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The Jewish Community of Dallas

Dallas

Financial and industrial center in North Texas and the second largest city in the state.

The earliest Jewish settlement in Dallas began in 1870 with the arrival of about 15 families. The first Jews were mainly retail merchants and several of them, among whom the Sanger and Kahn families were outstanding, played a vital role in the commercial development of the city as a whole.

The first organized Jewish institution dates to 1872, when the "Hebrew Benevolent Association" was created; although it was primarily a charitable institution, it sponsored the first High Holiday services. A Jewish cemetery was dedicated the same year and in 1873 a local "B'nai B'rith" chapter was formed. Dallas' first congregation, temple Emanu-El, was founded in 1874 and allied itself with the Reform movement; in 1969 it had a membership of 2,200 families. A second congregation, Shearith Israel, established as an Orthodox synagogue in 1884, became Conservative, and in 1969 had about 1,200 members. Another Orthodox congregation, Tifereth Israel, was founded in 1890 and by 1969 numbered close to 400 families. Two hundred families belong to the Reform temple Shalom, which was organized in 1965. The rabbinical advisory committee, founded in 1944, represents all of these synagogues. The "Jewish Welfare Federation" was organized in 1911 as a centralized agency for all Dallas Jewish social welfare services and fund raising for local, national, and overseas needs. It sponsors a community relations council, composed of representatives of all major Jewish organizations, and a young leadership training program, founded in 1952. The federation also supports a number of other local agencies, such as the "Jewish Family Service", which offers counseling, financial assistance, and job placement to both families and individuals. The "Jewish Vocational Counseling Service", opened in 1966, specializes in guidance programs for young people. The "Dallas Home and Hospital for the Jewish Aged", founded in 1948, offers intensive care and many forms of specialized treatment for the elderly. The "Julius Schepps Community Center", which was founded in 1942 and has a membership of over 1,000 families, provides classes and group work in Jewish cultural and recreational activities and in physical education.

By 1970, the old social and economic distinctions between the German-Jewish settlers who first came to Dallas and the later immigrants from Eastern Europe had largely been erased, and descendants of both groups participated on an equal basis in communal life and leadership. Also, the overall economic picture changed from the days when Jews were primarily merchants. In the 1960s members of the Jewish community were engaged in a wide variety of business enterprises, including garment manufacturing, paper and air- conditioning companies, and finance. There was also a large number of Jewish professionals, including lawyers, doctors, engineers, and business consultants.
Jewish-gentile relations had their stormy days in the 1920s, when the Ku Klux Klan was highly active. Even though relations improved, as late as the early 1970s there were still several social clubs that maintained an exclusionary policy toward Jews. With a few exceptions the "Six O'clock Curtain" that separates Jews from gentiles socially still applied. In business and communal activities, however, the Jewish community has long been integrated into the Dallas community at large. The federation is a member of the city- wide united fund and participates both in the raising of its municipal quota and in the handling of grants for its local constituent agencies. Since 1938 southern Methodist and temple Emanu-El have sponsored the community course, which makes art, music, drama, and lecture programs available to the entire city. The Bridwell Library of the Perkins School of Theology houses two large collections of Judaica, the "Sadie and David Lefkowitz Collection" and the "Levi A. Olan Collection."

In Dallas' civic, cultural, and political life, too, Jews play a significant role. There have been Jewish presidents of the symphony orchestra, the chamber of commerce, and the metropolitan opera association. In 1970 Stanley Marcus, who was active in all of these, was a leader of the powerful citizens' council; Carl Flaxman was director of the health, education and welfare office, which serves the entire southwest; Julius Schepps was especially active in the fair park association, which controls the famous cotton bowl (the new year's day football game); Abe Meyers was a member of the Dallas city council; and Joe H. Goldman was a state senator in Austin. In 1966 president Johnson appointed Irving L. Goldberg to a judgeship in the fifth district court of appeals. Many Jews are active in the league for educational advancement in Dallas concerned with the election of school board members.

Dallas has also had three Jewish mayors: Adlene Harrison (1976), Annette Strauss (1987-1991), and Laura Miller (elected 2002).

In 2014, Dallas had an estimated population of 1,207,202, including a Jewish population of approximately 50,000. In the late 19th century, the Cedars district in south Dallas was home to a sizeable Jewish community but by the 20th century, many Jewish residents had moved north.

The Jewish community of Dallas is one of the largest in Texas. Serving this community is a number of Jewish associations as well as chapters of nearly every national Jewish organization. The "Federation of Greater Dallas" is the city's most important Jewish institution as it provides a wide variety of humanitarian and social services and supports more than forty other Jewish organizations in both Dallas and Israel, including the "Center for Jewish Education" (CJE). The CJE of Dallas functions as a community resource for Jewish education, offering a myriad of programs, activities and events. Dallas also has its share of kosher services. These include food distributors, bakeries and as many as eight restaurants. There are additionally many supermarkets which carry kosher foods. Serving the senior members of the Jewish community is the "Legacy Preston Hollow', an assisted living center and health care provider.

By 2008, the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area had about twenty synagogues representing the various streams of Judaism. The Reform movement is the largest in Dallas. With eight congregations, they have more members than other any other stream of Judaism. The first functioning synagogue in Dallas was established in 1873, when several families founded the Jewish Congregation of Emanu-El. Not only was it the first synagogue in Dallas but the first Reform congregation in North Texas. In 1974, it was renamed Temple Emanu-El Congregation and by 2005, it had a membership of almost three thousand families. Dallas is also home to a large Modern Orthodox community. There are about seven different Orthodox synagogues including Chabad. Other Jewish congregations include Conservative (4) and Traditional (1).

Although many synagogues provide educational services for children, families and adults, there are several Jewish schools and educational institutions located outside the congregation. Dallas is home to fifteen or more Jewish day schools, most of which are affiliated with the Orthodox and Reform movements.

At the center of the community is the "Aaron Family Jewish Community Center of Dallas". Serving close to seven thousand members, the center offers a wide range of programs and services, including educational programming for children and young adults. The JCC also provides social programs such as organized camps, sports teams and art workshops. One of the largest associations for Jewish youth is BBYO. Dallas has fifteen chapters of AZA and BBG.

In addition to historic congregations, gift shops, and kosher restaurants, the "Dallas Holocaust Museum-Center for Education and Tolerance" is one of the city's most significant Jewish institutions and landmarks. It features a memorial known as the Garden of Remembrance and a Museum archive and library. Its core exhibit focuses on three major events which occurred on the day of April 19, 1943 –the attack on the 20th Deportation Train from Belgium by partisans, the Bermuda Conference, and the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

A trusted source of news for the Jewish community of Dallas and North Texas is the "Texas Jewish Post". This weekly newspaper has been in circulation since 1947.

George Lang (1924-2011), restaurant owner, born Gyorgy Deutsch in Szekesfehervar, Hungary, the son of a tailor. A promising violinist, he went to live in Budapest, Hungary, where planned to study in the Franz Liszt Music Academy, but the outbreak of World War II prevented his ambition from being fulfilled.

When the Fascist Arrow Cross party seized power in 1944 and severe anti-Jewish measures were enacted, his parents were sent to their deaths in Auschwitz, while Gyorgy was consigned to a labour camp. He however succeeded in escaping, hid his identity and even joined the Arrow Cross. After three months his true identity was discovered and was sentenced to be executed. He was saved by the liberation of Budapest by the Soviet army but the Russians rearrested him as a suspected fascist. He was acquitted after other Jews testified on his behalf. In 1946, using his mother's maiden name Lang, he fled Hungary and settled in the USA.

Lang, as he was now known, started to work in a New York hotel, he then turned pages for accompanists at Carnegie Hall and then became a violinist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. When this promising opening did not lead to a permanent career he made a sharp change of direction. Lang became a chef, then a banquetting manager and finally a successful developer of new restaurant projects. In 1970 he formed a restaurant consulting company, the George Lang Corporation. In 1992, together with Ronald Lauder, he bought and restored the famous Budapest restaurant Gundel. In 1998 he wrote his autobiography “Nobody knows the truffles I've seen.”






He pioneered the profession of restaurant consulting when in 1970 he started the George Lang Corporation. In 1975 he bought the Café des Artistes, a restaurant popular with musicians, journalists, and others; it closed in 2009 after steady losses and union troubles.[4] In 1992, along with Ronald S. Lauder, he bought and restored the famous Budapest restaurant Gundel.
His autobiography, entitled Nobody Knows the Truffles I've Seen (a reference to the spiritual "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen") was published by Knopf in 1998.
Lang, who was married to Jenifer Harvey Lang at the time of his death, had been treated for Alzheimer's disease and died at age 86 at his home in Manhattan.

Kohut, George Alexander (1874-1933), historian and educator, born in Szekesfehervar (Stuhlweissenburg in German), Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary), where his father, Alexander, served as rabbi. He attended secondary school in Nagyvarad (Grosswardin in German, now Oradea in Romania). He immigrated with his father to the United States in 1885. He studied at University of Columbia and the Rabbinical Seminary in New York. When his father died he returned to Europe for three years to study in Berlin, Germany, at the university and the Hochschule fuer Wissenschaft des Judentums. From there he went to study in Paris, France. He was ordained in the United States in 1897 by Bernard Felsenthal and served as rabbi for three years in Dallas, Texas.

Desiring a broader role as an educator, Kohut left for New York City, where he was a teacher of Latin and German at the Kohut School for Girls, which had been founded by his stepmother Rebekah Kohut. He also was, for a time, assistant librarian at the Jewish Theological Seminary. From 1902 to 1912 he served as school principal at Temple Emanu-El. He founded the Kohut School for Boys and was its head in 1909-1918; he also headed Camp Kohut (1907-1926), the Children's University School and the Dalton High School (1924-1926), and the Columbia Grammar School (1920-1933).
Kohut sought to encourage Jewish scholarship in a number of ways. Through the Alexander Kohut Memorial Foundation, which he set up in 1915, he helped sponsor the publication of important works. In 1919 he presented the 8,000-volume Alexander Kohut Memorial Collection to Yale University library. His own 4,000-volume library was bequeathed to the American Jewish Historical Society, the Kohut Memorial Collection at Yale, and the Jewish Institute of Religion, of which he was a trustee.

He compiled the Italian index to his father's "Arukh ha-Shalem", edited "Semitic Studies in Memory of Alexander Kohut" (1897), and published "Morituri: A Reminiscence of my Father" (1907). His many scholarly and popular essays reflect his interest in the prose and poetry of Hebrew, Hungarian, English, French, German, and Spanish, and in bibliography and history of Jewish life and literature and Hebrew learning in the Americas. He was one of the first in America to recognize the need for a new Jewish Encyclopedia, and cooperated with Isaac Landmann and others in the planning of the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, mainly by enlisting the services of leading American and European scholars to join the editorial council.

Kohut was editor of "Helpful Thought" (1901-1903); "Jewish Home" (1903-1904); "New Era" (1904-1905); "Young Israel" (1907-1908); "N.S. Joseph's Israel's Faith" (1905); "Leopold Zunz's Suffering of the Jews in the Middle Ages" (1907); "H, Hurwitz;s Hebrew Tales" (1911); and "H.P. Chajes Memorial Volume" (1933). Among his numerous contributions to bibliography, folklore, Jewish history and literature were: "Early Jewish Literature in America" (1895); "Jewish Martyrs of the Inquisition in South America" (1896); "Simon de Caseres and his Project to Conquer Chile" and "Semitic Studies in Memory of Alexander Kohut" (1897); "Ezra Stiles and the Jews" (1902); "Jewish Heretics in the Philippines" and "The Martyrdom of the Carbajal Family in Mexico" (1904); "Royal Hebraist" (1906 and 1927); "Beside Still Waters", a volume of poems (1912); and a "Hebrew Anthology" (1913). Kohut was also a contributor to the "Jewish Encyclopedia", the "Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society" and the "Revue des etudes juives".

Bernhard Gottlieb (1885-1950), dental scientist, born in Kuty, Galicia (then part of Austria-Hungary, now in Ukraine). He studied medicine at the university of Vienna, Austria, and went on to study dentistry. He worked in the dental surgery of his future father-in-law, Dr. Siegmund Herz, and attended evening science classes at the Vienna Anatomical Institute. During the First World War he served in the Austrian army and was head of a mobile dental outpatient clinic on the Russian-Romanian front. During the war, Gottlieb collected jaw specimens, which would later form the basis for his famous histological studies. In 1919 he opened a surgery and a dental laboratory to further his studies in parodontology and orthodontics. In 1921 he was appointed a lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine of Vienna University and in 1930 he became a full professor. The anti-Semitic policies of the Nazi regime after 1938 caused him to be dismissed from his position and move first to the Land of Israel and then to the USA. In 1940 he started to work at the Kellogg Foundation in Ann Arbor, Michigan, then as guest professor at the University of Michigan while the following year he was appointed Professor of Oral Pathology and head of the Department for Dental Research at the Baylor College in Dallas, Texas.

Gottlieb’s importance can be seen in his successes in basic research. He was the first to describe the epithelial tissue which joins the tooth surface to the gum. His research advanced the knowledge about the causes of caries. After his death, the Vienna University Clinic for Dentistry, Oral Hygiene and Orthodontics was named after him. A keen Talmudist and a Zionist, he identified with the cause of a Jewish state in Palestine. During 1938-1940 he spent two years teaching at the Hebrew University and helped to set up dental clinics in the Land of Israel.

Antal Doráti (1906-1988), conductor, born in Budapest, Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary). He studied with Bela Bartok, Zoltan Kodaly, Leo Weiner and Szekely. In 1933 he emigrated to France, and in 1938 went to Sydney, Australia and on to the United States. Between 1945-1949 he conducted the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and between 1949-1960 the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. Dorati was chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London between 1963-1965, and between 1965-1974 of the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Between 1970-1977 he was music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC, and between 1975-1978 directed also the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. Between 1977-1981 Dorati was music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Dorati composed a symphony, concerto for piano and violoncello, and chamber and vocal music. Notes of Seven Decades, his autobiography, was published in 1979. He died in Gerzensee, Switzerland.

David Lefkowitz (1875-1955), rabbi, born in Presov, Slovakia (then part of the Austria-Hungary). In 1881, after his father's death, he immigrated to the United States. At the age of seven, he was placed in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York. He studied at the College of the City of New York (B.S., 1894), supporting himself by teaching at the orphan asylum. After graduation, he continued his teaching for two years. He thought of becoming an artist and was admitted to the Art Students League of New York, but finally studied for the rabbinate (University of Cincinnati, B.L., 1899; Hebrew Union College, Rabbi 1900).

In 1900 he became a rabbi of Congregation B'nai Yeshurun (afterwards Temple Israel) of Dayton, Ohio. He served in that capacity for twenty years. In Dayton, he participated in many communal activities; he was president of the Humane Society and of the Playgrounds and Gardens Association; he was active in inaugurating the city manager form of government; and, during World War I, he was chairman of the American Red Cross of Montgomery County (which includes Dayton). He held this post until 1920.

Lefkowitz was chosen rabbi Temple Emanu-El, Dallas, Texas, in 1920. In 1935 he was elected rabbi for life. He organized the Southwestern Jewish Chautauqua (afterwards, the Southwestern Conference of Jewish Religious Schools), and was its first president (1923-25); later, he was elected honorary president.

Lefkowitz was also editor of the Dallas Jewish American. In Dallas, as in Dayton, he participated in many communal activities of general interest, including the Dallas Community Chest, of which he was vice-president; and he was chairman of the American Red Cross (1925-26). He was the first chairman of the Committee of Church and State of the central Conference of American Rabbis, and held the office many years. From 1929 to 1931 he was president of the Conference.

Lefkowitz was on the advisory board of Southern Methodist University as well as a member of the board of governors of the Hebrew Union College, and was awarded honorary degrees by both (LL.D., Southern Methodist University, 1927; D.D., Hebrew Union College, 1939).

Abraham Zapruder (1905-1970), clothing manufacturer, best known for filming the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, born in Kovel, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire). Having lived for a couple of years in Warsaw, he immigrated along with his family to the United States in 1920 and settled in the Brooklyn neighborhood of New York following his father who had arrived in the United States in 1909. He pursued English studies at night while working as a clothing pattern designer in Manhattan's Garment District. In 1941, Zapruder moved to Dallas in Texas to work for Nardis, a local sportswear company. In 1954, he co-founded Jennifer Juniors, Inc., which produced the Chalet and Jennifer Juniors brands. The company's offices were situated in the Dal-Tex Building, directly across from the Texas School Book Depository. On November 22, 1963, Zapruder filmed the presidential limousine as it traveled through Dealey Plaza making a turn in front of the Book Depository building, where Lee Harvey Oswald was stationed. He agreed to hand over the film to Forrest Sorrels, an agent of the Secret Service, with the condition that it would only be used as part of the investigation. Copies of the film were made, two of which went to the Secret Service, and the third remained with Zapruder. Later, on November 25, Zapruder sold the film to Life Magazine for $150,000. He made the first payment of $25,000 to the widow of J.D. Tippit, the Dallas police officer shot by Oswald. Zapruder died in Dallas. 

Jack Leon Ruby (born Jacob Leon Rubenstein, also known as "Sparky") (1911-1967), nightclub owner, the murderer of Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President John F. Kennedy, born in Chicago, United States. His childhood was troubled, marked by delinquent behavior that led him to spend time in foster homes. In 1922, he got arrested for truancy and later had to attend the Institute for Juvenile Research due to his frequent school skipping. During his youth, he made a living by selling horse-racing tip sheets and various novelties. Additionally, he served as a business agent for a local refuse collectors union, which eventually became part of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. 

In 1943, he was drafted into the U.S. Army Air Forces during WW II and worked as an aircraft mechanic until 1946. In 1947, he relocated to Dallas after facing business difficulties in Chicago and to assist with his sister's nightclub. During his life, there were allegations of criminal involvement, including illegal gambling, narcotics, and prostitution, with some connections to organized crime. 

On November 24, 1963, two days after the assassination of President J.F. Kennedy, Ruby went to police headquarters in Dallas after sending a money order to an employee. It appears that the decision to shoot Oswald was possibly impromptu, as he left his beloved dog Sheba in the car. At 11:21 AM CST on that Sunday, while authorities were preparing to transfer Oswald to custody, Ruby emerged from a group of reporters and photographers and fatally shot Oswald in the abdomen. The incident was captured on live television. 

Ruby was convicted of murder with malice on March 14, 1964, and was sentenced to death. He had an opportunity to meet members of the Warren Commission who had traveled to Dallas to speak with him. Ruby expressed his desire to convince President Johnson that he was not part of any conspiracy to assassinate JFK. He passed away from lung cancer in 1967. 

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

Houston

Port and industrial center in Southeastern Texas, USA.

21ST CENTURY

In 2017 there were 63,700 Jews living in Houston. The vast majority of Houston’s Jewish community was living in areas that were affected by Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Three of the five major synagogues in Houston experienced major flooding while many Jewish homes were flooded and sustained significant damage. A number of Jewish camps in the area provided shelter for both Jews and non-Jews who were forced to evacuate their homes.

HISTORY

Houston was founded in 1836. It is unknown when the first Jew arrived, but there are records of several Jews who came during the early years of the settlement. Eugene Chimene is often cited as the first Jew of Houston, although he is not listed until the census of 1860. The earliest available census regarding the population of Houston dates back to 1850, and it indicates a possible 17 Jewish adults out of a population of 1863; in 1860 the figures were 68 out of a total population of 3,768. The majority of these Jews were merchants and clerks who operated stores selling clothing and food. These Houston Jews were reported to be "comfortably situated" by contemporary sources. The 1860 census indicated that approximately 60% of the Jews were landowners (as compared with about 25% of other immigrant groups), but there were also some Jews with no personal and real-estate.
The Jews were informally organized in Houston until 1855 when a Hebrew Benevolent Society was founded. The "Occident" heralded its organization as he first "regular Jewish Society in the state of Texas".

On May 8, 1859 the first congregation, Beth Israel, was established, and in August of that year its synagogue, a wooden structure in the middle of the city, was dedicated. The congregation began as an Orthodox synagogue according to Polish sources, although the majority of Jews in Houston were of German origin. In 1856 a home was converted into a synagogue and in 1860 the Orthodox Beth Israel congregation was formed, with Z. Emmich acting as its first rabbi, cantor and ritual slaughterer. The congregation's first building was erected in 1870. The city then had a population of 9,382 of whom 245 were Jews. That population would almost double only 7 years later, to 471. The last decades of the 19th century witnessed the beginnings of Jewish immigration to Houston from Eastern Europe, replacing the earlier German one. As Beth Israel congregation became more liberal in outlook, two new Orthodox congregations were formed which eventually merged as congregation Adath Yeshurun in 1891. The first "B'nai B'rith" lodge and a "Hebrew Free Loan society" were organized, along with the beginnings of a YMHA. The new immigrants mostly incorporated in the retail trade as peddlers and shopkeepers, although there were several bankers among them as well as dealers in cotton. Henry S. Fox was one of the founders of the "Houston Cotton Exchange", Morris Levy was a member of the first "Houston Ship Channel Company", and Ed Klein established Houston's first department store.

The turn of the 19th century inaugurated a period of rapid growth in the Jewish community, spurred by the 1900 hurricane that drove many Jewish inhabitants inland from the Texas coast, and by the implementation of the "Galveston Plan". The city's first Jewish newspaper, "the Jewish Herald", went into publication in 1908. New synagogues were established and Jewish institutional life expanded with new organizations as a "Bikur Cholim Sociey", "Workmen's Circle" (1915), "Zionist Federation" (1903), "United Jewish charities" (1914),ant the weekly "Jewish Herald" (1908). The large military instillations near Houston during World War I brought an influx of Jewish Servicemen, many of whom remained in the city after their discharge. In 1917 the Jewish population of Houston was put at 5,000. By 1920 it had jumped to 10,000, close to seven percent of the city's total. The leading figure in the Jewish community during this period was Rabbi Henry Branston who accepted the 'Beth Israel' pulpit in 1900 and for the next 45 years presided over the congregation. Judge Henry J. Dannenbaum was nationally active in the fight against white slavery and served the city in its civic life, along with precipitation in Jewish communal affairs.

The Jewish community grew at a slower pace between the two world wars, reaching an estimated 13,500 in 1941. Ku Klus Klan activity in the rea in the 1920s and 1930s discouraged Jews from entering civic and political life as well as being afraid to stand out. Beth El, Texas' first Conservative congregation was formed in 1924. The "Jewish Community Council" was organized during those years. An annual "United Jewish Campaign" was instituted under the Council's direction. A charitable foundation left to the community by Pauline Sterne Wolff helped support many of Houston's Jewish institutions in the years to come. Religiously, the drift in the Jewish community was toward Reform. A unique event in national Jewish life occurred in Houston in 1943 when a radically anti-Zionist majority at congregation Beth Israel, the city's largest, passed a resolution of "Basic Principles" that excluded from the congregation all members professing an interest in Zionism. A minority of dissenters withdrew from the congregation to form a new synagogue; Emanu El. Beth Israel eliminated the "Basic Principles" from its membership application only in 1967.

The growth of Houston's Jewish community after World War II did not keep pace with the phenomenal growth pf the city as a whole, so that by 1970 the Jewish percentage in the total population had declined to less than two percent. To an extent, this may be attributed to the fact that, more than elsewhere in the United States, large chain stores and distribution outlets in Houston, have eliminated the traditional Jewish role of the individual entrepreneur. Nevertheless, Houston has remained a city rich in Jewish organizations. Among other institutions were 12-story Jewish institute for Medical Research and a $3,500,000 Jewish community center. In 1967 the "Houston Commission for Jewish Education" was formed to coordinate Jewish educational activities.

Few Houstonian Jews participated in local political life. The first Jew to be elected to political office in Houston in the 20th century was Richard Gottlieb, who was chosen to the city's council in 1969. Jews have been more prominent in business, among them Joe Weingarten, one of the pioneers in the supermarket field, Simon Sakowitz, one of Houston's leading merchants. In the field of education, Norman Hackerman became president of Rice University in 1970, and Joseph Melnick, one of the world's leading virologists, was dean of the graduate research department of the Baylor College of Medicine. D.H. White edited and published the weekly "Jewish Herald-Voice".

The 1970s saw a tremendous growth in Houston's Jewish community, which grew from 25,000 to 45,000. The growth was a reflection of the boom in the Houston economy that lasted through the mid-1980s. The 1970s and 1980s also saw tremendous growth in Jewish institutions.

By 1995, the Houston Jewish community had five Jewish day schools with an enrollment of over 1,000 children. More than 3,000 children participated in other forms of Jewish education throughout the community. In the mid-1990s the community had 30 congregations representing every stream of Judaism and geographically located in all corners of the city. Houston's "Jewish Community Center" provides early childhood services, a campsite for day and resident camping, and a satellite facility in West Houston.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, the Jewish Federation raised 3 million dollars for neighborhood renewal in Israel and in excess of 10 million dollars for the rescue and resettlement of Jews from the former Soviet-Union. In 2014, they raised nearly $14 million for local, national and international Jewish causes.

Houston is home to 6 million "Holocaust Education Center and Memorial Museum", opened in 1996. The museum features a permanent exhibit telling stories of Holocaust survivors living in the Houston area. Its Memorial Museum is the fourth-largest Holocaust memorial in the United States. Visitors of the museum can access the Boniuk Library which includes more than 5,000 volumes on the Holocaust and several archives.

The Jewish community of Houston has grown to incorporate many different traditions and branches. In the early 21st century it was one of the largest Jewish communities in the south and continued to contribute to the cultural and economic life of them region. A 2001 study from Rice University placed the Jewish population of Greater Houston at approximately 47,000. In 2003, the total population of Houston was just over 2 million.

By the 21st century, Houston was host to a variety of organizations, committees, schools and kosher services. The "Jewish Federation of Greater Houston", "Jewish Family Service" and the "Hebrew Free Loan Association" are just a few which serve the Jewish community, providing financial assistance and social services. The "Seven Acres Jewish Geriatric Center" is an assisted living facility which is supported by the Federation.

Other important Jewish institutions include the city's "JCC" and the "Chabad Lubavitch Center". A partner of the Federation, the "Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston" offers numerous programs for children, families and young adults. Religious organizations like the "Chabad Lubavitch Center" and the "Hillel Foundation of Greater Houston" work to strengthen Jewish bonds within the community and function as community resources for Jewish students and professionals.

In the realm of education are several Jewish day schools. The "William S. Malev School" at Beth Yeshurun is Conservative, the "Irvin M. Shlenker School" at Beth Israel is Reform and the "Torah Day School of Houston"
is Orthodox and affiliated with the Chabad movement. Other schools include "Emery/Weiner", a secondary school, the "Robert M. Beren Academy", and Orthodox primary and secondary school, and the former Hebrew Academy. In 2008, the "Chai Learning Center" opened which houses a congregation and a number of classrooms. The Center was established by the Orthodox community and is affiliated with Hasidic Judaism.

Religious life in Houston covers a wide range of movements from Reform to Orthodox Judaism. By 2011, the city was home to twenty-three different synagogues. According to the Pew Research Center, Orthodox Jews are the fastest-growing segment of the Jewish population. In 2012, the Orthodox Union described Houston as being a city that offered affordable Orthodox living. While the number of congregations has grown, a 2001 study found that 60% of affiliated Jews are members of the city's three largest congregations, Beth Yeshurun, Beth Israel and Emanu-El. In 2011, Beth Yeshurun had a membership of 2,170 families, making it the largest Conservative congregation in the entire country. That same year, Beth Israel had 1,700 member families. Both Beth Israel and Beth Yeshurun are located in the Meyerland neighborhood of southwest Houston.

Houston's Jews have largely been concentrated in the Southwest part of the city. By the 1980s, a quarter of the Jewish population lived in only two of the city's zip codes. Close to half lived in the areas of Bellaire, Braeswood and Meyerland. While there are Jewish enclaves, there isn't a neighborhood where Jews comprise the majority. Since the 1980s, Jews have been gradually moving into the suburbs. At the same time, Jews from across the United States have been arriving in large numbers to Houston and the surrounding cities. In the 1990s, the Jewish community spread into areas such as Woodlands, Spring and Humble, where they formed congregations. According to Jewish Family Service, there are growing Jewish communities in the suburban areas of Pearland and Clear Lake. There is also a burgeoning community in Katy, an area known for its many Russian and Israeli Jews. However, despite the dispersion of Jews into the suburbs, the center of Houston's Jewish community has remained in Meyerland. This neighborhood in southwest Houston was named after the Meyer family who purchased thousands of acres of land.

 

San Antonio

City in South Central Texas, USA.

As early as 1715, three years before the founding of the city, several families from Northern Mexico settled on the banks of the San Antonio River; among them were the Carvajal family of Jewish descent. Two Jews from the Texas Army, surgeon Moses Albert Levy and Edward Israel Johnson, fought Mexican troops in San Antonio in 1835 during the Texas Revolution. A permanent Jewish community in San Antionio was established in 1850, after Texas had entered the Union and the US was simultaneously experiencing a wave of immigration of Jews from Central Europe.

By 1855 the Jewish community had established its own cemetery, the first of a number of community organizations that were to follow. In 1856 the community organized a Hebrew Benevolent Society (reorganized in 1885 as the Montefiore Benevolent Society), and in 1870 the Ladies' Hebrew Benevolent Society was formed. Though the Jews living in San Antonio had been meeting for years to hold services in private homes, by 1874 there were enough Jews living in San Antonio to form the first formal congregation, the Reform synagogue Temple Beth-El.

With the mass immigration of Central and Eastern European Jews beginning in the early 1880s, more Orthodox Jews began arriving in San Antonio. They founded their own cemetery in 1885, organized their own congregation, Agudas Achim, in 1889, and established a Talmud Torah in 1909. Their Rabbi, Moses Edelhertz, also worked as a shochet (kosher butcher), providing the congregation with kosher meat. Tensions, however, soon began to emerge within the Agudas Achim community over differing commitments to religious practice. In 1914 a group who wanted to maintain an adherence to Orthodox Judaism broke away from Agudas Achim to form B'nai Israel. Rabbi Solomon Solomon, who began in 1899 as the rabbi of Agudas Achim, left to become the rabbi of B'nai Israel a year after its founding. Another Orthodox congregation, Rodfei Sholom, had been established in 1909.

The two small Orthodox communities decided to merge, and became Rodfei Sholom B'nai Israel, later shortened to Rodfei Sholom. Rodfei Sholom had about 100 members; a synagogue building was constructed in 1918 and included a mikvah. In 1912 there were two kosher butchers in the community, which made kosher meat accessible to those in the community who needed it.

The first B'nai B'rith Lodge was chartered in 1874. Thirty years later, in 1904, a chapter of the Zionist Organization of America was formed. A chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women followed soon after, in 1907, and a chapter of Hadassah was established in 1918. In 1922, the San Antonio Jewish Social Service Federation was created to coordinate the many community groups.

During World War I, the influx of Jewish military personnel to South Texas created the need for hospitality services in San Antonio, a major military post. This was coordinated and supervised by the National Welfare Board, which continued its activities through 4 wars.

Jews have generally been accepted in all areas of industrial, commercial, and professional life in San Antonio, though the 1920s saw the Ku Klux Klan become particularly influential in Texas; while most of the violence that the KKK carried out was against African-Americans, Jews were attacked in their newspaper publications. In spite of some latent (and not-so-latent) prejudice, the Jews of San Antonio produced leaders in department stores, agriculture, banking, and professional fields such as medicine and law. Jews of San Antonio who have distinguished themselves through philanthropic and cultural activities include: Dan and Anton Oppenheim, pioneer bankers, ranchers, and Confederate officers, Mayer and Sol Halff, pioneer merchants and ranchers, Dr. and Mrs. Frederick Oppenheimer, art collectors and museum benefactors, Max Reiter, founder of the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, Rabbi and Mrs. David Jacobson and Rabbi Amram Prero, Civic workers, Joe and Harry Freeman, agriculturalists and philanthropists, Sylvan Lang, a leader in legal education, and Perry Kallison, an agriculturalist and local radio personality.

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The Jewish Community of Dallas

Dallas

Financial and industrial center in North Texas and the second largest city in the state.

The earliest Jewish settlement in Dallas began in 1870 with the arrival of about 15 families. The first Jews were mainly retail merchants and several of them, among whom the Sanger and Kahn families were outstanding, played a vital role in the commercial development of the city as a whole.

The first organized Jewish institution dates to 1872, when the "Hebrew Benevolent Association" was created; although it was primarily a charitable institution, it sponsored the first High Holiday services. A Jewish cemetery was dedicated the same year and in 1873 a local "B'nai B'rith" chapter was formed. Dallas' first congregation, temple Emanu-El, was founded in 1874 and allied itself with the Reform movement; in 1969 it had a membership of 2,200 families. A second congregation, Shearith Israel, established as an Orthodox synagogue in 1884, became Conservative, and in 1969 had about 1,200 members. Another Orthodox congregation, Tifereth Israel, was founded in 1890 and by 1969 numbered close to 400 families. Two hundred families belong to the Reform temple Shalom, which was organized in 1965. The rabbinical advisory committee, founded in 1944, represents all of these synagogues. The "Jewish Welfare Federation" was organized in 1911 as a centralized agency for all Dallas Jewish social welfare services and fund raising for local, national, and overseas needs. It sponsors a community relations council, composed of representatives of all major Jewish organizations, and a young leadership training program, founded in 1952. The federation also supports a number of other local agencies, such as the "Jewish Family Service", which offers counseling, financial assistance, and job placement to both families and individuals. The "Jewish Vocational Counseling Service", opened in 1966, specializes in guidance programs for young people. The "Dallas Home and Hospital for the Jewish Aged", founded in 1948, offers intensive care and many forms of specialized treatment for the elderly. The "Julius Schepps Community Center", which was founded in 1942 and has a membership of over 1,000 families, provides classes and group work in Jewish cultural and recreational activities and in physical education.

By 1970, the old social and economic distinctions between the German-Jewish settlers who first came to Dallas and the later immigrants from Eastern Europe had largely been erased, and descendants of both groups participated on an equal basis in communal life and leadership. Also, the overall economic picture changed from the days when Jews were primarily merchants. In the 1960s members of the Jewish community were engaged in a wide variety of business enterprises, including garment manufacturing, paper and air- conditioning companies, and finance. There was also a large number of Jewish professionals, including lawyers, doctors, engineers, and business consultants.
Jewish-gentile relations had their stormy days in the 1920s, when the Ku Klux Klan was highly active. Even though relations improved, as late as the early 1970s there were still several social clubs that maintained an exclusionary policy toward Jews. With a few exceptions the "Six O'clock Curtain" that separates Jews from gentiles socially still applied. In business and communal activities, however, the Jewish community has long been integrated into the Dallas community at large. The federation is a member of the city- wide united fund and participates both in the raising of its municipal quota and in the handling of grants for its local constituent agencies. Since 1938 southern Methodist and temple Emanu-El have sponsored the community course, which makes art, music, drama, and lecture programs available to the entire city. The Bridwell Library of the Perkins School of Theology houses two large collections of Judaica, the "Sadie and David Lefkowitz Collection" and the "Levi A. Olan Collection."

In Dallas' civic, cultural, and political life, too, Jews play a significant role. There have been Jewish presidents of the symphony orchestra, the chamber of commerce, and the metropolitan opera association. In 1970 Stanley Marcus, who was active in all of these, was a leader of the powerful citizens' council; Carl Flaxman was director of the health, education and welfare office, which serves the entire southwest; Julius Schepps was especially active in the fair park association, which controls the famous cotton bowl (the new year's day football game); Abe Meyers was a member of the Dallas city council; and Joe H. Goldman was a state senator in Austin. In 1966 president Johnson appointed Irving L. Goldberg to a judgeship in the fifth district court of appeals. Many Jews are active in the league for educational advancement in Dallas concerned with the election of school board members.

Dallas has also had three Jewish mayors: Adlene Harrison (1976), Annette Strauss (1987-1991), and Laura Miller (elected 2002).

In 2014, Dallas had an estimated population of 1,207,202, including a Jewish population of approximately 50,000. In the late 19th century, the Cedars district in south Dallas was home to a sizeable Jewish community but by the 20th century, many Jewish residents had moved north.

The Jewish community of Dallas is one of the largest in Texas. Serving this community is a number of Jewish associations as well as chapters of nearly every national Jewish organization. The "Federation of Greater Dallas" is the city's most important Jewish institution as it provides a wide variety of humanitarian and social services and supports more than forty other Jewish organizations in both Dallas and Israel, including the "Center for Jewish Education" (CJE). The CJE of Dallas functions as a community resource for Jewish education, offering a myriad of programs, activities and events. Dallas also has its share of kosher services. These include food distributors, bakeries and as many as eight restaurants. There are additionally many supermarkets which carry kosher foods. Serving the senior members of the Jewish community is the "Legacy Preston Hollow', an assisted living center and health care provider.

By 2008, the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area had about twenty synagogues representing the various streams of Judaism. The Reform movement is the largest in Dallas. With eight congregations, they have more members than other any other stream of Judaism. The first functioning synagogue in Dallas was established in 1873, when several families founded the Jewish Congregation of Emanu-El. Not only was it the first synagogue in Dallas but the first Reform congregation in North Texas. In 1974, it was renamed Temple Emanu-El Congregation and by 2005, it had a membership of almost three thousand families. Dallas is also home to a large Modern Orthodox community. There are about seven different Orthodox synagogues including Chabad. Other Jewish congregations include Conservative (4) and Traditional (1).

Although many synagogues provide educational services for children, families and adults, there are several Jewish schools and educational institutions located outside the congregation. Dallas is home to fifteen or more Jewish day schools, most of which are affiliated with the Orthodox and Reform movements.

At the center of the community is the "Aaron Family Jewish Community Center of Dallas". Serving close to seven thousand members, the center offers a wide range of programs and services, including educational programming for children and young adults. The JCC also provides social programs such as organized camps, sports teams and art workshops. One of the largest associations for Jewish youth is BBYO. Dallas has fifteen chapters of AZA and BBG.

In addition to historic congregations, gift shops, and kosher restaurants, the "Dallas Holocaust Museum-Center for Education and Tolerance" is one of the city's most significant Jewish institutions and landmarks. It features a memorial known as the Garden of Remembrance and a Museum archive and library. Its core exhibit focuses on three major events which occurred on the day of April 19, 1943 –the attack on the 20th Deportation Train from Belgium by partisans, the Bermuda Conference, and the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

A trusted source of news for the Jewish community of Dallas and North Texas is the "Texas Jewish Post". This weekly newspaper has been in circulation since 1947.

Written by researchers of ANU Museum of the Jewish People
George Lang

George Lang (1924-2011), restaurant owner, born Gyorgy Deutsch in Szekesfehervar, Hungary, the son of a tailor. A promising violinist, he went to live in Budapest, Hungary, where planned to study in the Franz Liszt Music Academy, but the outbreak of World War II prevented his ambition from being fulfilled.

When the Fascist Arrow Cross party seized power in 1944 and severe anti-Jewish measures were enacted, his parents were sent to their deaths in Auschwitz, while Gyorgy was consigned to a labour camp. He however succeeded in escaping, hid his identity and even joined the Arrow Cross. After three months his true identity was discovered and was sentenced to be executed. He was saved by the liberation of Budapest by the Soviet army but the Russians rearrested him as a suspected fascist. He was acquitted after other Jews testified on his behalf. In 1946, using his mother's maiden name Lang, he fled Hungary and settled in the USA.

Lang, as he was now known, started to work in a New York hotel, he then turned pages for accompanists at Carnegie Hall and then became a violinist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. When this promising opening did not lead to a permanent career he made a sharp change of direction. Lang became a chef, then a banquetting manager and finally a successful developer of new restaurant projects. In 1970 he formed a restaurant consulting company, the George Lang Corporation. In 1992, together with Ronald Lauder, he bought and restored the famous Budapest restaurant Gundel. In 1998 he wrote his autobiography “Nobody knows the truffles I've seen.”






He pioneered the profession of restaurant consulting when in 1970 he started the George Lang Corporation. In 1975 he bought the Café des Artistes, a restaurant popular with musicians, journalists, and others; it closed in 2009 after steady losses and union troubles.[4] In 1992, along with Ronald S. Lauder, he bought and restored the famous Budapest restaurant Gundel.
His autobiography, entitled Nobody Knows the Truffles I've Seen (a reference to the spiritual "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen") was published by Knopf in 1998.
Lang, who was married to Jenifer Harvey Lang at the time of his death, had been treated for Alzheimer's disease and died at age 86 at his home in Manhattan.

George Alexander Kohut

Kohut, George Alexander (1874-1933), historian and educator, born in Szekesfehervar (Stuhlweissenburg in German), Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary), where his father, Alexander, served as rabbi. He attended secondary school in Nagyvarad (Grosswardin in German, now Oradea in Romania). He immigrated with his father to the United States in 1885. He studied at University of Columbia and the Rabbinical Seminary in New York. When his father died he returned to Europe for three years to study in Berlin, Germany, at the university and the Hochschule fuer Wissenschaft des Judentums. From there he went to study in Paris, France. He was ordained in the United States in 1897 by Bernard Felsenthal and served as rabbi for three years in Dallas, Texas.

Desiring a broader role as an educator, Kohut left for New York City, where he was a teacher of Latin and German at the Kohut School for Girls, which had been founded by his stepmother Rebekah Kohut. He also was, for a time, assistant librarian at the Jewish Theological Seminary. From 1902 to 1912 he served as school principal at Temple Emanu-El. He founded the Kohut School for Boys and was its head in 1909-1918; he also headed Camp Kohut (1907-1926), the Children's University School and the Dalton High School (1924-1926), and the Columbia Grammar School (1920-1933).
Kohut sought to encourage Jewish scholarship in a number of ways. Through the Alexander Kohut Memorial Foundation, which he set up in 1915, he helped sponsor the publication of important works. In 1919 he presented the 8,000-volume Alexander Kohut Memorial Collection to Yale University library. His own 4,000-volume library was bequeathed to the American Jewish Historical Society, the Kohut Memorial Collection at Yale, and the Jewish Institute of Religion, of which he was a trustee.

He compiled the Italian index to his father's "Arukh ha-Shalem", edited "Semitic Studies in Memory of Alexander Kohut" (1897), and published "Morituri: A Reminiscence of my Father" (1907). His many scholarly and popular essays reflect his interest in the prose and poetry of Hebrew, Hungarian, English, French, German, and Spanish, and in bibliography and history of Jewish life and literature and Hebrew learning in the Americas. He was one of the first in America to recognize the need for a new Jewish Encyclopedia, and cooperated with Isaac Landmann and others in the planning of the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, mainly by enlisting the services of leading American and European scholars to join the editorial council.

Kohut was editor of "Helpful Thought" (1901-1903); "Jewish Home" (1903-1904); "New Era" (1904-1905); "Young Israel" (1907-1908); "N.S. Joseph's Israel's Faith" (1905); "Leopold Zunz's Suffering of the Jews in the Middle Ages" (1907); "H, Hurwitz;s Hebrew Tales" (1911); and "H.P. Chajes Memorial Volume" (1933). Among his numerous contributions to bibliography, folklore, Jewish history and literature were: "Early Jewish Literature in America" (1895); "Jewish Martyrs of the Inquisition in South America" (1896); "Simon de Caseres and his Project to Conquer Chile" and "Semitic Studies in Memory of Alexander Kohut" (1897); "Ezra Stiles and the Jews" (1902); "Jewish Heretics in the Philippines" and "The Martyrdom of the Carbajal Family in Mexico" (1904); "Royal Hebraist" (1906 and 1927); "Beside Still Waters", a volume of poems (1912); and a "Hebrew Anthology" (1913). Kohut was also a contributor to the "Jewish Encyclopedia", the "Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society" and the "Revue des etudes juives".

Bernhard Gottlieb

Bernhard Gottlieb (1885-1950), dental scientist, born in Kuty, Galicia (then part of Austria-Hungary, now in Ukraine). He studied medicine at the university of Vienna, Austria, and went on to study dentistry. He worked in the dental surgery of his future father-in-law, Dr. Siegmund Herz, and attended evening science classes at the Vienna Anatomical Institute. During the First World War he served in the Austrian army and was head of a mobile dental outpatient clinic on the Russian-Romanian front. During the war, Gottlieb collected jaw specimens, which would later form the basis for his famous histological studies. In 1919 he opened a surgery and a dental laboratory to further his studies in parodontology and orthodontics. In 1921 he was appointed a lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine of Vienna University and in 1930 he became a full professor. The anti-Semitic policies of the Nazi regime after 1938 caused him to be dismissed from his position and move first to the Land of Israel and then to the USA. In 1940 he started to work at the Kellogg Foundation in Ann Arbor, Michigan, then as guest professor at the University of Michigan while the following year he was appointed Professor of Oral Pathology and head of the Department for Dental Research at the Baylor College in Dallas, Texas.

Gottlieb’s importance can be seen in his successes in basic research. He was the first to describe the epithelial tissue which joins the tooth surface to the gum. His research advanced the knowledge about the causes of caries. After his death, the Vienna University Clinic for Dentistry, Oral Hygiene and Orthodontics was named after him. A keen Talmudist and a Zionist, he identified with the cause of a Jewish state in Palestine. During 1938-1940 he spent two years teaching at the Hebrew University and helped to set up dental clinics in the Land of Israel.

Antal Dorati

Antal Doráti (1906-1988), conductor, born in Budapest, Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary). He studied with Bela Bartok, Zoltan Kodaly, Leo Weiner and Szekely. In 1933 he emigrated to France, and in 1938 went to Sydney, Australia and on to the United States. Between 1945-1949 he conducted the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and between 1949-1960 the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. Dorati was chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London between 1963-1965, and between 1965-1974 of the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Between 1970-1977 he was music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC, and between 1975-1978 directed also the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. Between 1977-1981 Dorati was music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Dorati composed a symphony, concerto for piano and violoncello, and chamber and vocal music. Notes of Seven Decades, his autobiography, was published in 1979. He died in Gerzensee, Switzerland.

David Lefkowitz

David Lefkowitz (1875-1955), rabbi, born in Presov, Slovakia (then part of the Austria-Hungary). In 1881, after his father's death, he immigrated to the United States. At the age of seven, he was placed in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York. He studied at the College of the City of New York (B.S., 1894), supporting himself by teaching at the orphan asylum. After graduation, he continued his teaching for two years. He thought of becoming an artist and was admitted to the Art Students League of New York, but finally studied for the rabbinate (University of Cincinnati, B.L., 1899; Hebrew Union College, Rabbi 1900).

In 1900 he became a rabbi of Congregation B'nai Yeshurun (afterwards Temple Israel) of Dayton, Ohio. He served in that capacity for twenty years. In Dayton, he participated in many communal activities; he was president of the Humane Society and of the Playgrounds and Gardens Association; he was active in inaugurating the city manager form of government; and, during World War I, he was chairman of the American Red Cross of Montgomery County (which includes Dayton). He held this post until 1920.

Lefkowitz was chosen rabbi Temple Emanu-El, Dallas, Texas, in 1920. In 1935 he was elected rabbi for life. He organized the Southwestern Jewish Chautauqua (afterwards, the Southwestern Conference of Jewish Religious Schools), and was its first president (1923-25); later, he was elected honorary president.

Lefkowitz was also editor of the Dallas Jewish American. In Dallas, as in Dayton, he participated in many communal activities of general interest, including the Dallas Community Chest, of which he was vice-president; and he was chairman of the American Red Cross (1925-26). He was the first chairman of the Committee of Church and State of the central Conference of American Rabbis, and held the office many years. From 1929 to 1931 he was president of the Conference.

Lefkowitz was on the advisory board of Southern Methodist University as well as a member of the board of governors of the Hebrew Union College, and was awarded honorary degrees by both (LL.D., Southern Methodist University, 1927; D.D., Hebrew Union College, 1939).

Abraham Zapruder

Abraham Zapruder (1905-1970), clothing manufacturer, best known for filming the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, born in Kovel, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire). Having lived for a couple of years in Warsaw, he immigrated along with his family to the United States in 1920 and settled in the Brooklyn neighborhood of New York following his father who had arrived in the United States in 1909. He pursued English studies at night while working as a clothing pattern designer in Manhattan's Garment District. In 1941, Zapruder moved to Dallas in Texas to work for Nardis, a local sportswear company. In 1954, he co-founded Jennifer Juniors, Inc., which produced the Chalet and Jennifer Juniors brands. The company's offices were situated in the Dal-Tex Building, directly across from the Texas School Book Depository. On November 22, 1963, Zapruder filmed the presidential limousine as it traveled through Dealey Plaza making a turn in front of the Book Depository building, where Lee Harvey Oswald was stationed. He agreed to hand over the film to Forrest Sorrels, an agent of the Secret Service, with the condition that it would only be used as part of the investigation. Copies of the film were made, two of which went to the Secret Service, and the third remained with Zapruder. Later, on November 25, Zapruder sold the film to Life Magazine for $150,000. He made the first payment of $25,000 to the widow of J.D. Tippit, the Dallas police officer shot by Oswald. Zapruder died in Dallas. 

Jack Ruby 

Jack Leon Ruby (born Jacob Leon Rubenstein, also known as "Sparky") (1911-1967), nightclub owner, the murderer of Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President John F. Kennedy, born in Chicago, United States. His childhood was troubled, marked by delinquent behavior that led him to spend time in foster homes. In 1922, he got arrested for truancy and later had to attend the Institute for Juvenile Research due to his frequent school skipping. During his youth, he made a living by selling horse-racing tip sheets and various novelties. Additionally, he served as a business agent for a local refuse collectors union, which eventually became part of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. 

In 1943, he was drafted into the U.S. Army Air Forces during WW II and worked as an aircraft mechanic until 1946. In 1947, he relocated to Dallas after facing business difficulties in Chicago and to assist with his sister's nightclub. During his life, there were allegations of criminal involvement, including illegal gambling, narcotics, and prostitution, with some connections to organized crime. 

On November 24, 1963, two days after the assassination of President J.F. Kennedy, Ruby went to police headquarters in Dallas after sending a money order to an employee. It appears that the decision to shoot Oswald was possibly impromptu, as he left his beloved dog Sheba in the car. At 11:21 AM CST on that Sunday, while authorities were preparing to transfer Oswald to custody, Ruby emerged from a group of reporters and photographers and fatally shot Oswald in the abdomen. The incident was captured on live television. 

Ruby was convicted of murder with malice on March 14, 1964, and was sentenced to death. He had an opportunity to meet members of the Warren Commission who had traveled to Dallas to speak with him. Ruby expressed his desire to convince President Johnson that he was not part of any conspiracy to assassinate JFK. He passed away from lung cancer in 1967. 

United States of America (USA)

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

Houston

Houston

Port and industrial center in Southeastern Texas, USA.

21ST CENTURY

In 2017 there were 63,700 Jews living in Houston. The vast majority of Houston’s Jewish community was living in areas that were affected by Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Three of the five major synagogues in Houston experienced major flooding while many Jewish homes were flooded and sustained significant damage. A number of Jewish camps in the area provided shelter for both Jews and non-Jews who were forced to evacuate their homes.

HISTORY

Houston was founded in 1836. It is unknown when the first Jew arrived, but there are records of several Jews who came during the early years of the settlement. Eugene Chimene is often cited as the first Jew of Houston, although he is not listed until the census of 1860. The earliest available census regarding the population of Houston dates back to 1850, and it indicates a possible 17 Jewish adults out of a population of 1863; in 1860 the figures were 68 out of a total population of 3,768. The majority of these Jews were merchants and clerks who operated stores selling clothing and food. These Houston Jews were reported to be "comfortably situated" by contemporary sources. The 1860 census indicated that approximately 60% of the Jews were landowners (as compared with about 25% of other immigrant groups), but there were also some Jews with no personal and real-estate.
The Jews were informally organized in Houston until 1855 when a Hebrew Benevolent Society was founded. The "Occident" heralded its organization as he first "regular Jewish Society in the state of Texas".

On May 8, 1859 the first congregation, Beth Israel, was established, and in August of that year its synagogue, a wooden structure in the middle of the city, was dedicated. The congregation began as an Orthodox synagogue according to Polish sources, although the majority of Jews in Houston were of German origin. In 1856 a home was converted into a synagogue and in 1860 the Orthodox Beth Israel congregation was formed, with Z. Emmich acting as its first rabbi, cantor and ritual slaughterer. The congregation's first building was erected in 1870. The city then had a population of 9,382 of whom 245 were Jews. That population would almost double only 7 years later, to 471. The last decades of the 19th century witnessed the beginnings of Jewish immigration to Houston from Eastern Europe, replacing the earlier German one. As Beth Israel congregation became more liberal in outlook, two new Orthodox congregations were formed which eventually merged as congregation Adath Yeshurun in 1891. The first "B'nai B'rith" lodge and a "Hebrew Free Loan society" were organized, along with the beginnings of a YMHA. The new immigrants mostly incorporated in the retail trade as peddlers and shopkeepers, although there were several bankers among them as well as dealers in cotton. Henry S. Fox was one of the founders of the "Houston Cotton Exchange", Morris Levy was a member of the first "Houston Ship Channel Company", and Ed Klein established Houston's first department store.

The turn of the 19th century inaugurated a period of rapid growth in the Jewish community, spurred by the 1900 hurricane that drove many Jewish inhabitants inland from the Texas coast, and by the implementation of the "Galveston Plan". The city's first Jewish newspaper, "the Jewish Herald", went into publication in 1908. New synagogues were established and Jewish institutional life expanded with new organizations as a "Bikur Cholim Sociey", "Workmen's Circle" (1915), "Zionist Federation" (1903), "United Jewish charities" (1914),ant the weekly "Jewish Herald" (1908). The large military instillations near Houston during World War I brought an influx of Jewish Servicemen, many of whom remained in the city after their discharge. In 1917 the Jewish population of Houston was put at 5,000. By 1920 it had jumped to 10,000, close to seven percent of the city's total. The leading figure in the Jewish community during this period was Rabbi Henry Branston who accepted the 'Beth Israel' pulpit in 1900 and for the next 45 years presided over the congregation. Judge Henry J. Dannenbaum was nationally active in the fight against white slavery and served the city in its civic life, along with precipitation in Jewish communal affairs.

The Jewish community grew at a slower pace between the two world wars, reaching an estimated 13,500 in 1941. Ku Klus Klan activity in the rea in the 1920s and 1930s discouraged Jews from entering civic and political life as well as being afraid to stand out. Beth El, Texas' first Conservative congregation was formed in 1924. The "Jewish Community Council" was organized during those years. An annual "United Jewish Campaign" was instituted under the Council's direction. A charitable foundation left to the community by Pauline Sterne Wolff helped support many of Houston's Jewish institutions in the years to come. Religiously, the drift in the Jewish community was toward Reform. A unique event in national Jewish life occurred in Houston in 1943 when a radically anti-Zionist majority at congregation Beth Israel, the city's largest, passed a resolution of "Basic Principles" that excluded from the congregation all members professing an interest in Zionism. A minority of dissenters withdrew from the congregation to form a new synagogue; Emanu El. Beth Israel eliminated the "Basic Principles" from its membership application only in 1967.

The growth of Houston's Jewish community after World War II did not keep pace with the phenomenal growth pf the city as a whole, so that by 1970 the Jewish percentage in the total population had declined to less than two percent. To an extent, this may be attributed to the fact that, more than elsewhere in the United States, large chain stores and distribution outlets in Houston, have eliminated the traditional Jewish role of the individual entrepreneur. Nevertheless, Houston has remained a city rich in Jewish organizations. Among other institutions were 12-story Jewish institute for Medical Research and a $3,500,000 Jewish community center. In 1967 the "Houston Commission for Jewish Education" was formed to coordinate Jewish educational activities.

Few Houstonian Jews participated in local political life. The first Jew to be elected to political office in Houston in the 20th century was Richard Gottlieb, who was chosen to the city's council in 1969. Jews have been more prominent in business, among them Joe Weingarten, one of the pioneers in the supermarket field, Simon Sakowitz, one of Houston's leading merchants. In the field of education, Norman Hackerman became president of Rice University in 1970, and Joseph Melnick, one of the world's leading virologists, was dean of the graduate research department of the Baylor College of Medicine. D.H. White edited and published the weekly "Jewish Herald-Voice".

The 1970s saw a tremendous growth in Houston's Jewish community, which grew from 25,000 to 45,000. The growth was a reflection of the boom in the Houston economy that lasted through the mid-1980s. The 1970s and 1980s also saw tremendous growth in Jewish institutions.

By 1995, the Houston Jewish community had five Jewish day schools with an enrollment of over 1,000 children. More than 3,000 children participated in other forms of Jewish education throughout the community. In the mid-1990s the community had 30 congregations representing every stream of Judaism and geographically located in all corners of the city. Houston's "Jewish Community Center" provides early childhood services, a campsite for day and resident camping, and a satellite facility in West Houston.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, the Jewish Federation raised 3 million dollars for neighborhood renewal in Israel and in excess of 10 million dollars for the rescue and resettlement of Jews from the former Soviet-Union. In 2014, they raised nearly $14 million for local, national and international Jewish causes.

Houston is home to 6 million "Holocaust Education Center and Memorial Museum", opened in 1996. The museum features a permanent exhibit telling stories of Holocaust survivors living in the Houston area. Its Memorial Museum is the fourth-largest Holocaust memorial in the United States. Visitors of the museum can access the Boniuk Library which includes more than 5,000 volumes on the Holocaust and several archives.

The Jewish community of Houston has grown to incorporate many different traditions and branches. In the early 21st century it was one of the largest Jewish communities in the south and continued to contribute to the cultural and economic life of them region. A 2001 study from Rice University placed the Jewish population of Greater Houston at approximately 47,000. In 2003, the total population of Houston was just over 2 million.

By the 21st century, Houston was host to a variety of organizations, committees, schools and kosher services. The "Jewish Federation of Greater Houston", "Jewish Family Service" and the "Hebrew Free Loan Association" are just a few which serve the Jewish community, providing financial assistance and social services. The "Seven Acres Jewish Geriatric Center" is an assisted living facility which is supported by the Federation.

Other important Jewish institutions include the city's "JCC" and the "Chabad Lubavitch Center". A partner of the Federation, the "Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston" offers numerous programs for children, families and young adults. Religious organizations like the "Chabad Lubavitch Center" and the "Hillel Foundation of Greater Houston" work to strengthen Jewish bonds within the community and function as community resources for Jewish students and professionals.

In the realm of education are several Jewish day schools. The "William S. Malev School" at Beth Yeshurun is Conservative, the "Irvin M. Shlenker School" at Beth Israel is Reform and the "Torah Day School of Houston"
is Orthodox and affiliated with the Chabad movement. Other schools include "Emery/Weiner", a secondary school, the "Robert M. Beren Academy", and Orthodox primary and secondary school, and the former Hebrew Academy. In 2008, the "Chai Learning Center" opened which houses a congregation and a number of classrooms. The Center was established by the Orthodox community and is affiliated with Hasidic Judaism.

Religious life in Houston covers a wide range of movements from Reform to Orthodox Judaism. By 2011, the city was home to twenty-three different synagogues. According to the Pew Research Center, Orthodox Jews are the fastest-growing segment of the Jewish population. In 2012, the Orthodox Union described Houston as being a city that offered affordable Orthodox living. While the number of congregations has grown, a 2001 study found that 60% of affiliated Jews are members of the city's three largest congregations, Beth Yeshurun, Beth Israel and Emanu-El. In 2011, Beth Yeshurun had a membership of 2,170 families, making it the largest Conservative congregation in the entire country. That same year, Beth Israel had 1,700 member families. Both Beth Israel and Beth Yeshurun are located in the Meyerland neighborhood of southwest Houston.

Houston's Jews have largely been concentrated in the Southwest part of the city. By the 1980s, a quarter of the Jewish population lived in only two of the city's zip codes. Close to half lived in the areas of Bellaire, Braeswood and Meyerland. While there are Jewish enclaves, there isn't a neighborhood where Jews comprise the majority. Since the 1980s, Jews have been gradually moving into the suburbs. At the same time, Jews from across the United States have been arriving in large numbers to Houston and the surrounding cities. In the 1990s, the Jewish community spread into areas such as Woodlands, Spring and Humble, where they formed congregations. According to Jewish Family Service, there are growing Jewish communities in the suburban areas of Pearland and Clear Lake. There is also a burgeoning community in Katy, an area known for its many Russian and Israeli Jews. However, despite the dispersion of Jews into the suburbs, the center of Houston's Jewish community has remained in Meyerland. This neighborhood in southwest Houston was named after the Meyer family who purchased thousands of acres of land.

 

San Antonio

San Antonio

City in South Central Texas, USA.

As early as 1715, three years before the founding of the city, several families from Northern Mexico settled on the banks of the San Antonio River; among them were the Carvajal family of Jewish descent. Two Jews from the Texas Army, surgeon Moses Albert Levy and Edward Israel Johnson, fought Mexican troops in San Antonio in 1835 during the Texas Revolution. A permanent Jewish community in San Antionio was established in 1850, after Texas had entered the Union and the US was simultaneously experiencing a wave of immigration of Jews from Central Europe.

By 1855 the Jewish community had established its own cemetery, the first of a number of community organizations that were to follow. In 1856 the community organized a Hebrew Benevolent Society (reorganized in 1885 as the Montefiore Benevolent Society), and in 1870 the Ladies' Hebrew Benevolent Society was formed. Though the Jews living in San Antonio had been meeting for years to hold services in private homes, by 1874 there were enough Jews living in San Antonio to form the first formal congregation, the Reform synagogue Temple Beth-El.

With the mass immigration of Central and Eastern European Jews beginning in the early 1880s, more Orthodox Jews began arriving in San Antonio. They founded their own cemetery in 1885, organized their own congregation, Agudas Achim, in 1889, and established a Talmud Torah in 1909. Their Rabbi, Moses Edelhertz, also worked as a shochet (kosher butcher), providing the congregation with kosher meat. Tensions, however, soon began to emerge within the Agudas Achim community over differing commitments to religious practice. In 1914 a group who wanted to maintain an adherence to Orthodox Judaism broke away from Agudas Achim to form B'nai Israel. Rabbi Solomon Solomon, who began in 1899 as the rabbi of Agudas Achim, left to become the rabbi of B'nai Israel a year after its founding. Another Orthodox congregation, Rodfei Sholom, had been established in 1909.

The two small Orthodox communities decided to merge, and became Rodfei Sholom B'nai Israel, later shortened to Rodfei Sholom. Rodfei Sholom had about 100 members; a synagogue building was constructed in 1918 and included a mikvah. In 1912 there were two kosher butchers in the community, which made kosher meat accessible to those in the community who needed it.

The first B'nai B'rith Lodge was chartered in 1874. Thirty years later, in 1904, a chapter of the Zionist Organization of America was formed. A chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women followed soon after, in 1907, and a chapter of Hadassah was established in 1918. In 1922, the San Antonio Jewish Social Service Federation was created to coordinate the many community groups.

During World War I, the influx of Jewish military personnel to South Texas created the need for hospitality services in San Antonio, a major military post. This was coordinated and supervised by the National Welfare Board, which continued its activities through 4 wars.

Jews have generally been accepted in all areas of industrial, commercial, and professional life in San Antonio, though the 1920s saw the Ku Klux Klan become particularly influential in Texas; while most of the violence that the KKK carried out was against African-Americans, Jews were attacked in their newspaper publications. In spite of some latent (and not-so-latent) prejudice, the Jews of San Antonio produced leaders in department stores, agriculture, banking, and professional fields such as medicine and law. Jews of San Antonio who have distinguished themselves through philanthropic and cultural activities include: Dan and Anton Oppenheim, pioneer bankers, ranchers, and Confederate officers, Mayer and Sol Halff, pioneer merchants and ranchers, Dr. and Mrs. Frederick Oppenheimer, art collectors and museum benefactors, Max Reiter, founder of the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, Rabbi and Mrs. David Jacobson and Rabbi Amram Prero, Civic workers, Joe and Harry Freeman, agriculturalists and philanthropists, Sylvan Lang, a leader in legal education, and Perry Kallison, an agriculturalist and local radio personality.