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 History Department
Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities
Overview >> Arkansas >> Bentonville
Bentonville, Arkansas
Bentonville, Arkansas is a startling anomaly. It is a small town Jewish community in the South that is experiencing tremendous growth in the 21st century, a time when most small town Jewish communities are declining or already extinct. The reason for this exceptional story is that Bentonville is the headquarters of the country’s largest company, Wal-Mart, which has helped to transform retailing around the country. Bentonville's new-found Jewish community has attracted the attention of the national media, with a front-page feature in the New York Times in 2006.
Bentonville never had a significant Jewish population until the rise of Wal-Mart. In 1937, no Jews were reported to live in this town in the far northwestern corner of Arkansas. With the rise of Wal-Mart, which started as a five and dime store in downtown Bentonville, the town’s general population began to grow. In 1990, 11,257 lived in Bentonville. In 2000, almost 20,000 people lived there; in 2005, over 29,000 people lived in the town. As Wal-Mart emerged as the world’s largest retail operation, many companies opened offices in Bentonville to be closer to their biggest customer.
It is this development which has led many Jews to settle in Bentonville. In 2004, they organized the town’s first ever synagogue, Etz Chaim (Tree of Life). In many ways, this growing community is the exception that proves the rule of small town Jewish decline. Small town Jewish communities across the South were founded by store owners as Jews were prominent in the region’s merchant class. In recent decades, Jews have moved out of retail business ownership to become professionals and corporate executives. As a result, they have moved to economic centers like Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta while small town Jewish populations have shrunk. Because Bentonville is a corporate center, its Jewish population has grown as well. In 2005, an estimated 100 Jews lived in the area. Practically all of them came from other parts of the country. Most of them were young families with children, as Etz Chaim already has the second largest religious school in the state.
Bentonville is a fast-growing Jewish community, though it experiences a high degree of turnover. Many corporations who station employees in Bentonville transfer them to other offices after a few years. Despite this, Bentonville’s Jewish community will likely continue to grow in next few decades. Anticipating this growth, Chabad has recently opened a branch in town.
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