Congregation Beth Israel (Gadsden, Alabama)

Congregation Beth Israel ( ) is a Reform synagogue located at 761 Chestnut Street in Gadsden, Alabama .¹ Founded in 1908, and incorporated in January 1910, Beth Israel grew out of Gadsden's Jewish religious school , which was established in 1903. Initially the congregation had no rabbi. Every second Sunday from 1910 to 1911, Ferdinand Hirsch, a student rabbi, would come to Gadsden and teach the Sunday School in the morning and hold services in the afternoon. Hugo Hecht, a young immigrant from Germany, acted as "lay-religious-leader" from 1911 to 1944. He conducted Shabbat and funeral services, wrote sermons, taught the Sunday school, and acted as secretary and treasurer. After a number of years, officers of the temple decided he should be given a remuneration of $20/week for his work. Membership was 38 families by 1918. The congregational school held classes weekly, and had 15 students and 3 teachers. That year the synagogue's total income was $700 (today $15,000).² Beth Israel moved into its current Classical Revival building in 1922 and joined the Union of American Hebrew Congregations in 1924.³ The community was not as badly affected by the Great Depression as others in more agriculturally-based towns, and benefited from an influx of Jewish servicemen from nearby Camp Sibert during World War II .⁴ In 1944 Beth Israel hired its first full-time rabbi , Ernest Appel. From a long line of rabbis from Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław , Poland ), Appel emigrated to the United States in 1936 as a refugee from Nazi Germany . By 1946, when he moved to a synagogue in Maryland , the congregation had grown to nearly 30 families. On March 25, 1960, the synagogue and its members were subject to an antisemitic attack. About 180 members were attending a Friday evening service "dedicating a new addition to the building", and led by then-rabbi Saul Rubin and Rev. Franklin Denson of First Methodist Church, when windows were smashed and the synagogue fire-bombed . Two members—Alvin Lowi and Alan Cohn—who rushed out to see what was happening were met by Jerry Hunt, a 16 year-old Nazi sympathizer , who wounded them both with a shotgun , then fled. Lowi was just shot in the hand, but one of Cohn's aortas was nicked, and he almost died, requiring 22 pints of blood. Earlier that week Hunt had attended a rally for antisemitic and white supremacist politica John G. Crommelin , and had had a fight with a Jewish boy over a chess game at the Gadsden Community Centre. Membership peaked in 1960, at 60 families. In the 1970s and 1980s factories of major employers such as Republic Steel , and many Jewish-owned stores closed and younger members emigrated in search of employment. Family membership dropped to 43 in 1993, 38 in 2000, and only 26 by 2006. That year the youngest member was 48, and there were no children for the educational programs. As of 2009 , the rabbi was Scott Saulson of Atlanta, who came in once a month to provide services. A former member of the Peace Corps , graduate of Hebrew Union College , and PhD in Semitics from the University of South Africa , Saulson was also chaplain at the Atlanta Jewish Family & Career Services, and was a speaker for the Darfur Coalition of Georgia. The congregation still held services weekly, but, as was the case during most of its early history, they are lay-led. Leaders and Contact , Synagogue website. Friday evening that year was March 25.⁵