As of 2016, Charleston had a Jewish population of approximately 9,500.
The city has four active synagogues; two are modern orthodox, Brith Sholom Beth Israel in the historic downtown area, and Dor Tikvah established in 2006 in the West Ashley suburb; one is reform, Congregation Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim; one is conservative, Synagogue Emanu-El.
There is a Chabad center in the suburb of Mount Pleasant.
In the fall of 2015, the Addlestone Hebrew Academy, the only Jewish day school in Charleston, with students from across the Jewish spectrum, moved to its own free-standing state-of-the-art facility.
The Charleston Jewish Federation is active and runs a Shalom Charleston program to welcome new members to the community.
The Sylvia Vlosky Yaschik Jewish Study Center was established in 2002 as the center of Jewish activity at the College of Charleston. An addition, built in 2016, doubled its size, including additional classroom space and Marty’s Place, a dining hall offering kosher, vegan, and vegetarian options.
The Jewish Community Center sold its building because of what it felt were the changing demographics and needs of the population it served. It is now known as the “Jewish Community Center Without Walls,” and continues to offer a range of programs centered on the goal of “building relationships through a Jewish lens.”
History
Charleston is the home of one of the oldest Jewish communities in the US. Jews began to settle in Charleston in 1695, 25 years after the city was founded. Governor John Archdale of the Carolinas mentions an unnamed Spanish-speaking Jew as his interpreter in his dealings with captive Florida Indians. The early Jews were mostly Sephardim who came to Charleston from England via the Caribbean islands. They were drawn by the commercial opportunities in the growing South Carolina Atlantic seaport as well as the civil and religious liberty available to Jews. The South Carolina charter of 1669 had granted liberty of conscience to all settlers, expressly mentioning Jews, heathens and dissenters.
The Jews helped build Charleston’s colonial prosperity largely as shopkeepers, traders, and merchants. Among them was Moses Lindo, who was made “surveyor and inspector-general of indigo” and played a major role in turning South Carolina’s indigo trade into the region’s second leading agricultural industry.
Community life began in 1749 when the Jews who had been worshiping in each other’s homes were sufficiently numerous to organize a formal congregation called Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (KKBE) that followed sephardic orthodox ritual practice. Its founders were Joseph Tobias, president; Michael Lazarus, secretary; Moses Cohen, rabbi; and Isaac Da Costa, chazzan. In 1764 the congregation purchased Isaac Da Costa’s family burial ground as a communal graveyard, now known as the Coming Street Cemetery, and the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in the southern USA.
During the American Revolution, more than a score of Charleston Jews served in the armed forces, several as officers. In 1775 Francis Salvador was elected as a delegate to South Carolina’s revolutionary Provincial Congress assembled in Charleston to frame a bill of rights, becoming the first Jew to hold elective public office in the New World. He was killed and scalped by Cherokee Indians led by Tory British sympathizers on August 1, 1776, the first Jew to die fighting for American independence.
In 1784, the Hebrew Benevolent Society was founded, the first Jewish charitable association in the USA. The Hebrew Orphan Society was founded in 1801.
Charleston is considered the birthplace of reform Judaism in the USA. In 1824, 47 KKBE members resigned from the congregation when the trustees refused to make changes to the sephardic orthodox ritual. They organized the Reform Society of Israelites which pioneered what later became practices of reform Judaism in the US. After nine years, the group rejoined the old congregation. In 1840 however, when a new synagogue building was constructed to replace the old one that had been destroyed by fire in 1838, an organ was installed. The first service in the new building introduced a liberalized ritual, with prayers and a sermon in English. The new building, which is still in use today, is a colonnaded Greek revival structure, and the second oldest synagogue building in the USA.
Those adhering to the sephardic orthodox ritual seceded and in 1846 incorporated their own congregation, Shearit Israel, with its own cemetery adjacent to that of KKBE, but separated from it by a brick wall.
In 1854, an ashkenazi congregation Berith Shalome (known today as Brith Shalom Beth Israel) was formed by Yiddish speaking immigrants from eastern and central Europe who were uncomfortable both with the sephardic ritual of Shearit Israel and the reform orientation of KKBE.
During the first decade of the 1800s, Charleston with 500 Jews had the largest as well as the wealthiest and most cultured Jewish community in the USA. In 1816 the Jewish population rose to over 600 constituting approximately one-fifth of all the Jews in the nation. In the following years however, economic recession led to a demographic decline.
Members of the Jewish community were merchants, blacksmiths, journalists, teachers, seamstresses and public servants. By 1830, 83 per cent of the Jews owned slaves, a rate comparable with that of the city’s non-Jewish population.
At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the Jews of Charleston joined the Confederate cause and members of the community fought in the Confederate army. The defeat of the South left the city and its Jews decimated and impoverished.
The waves of Jewish immigration of the late 19th century tended to bypass Charleston. In 1901, however, a naval base was opened on the outskirts of town that spurred economic growth, especially after the US entered World War I. More immigrants from Eastern Europe began joining the community.
In 1902 the number of Jews living in Charleston was less than 2000. In 1929 it was about 2,800, less than one percent of the total population of the metropolitan area.
After World War II, industrial growth and port development, along with expansion of military facilities brought a new prosperity to Charleston that was shared by its Jewish citizens. There was an influx of Jews from other parts of the US, drawn by economic opportunities, mild climate and a good quality of life.
Jews were prominent in the city’s business, professional and cultural life. There was a shift away from retail trade to the professions medicine, law, and education. Jews were active in civic clubs, charitable organizations, and supporters of the arts. They took part in politics and were often elected to office. Social acceptance, however, was limited, and the number of Jews admitted to membership in country clubs was restricted. The Jewish community responded by forming their own social groups and athletic clubs modeled on the ones that excluded them.
By the middle of the 20th century there were three religious congregations, with a combined membership of over 1,200 families, some of whom belonged to more than one synagogue because of family ties. Beth Shalom Beth Israel, traditional orthodox, was the largest, and established a Hebrew Day School in 1956, the Addlestone Hebrew Academy, for pre-school through eighth grade. About equal in membership were the reform Kahal Kodesh Beth Elohim and the conservative Synagogue Emanu-El founded in 1947 as a break off from Beth Shalom Beth Israel.
The community had a burial society, the Chevra Kadisha of Charleston, composed of members of the Orthodox and Conservative Synagogues, a kosher bakery, a kosher meat market and a mikveh (purification bath).
A Jewish Community Center was established in 1944, offering cultural, physical, and educational activities. It managed the Sherman House, located on its campus at 1645 Wallenberg Boulevard, a USA Hud-22 housing complex for the well-elderly composed of 56 private apartments, and offering an extensive program of social activities.
The Charleston Jewish Federation was established in 1949 to be the central unifying organization of the local Jewish community, supporting synagogues and educational institutions, providing social services and caring for the needs of vulnerable populations, and raising money for local, national, and international Jewish causes. It published an award winning monthly periodical with a circulation to over 2000 homes. The Community Relations Council, an arm of the Federation, provided outreach to the general community and advocated on issues of importance to Jews and in support of Israel.
There were active local chapters of national Jewish organizations, including Hadassah, with over 500 members, the National Council of Jewish Women, and ORT (Organization for Rehabilitation and Training). Annual banquets honoring community leaders were given by the Jewish National Fund, ORT, and Israel Bonds.
The Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program was established at the College of Charleston in 1984, and expanded in 1998, providing Jewish educational opportunities to the community.
The Charleston Holocaust Memorial was dedicated in 1999 on Marion Square in downtown Charleston.
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