Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (Hebrew: קהל קדוש בית אלוהים, lit. 'Holy Congregation House of God',[3] also known as K. K. Beth Elohim, or more simply Congregation Beth Elohim) is a ReformJewish congregation and synagogue located in Charleston, South Carolina, in the United States.
Having founded the congregation in 1749, it was later claimed to be the first Reform synagogue located in the United States.[4] The congregation's first synagogue, in the Georgian Revival style, was built in 1793-94 and destroyed in an 1838 fire that ravished Charleston's central business district, impacting 500 properties over approximately 150 acres (61 ha).[5] The current architecturally significant Greek Revival synagogue located at 90 Hasell Street, completed in 1840, was designed by Cyrus L. Warner and built by enslaved African descendants owned by David Lopez Jr, a prominent slaveowner and proponent of the Confederate States of America.[3]
The congregation is one of the oldest Jewish congregations in the United States. The congregation is nationally significant as the place where ideas resembling Reform Judaism were first evinced.[6]
History
Before 1830, Kahal Kodesh Beth Elohim (KKBE) was a place of worship in Charleston, South Carolina for Spanish and Portuguese Jews using Portuguese rituals as done in Portugal before the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions. Commenced as an OrthodoxSephardic congregation,[3] it later adopted a reformed religious ritual after reabsorbing a splinter group originally led by Isaac Harby. In 1824 the Reformed Society of the Israelites was founded by Portuguese Jews. It adopted ideas from the European Reform movement, and itself contributed ideas to the later, widespread American Reform movement, but was also quite different form either of them, with its own unique Reform prayer-book, the first in America.[7]
The founding members of the KKBE were Sephardi Jews of Spanish and Portuguese, who arrived into Charleston from London, England to work in mercantile freight and the slave trade.[8] While the congregation is sometimes considered to be the originator of Reform Judaism in the United States, that movement was established by European immigrants mostly from Germany later on.
Rabbi Burton Padoll, who served as the synagogue's rabbi during the 1960s, was an outspoken activist for the rights of African-Americans. Rabbi Padoll was forced to resign as rabbi after prominent members of the congregation objected to his support for the civil rights movement.[9]
Synagogue building
The present Greek Revival building is the second oldest synagogue building in the United States, and the oldest in continuous use, in the United States;[10] in addition, it has the oldest continually operating Jewish cemetery in the United States.[11] It is a single-story brick building, set on a raised granite foundation. The brick is stuccoed and painted white, and is marked in manner to resemble stone blocks. The portico comprises six fluted, equally spaced Doric columns, stucco over molded brick, approximating a Theseion order, supporting a gabled pediment.[3]
A historical plaque at the entrance to the synagogue grounds.
In 2021, a monument was installed with an inscription at the site of the synagogue, to commemorate the forced human labor extracted from Black Africans owned by industrialist and slaveowner David Lopez Jr in the construction of the site; In acknowledging the past injustice, Rabbi Stephanie Alexander says "We're being honest and transparent about what has enabled us to come together and has enabled us to come to this space."[12]
^ ab"Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved March 3, 2008.
^Sarna, Jonathan (2004). American Judaism: A History. Yale University Press. p. 19.
^Harby, Isaac; Moise, Abraham; Carvalho, D. N., eds. (1830). The Sabbath Service and Miscellaneous Prayers, Adopted by the Reformed Society of Israelites, founded in Charleston, S. C., November 21, 1825. Reprinted with an introduction by Dr. Barnett A. Elzas (Block Publishing Company, New York, 1916 ed.). 44 Queen St., Charleston (SC): J.S. Burges. (From the Editor's Preface:) The Charleston Movement of 1824 was not an indigenous movement, but directly dependent upon a similar movement that had taken place in Germany a few years before, now popularly known as the Hamburg Movement. The Prayer Book of the Reformed Society of Israelites however has nothing in common with the one published for the use of the Hamburg Temple in 1819. Apart from its novelties such as the Articles of Faith, the Wedding Service, the Confirmation Service, the Service for Circumcision and for Naming a Daughter and its English Hymns, it is based upon the Portuguese Ritual then in use in Charleston.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location (link)
