anniston.

Given the Jewish support to the Civil Rights movement of the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Jews of Anniston were occasionally threatened by white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

Over the years the congregation has grown as new members moved into the community and congregants married and downturns in its membership as older congregants have passed away and their children have moved to communities with more economic and social opportunities.

The building of the temple was enlarged with the additions of a community room, religious classrooms, and a library. In 1985, Temple Beth-El, a building in the Romanesque Revival style, was included in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) – The United States federal government’s official list of buildings of historical significance.