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Fayetteville

A city in Cumberland County in North Carolina, United States

21st CENTURY

There is one synagogue in Fayetteville, the Conservative Beth Israel. It has 186 adult members and operates a Sunday School. The synagogue works with the active-duty and reserve Jewish chaplains at the military base Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg) in serving soldiers and military families.

HISTORY

There was a small Jewish presence in Fayetteville from the beginning of the 19th century. There is a Jewish cemetery with tombstones dating from as early as 1812. Judah P. Benjamin (1811-1884), son of an English Jewish father and a Portuguese Jewish mother, who served as a United States Senator and as Secretary of State and War of the Confederacy lived in Fayetteville between 1815 and 1822.

The city suffered much damage during the Civil War but afterwards recovered and grew.  In 1878 the Jewish population was 52.  Fayetteville Jews became successful businessmen, several establishing department stores and becoming active in civic life and philanthropy.

In 1910 the Jews of Fayetteville formed Congregation Beth Israel. At first, they held religious services in private homes, and then began meeting downtown on the second floor of the Mckeithan building near the Market House. In 1917 they incorporated and began raising funds for a building on Cool Spring Street which was completed in 1922. Services in the synagogue were conducted according to Orthodox ritual and there was a  mikveh (Jewish ritual bath). The congregation hired shochets (kosher butchers) who also assisted in leading services.  In 1943 it hired an ordained Orthodox rabbi, Charles J. Shoulson.

World War II brought about significant developments in Jewish Fayetteville because of the neighboring presence of the Fort Bragg military base. The community under Harry Stein formed an Army and Navy Committee and Rabbi Shoulson led religious services for the Jewish soldiers. A large tent was set up on Passover for Jewish military personnel to celebrate with the community.

Post World War II saw a large growth in the general population of Fayetteville and the number of Jews increased from 175 in 1948 to 480 in 1960.

 In 1950 Beth Israel built a community center on Morgantown Road with a social hall and kosher kitchen. As more members of the congregation moved to the new neighborhood it added a sanctuary and chapel, and the community center became its new home.

Monroe E. Evans, a descendant of Lithuanian Jews served as mayor of Fayetteville from 1965 to 1969. He helped lead the desegregation of the city during the Civil Rights Movement.

In 1972 Beth Israel officially became a Conservative synagogue, in response to the influx of more liberal Jews to the city.  The synagogue became increasingly egalitarian, calling women to the Torah and including them in a minyan.

In the 1980s the Jewish population of Fayetteville grew to 500.