The Synagogue

The Founding Committee

The story of Agudas Israel Synagogue begins on September 24th, 1922, in the house of Mrs. Kantrowitz, where twenty-seven members of the Hendersonville Jewish community came together to form the first Jewish congregation in Hendersonville1. They began holding services around the city, in members’ houses and once in a Masonic lodge2. There were originally nineteen families that were part of the congregation. However, a physical location for the Jewish community was still needed.

The Jewish community was invisible in Hendersonville; many locals thought there were no Jews in the town because they did not have a building of worship. So, the congregation held many meetings to discuss the location and fundraising for a building to be a synagogue. The community organized many programs, mostly dances, to raise the necessary funds to buy property. Still, many members were reluctant to directly ask friends and family, Jewish and non-Jewish, for donations3. Eventually, the committee got eight-hundred dollars for a down payment on a plot of land nearby to build a synagogue, even though many members had never been there or did not know where it was.

Besides fundraising, there was also an attempt to create a Sunday school for the children in 1923, but it failed due to low attendance4.

The Physical Synagogue

The years of fundraising paid off, for on July, 1925, the congregation bought a building from the Home Electric Company on Main Street and converted it into a synagogue5. With a physical building, the Jewish community could have a consistent place to hold services and act as a community center for the Jews.

The synagogue hired Rabbi Chaim Williamowsky, a Litvak (Lithuanian) immigrant, and practiced Orthodox Judaism. A few years later, Rabbi Williamowsky was replaced with Beryl Cohen, a Russian immigrant who studied in Jerusalem and who was an acquaintance of the Lewises6, as the leader of services and the local shochet (Kosher butcher). He was not a rabbi, however a rabbi is not needed for a service or many rituals. A rotating circuit of traveling rabbis filled the position of rabbi, giving sermons, leading study groups, and performing rituals that require a rabbi. These rabbis went to communities too small to have a full-time rabbi.

With the purchase of a Jewish cemetery in May 19387, the Hendersonville Jewish community had everything it needed to be a thriving community.

Photos

Photos taken of the building front in its prime

Photos taken from King Street (the building today is a Salvation Army Store)

Juxtapose Images: “Ad for Agudas Israel”, Agudas Israel Synagogue Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804. “Framed Collage photo 2.7”, Agudas Israel Synagogue Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804. “Exterior of the Agudas Israel Synagogue” ,Agudas Israel Synagogue Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804. “Photograph in front of Salvation Army store”, Evan Bretan,  328 N. King Street, Hendersonville, NC.
Banner Image: “Exterior of the Agudas Israel Synagogue” Photograph, Agudas Israel Synagogue Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804
  1. Meeting Minutes from 1922, Agudas Israel Synagogue Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804
  2. A “Brief History of Agudas Israel. The Genesis of Agudas Israel Congregation.”, Agudas Israel Synagogue Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804
  3. Fundraising Appeal, Agudas Israel Synagogue Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804
  4. Draft of a manuscript of the history of the Agudas Israel Synagogue,Agudas Israel Synagogue Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804
  5. Copy of the land deed for the Agudas Israel Synagogue,Agudas Israel Synagogue Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804
  6. Traveling papers for Beryl Cohen,Agudas Israel Synagogue Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804.
  7. Jewish Cemetery documentation,Agudas Israel Synagogue Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804