By Moriah Amit, M.S.L.I.S., Senior Reference Services Librarian, Genealogy Coordinator, Center for Jewish History Did any of your Jewish ancestors settle in New York City? Have you wondered what life was like for those ancestors who settled on the Lower East Side or any of the dozens of other Jewish neighborhoods that emerged in the city’s five boroughs in the late 19th and early…
Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, Charleston, South Carolina By Nicole Siegel, Research Intern and Graduate Student at Fordham University One of the oldest congregations in America, Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (KKBE) of Charleston, South Carolina, dates back to 1749 and is currently the fourth oldest congregation in the United States. Originally a Sephardic Orthodox Congregation, the community quickly embraced the ideas of Reform Judaism, becoming…
Synagogue on Frankfurt am Main. 1938. Leo Baeck Institute. Link. Sundown this Saturday marks the beginning of Tisha B’Av (the ninth of Av). Traditionally commemorating the destruction of the first and second temples of Jerusalem; in recent decades the day has been used to remember other Jewish tragedies, such as the 1492 expulsion of the Jews from Spain (which fell around Tisha B’Av) and…