Congregation Emanuel (Statesville, North Carolina)
Encyclopedia
Congregation Emanuel is a Conservative
synagogue in Statesville, North Carolina
. Built in 1891, it is the oldest house of worship in Statesville and the third oldest synagogue building
in the state.
The synagogue is located near downtown Statesville and the campus of Mitchell Community College at 206 North Kelly Street.
building with its recessed, round-arch entrance and round-arch windows has suffered no major alterations in the century that it has served the Jewish community of Statesville. It is one of fewer than a hundred nineteenth-century synagogue buildings still standing in the United States.
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...
synagogue in Statesville, North Carolina
Statesville, North Carolina
Statesville is a city located in Iredell County, North Carolina, United States and was named an All-America City in 1997 and 2009. The population was 24,633 at the 2010 census...
. Built in 1891, it is the oldest house of worship in Statesville and the third oldest synagogue building
Oldest synagogues in the United States
The designation of the oldest synagogue in the United States requires careful use of definitions, and must be divided into two parts, the oldest in the sense of oldest surviving building, and the oldest in the sense of oldest congregation...
in the state.
The synagogue is located near downtown Statesville and the campus of Mitchell Community College at 206 North Kelly Street.
History
Jews are documented as living in Statesville before the Civil War, but the number of families was small and they gathered for prayer in private homes until a formal congregation was organized in 1883. Congregation Emanuel rented space for services in the Statesville Fireman's Hall for nine years before building a synagogue in 1891-2, at a time when Statesville had a sizeable Jewish population.Architecture
The brick, gable-end-to-the-street, RundbogenstilRundbogenstil
Rundbogenstil , one of the nineteenth-century historic revival styles of architecture, is a variety of Romanesque revival popular in the German-speaking lands and the German diaspora....
building with its recessed, round-arch entrance and round-arch windows has suffered no major alterations in the century that it has served the Jewish community of Statesville. It is one of fewer than a hundred nineteenth-century synagogue buildings still standing in the United States.