“We all left because our lives were in danger. We came because we wanted to believe there was a place for us here.” 

—Sam Kalin  

The Old Bnai Brith Jacob Synagogue 

From the earliest days of the Georgia Colony, two distinct groupings divided the Jewish settlers: One community that followed the Sephardic tradition and another that followed the Ashkenazic tradition. The Congregation Mickve Israel (see PFS-21), Savannah’s oldest Jewish community, practices the Sephardic tradition. The Congregation Bnai Brith Jacob practices the Ashkenazic tradition.  

This en Plein air is of the old Bnai Brith Jacob Synagogue located on the corner of State and Montgomery Streets on the far west side of Savannah’s Historic District. Rabbi Jacob Rosenfeld organized the community in 1861. This building was completed in 1907 and designed by architect Hyman Witcover. He also designed the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple on Madison Square (see PFS-15), which I consider the most beautiful building in all Savannah. Witcover also designed Savannah’s City Hall (see PFS-10). 

Like the Scottish Rite Temple, a close look at this magnificent building reveals Witcover’s intricate and often exotic signature details that each makes the building unique: the keyhole arches over the windows, the Moorish-style corner domes adorned with Stars of David, the beautiful stained-glass windows, and the intricate corbelled detail above the doors. It’s simply gorgeous. 

The Congregation Bnai Brith Jacob expanded over the years and built a larger Synagogue south on Abercorn Street in 1962. The Congregation also developed the Jewish Education Alliance, a public community center that kindly hosted my first art show several years ago. In 2006, this old Synagogue began its new life as the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) Student Center. 

Each of us owes so much to those who came before us. I know I would never have landed in the United States without the support and encouragement of relatives, mainly supplied by my mother. 

When King George II signed the Georgia Charter in 1732, among the Commissioners appointed by Colonial Trustees were three wealthy Jews from London: Anthony da Costa, Alvarez Lopez Suasso, and Francis Londoner. Their task would not be easy. At an early meeting of the Trustees, the vote allowing Jews to settle in Georgia tied 2-to-2. To some Christians, the very idea of Jewish settlers was shocking. 

But before a second vote of the Trustees took place, the three Jewish Commissioners wisely — and secretly — arranged for the transportation to Georgia of forty-two Jewish men, women, and children aboard the William and Sarah. The ship dropped anchor in the Savannah River in July 1733. 

Many of these new Jewish settlers immediately proved themselves useful to Georgia Colony founder James Oglethorpe, who was thereby willing to grant most adult Jewish men tracts of land.  

Of the forty-two Jews who first landed in Georgia, eight were Ashkenazic Jews originally from the Iberian Peninsula, while the remaining thirty-four were Sephardic Jews originally from Germany. Both groups escaped to England as a result of religious persecution. But when war broke out between England and Spain, with battles coming to the border of Georgia and Florida, most of the Ashkenazic Jews left the Colony to South Carolina.  

Many had been forced to convert to Catholicism in Portugal before escaping the Inquisition but reverted to Judaism in England. In Catholic eyes, they were guilty of apostasy. Had they been captured by the Spanish, burning at the stake was often the punishment imposed. But after General Oglethorpe’s victory at the War of Jenkin’s Ear, additional Jewish families speedily sailed for Savannah.