Temple Israel (Stockton, California)

For other synagogues named "Temple Israel", see Temple Israel.

Temple Israel is a synagogue in Stockton, California. It is one of the oldest Jewish congregations in California.

History

The congregation was founded during the goldrush as a Jewish society called Ryhim Ahovim (Heb. Loving Friends) by tradition in 1849 but documentably no later than 1850. Other sources say that the congregation was founded in 1851.[1]

The first building, on Miner Ave. between El Dorado and Hunter, was completed on Aug. 28, 1855. It was a simple, frame structure built on of brick foundation of wood that had been shipped around the Horn, since no sawmill yet existed in Stockton.[2] During the flood of 1861-2 the building flooded with two feet of water, causing the congregation to move it to higher ground on Hunter Street.[3]

External links

References

  1. ^ Mrs. David "Bea" Schwartz (1969). "The Oldest Jewish Cemetery in the West, Stockton, California". http://www.wsjhistory.com/oldest_jewish_cemetery.htm. Retrieved 2010. 
  2. ^ Occident and American Jewish Advocate, Philadelphia, Feb. 1856
  3. ^ Ava Fran Kahn, Jewish voices of the California gold rush: a documentary history, 1849-1880, Wayne State University Press, 2002, p. 361.