Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities - Blytheville, Arkansas
Historical Overview
Blytheville serves as one of two seats of Mississippi County in the northeast corner of Arkansas. Like much of Eastern Arkansas and the Missouri Bootheel, the county is part of an alluvial plane created by thousands of years of flooding by the Mississippi River. As a result, Blytheville bears a number of historical and cultural similarities to the Mississippi Delta region. Prior to the late 19th century, thickly forested swamps covered much of Mississippi County. Northern lumber companies began clearing land after the arrival of railroads, and the area soon became a major cotton farming center, fueled by fertile soil and the labor of sharecroppers and tenant farmers. Blytheville grew into a significant commercial hub in the early 20th century but experienced a notable decline after 1970, both in terms of general population and economic activity.
The area’s first Jewish residents arrived by the turn of the 20th century and began to organize in Blytheville during the 1910s. By the time the United States entered World War II, Blytheville’s Temple Israel had become the center of religious and cultural life for Jews within a roughly 40-mile radius, and the congregation enjoyed its most active years from approximately 1947 to the mid-1970s. Over the following two decades, the Jewish community in Blytheville and nearby towns dwindled to a small group of older adults, and Temple Israel formally disbanded in 2004.
The area’s first Jewish residents arrived by the turn of the 20th century and began to organize in Blytheville during the 1910s. By the time the United States entered World War II, Blytheville’s Temple Israel had become the center of religious and cultural life for Jews within a roughly 40-mile radius, and the congregation enjoyed its most active years from approximately 1947 to the mid-1970s. Over the following two decades, the Jewish community in Blytheville and nearby towns dwindled to a small group of older adults, and Temple Israel formally disbanded in 2004.
Early Jewish Settlers and the Emergence of a Jewish Community
The first Jews to migrate to the Blytheville area likely made their homes in nearby towns. Nathan Tiger, for example, emigrated from the Russian Empire (later Latvia) in 1888 and peddled dry goods near Luxora on the Mississippi River. His brother Esidor joined him around 1897, and Esidor’s wife and oldest two children followed two years later. By 1904 the Tiger brothers had established a business partnership with Ike Levine in Manila, southwest of Blytheville, but it is not clear whether any of the three owners ever lived there. By 1910 the entire Tiger family had relocated to St. Louis, and Levine reportedly commuted to his store by train from Jonesboro. The transience of Mississippi County Jews in the late 19th and early 20th centuries typified Jewish mobility in the United States at that time, even as the lumber industry and growing agricultural development set the stage for a more lasting Jewish presence.
Blytheville itself attracted its first Jewish-owned business by 1902, when the Bertig Bros. firm of Paragould, Arkansas, opened a store there. By the end of the decade, Silvey Sternberg had arrived to manage the Blytheville branch of the Bertig business. Silvey and his wife, Mollie, were both born in the United States to Central European immigrants; they and other so-called “German-Jewish” families constituted a minority of the area’s Jewish population, the majority of which hailed from the Russian Empire.
The beginnings of Blytheville’s Jewish community coincided with the city’s rapid development between 1900—when the tiny town won out over Manila to become the second seat of Mississippi County—and 1920. Blytheville’s population grew from a few hundred individuals at the turn of the century to more than 6,400 people two decades later. As Blytheville surpassed Osceola as the largest city in the county, it also became the center of Jewish life. Annie Weinberg, who had been instrumental in organizing the nascent Jewish community of Osceola, moved to Blytheville with her daughter Lillian Weinberg Rosenthal in 1923, and the Weinberg matriarch continued to build Jewish institutions in her new town.
When Annie Weinberg arrived in Blytheville, a local B’nai B’rith chapter had existed for about five years. Within months of Weinberg’s arrival, Jewish women formed a Ladies Aid Society, which became the nucleus of a new Jewish congregation and religious school. Local Jews held services in a private home for the high holidays in fall 1924, and the Ladies Aid Society purchased a modest, stucco building on West Ash Street for $3,000 in March 1925. By November the community had formally organized a congregation and used their refurbished facility for holidays and religious school. Although the Ladies Aid Society deeded the building to the congregation’s board of trustees—all men—in 1928, Jewish women remained essential to the community’s activity throughout its existence.
The beginnings of Blytheville’s Jewish community coincided with the city’s rapid development between 1900—when the tiny town won out over Manila to become the second seat of Mississippi County—and 1920. Blytheville’s population grew from a few hundred individuals at the turn of the century to more than 6,400 people two decades later. As Blytheville surpassed Osceola as the largest city in the county, it also became the center of Jewish life. Annie Weinberg, who had been instrumental in organizing the nascent Jewish community of Osceola, moved to Blytheville with her daughter Lillian Weinberg Rosenthal in 1923, and the Weinberg matriarch continued to build Jewish institutions in her new town.
When Annie Weinberg arrived in Blytheville, a local B’nai B’rith chapter had existed for about five years. Within months of Weinberg’s arrival, Jewish women formed a Ladies Aid Society, which became the nucleus of a new Jewish congregation and religious school. Local Jews held services in a private home for the high holidays in fall 1924, and the Ladies Aid Society purchased a modest, stucco building on West Ash Street for $3,000 in March 1925. By November the community had formally organized a congregation and used their refurbished facility for holidays and religious school. Although the Ladies Aid Society deeded the building to the congregation’s board of trustees—all men—in 1928, Jewish women remained essential to the community’s activity throughout its existence.
An Established Jewish Community
In 1927 an estimated 71 Jews lived in Blytheville, and the city boasted more than two dozen Jewish-owned businesses in the early 1930s. As in other Delta communities, Jewish business people often started off in retail but participated in other industries and professions as well. Successful retailer Silvey Sternberg presided over the Bertig Cotton Company, which incorporated in 1914, and later owned Sternberg Cotton Company. The firm became one of the largest cotton gins and brokerages in the area, and Silvey’s son, Harold, continued in the business for decades. Brothers Richard and Siegbert (Zeke) Jiedel immigrated to the United States from Posen, Prussia (Later Poznań, Poland) in 1913. After living for a time in Helena, they arrived in Blytheville during the 1920s, where Richard owned a dry goods store and Zeke ran a cotton brokerage.
A few Jews made their livings in fields outside retail and agriculture. Samuel J. “Jimmy” Cohen received a degree in engineering in Russia before emigrating in the 1910s. After nearly a decade in New York City, he moved to Blytheville with his wife, Luba Tooter Cohen, in 1920 and took a job with a local engineering firm. In the early 1930s Jimmy founded the S. J. Cohen Company, which specialized in canals, levees, and highway construction. Attorney Oscar Fendler, whose father owned a store in Manila, set up an office in Blytheville following his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1933.
Jewish activity in Blytheville increased in the 1930s, in part because the city had grown considerably, but also because Temple Israel—as the congregation began calling itself by 1930—attracted participants from as far as 40 miles away. For most of Temple Israel’s history, in fact, a minority of its congregants lived in Blytheville. In addition to members in Manila, Osceola, and other Arkansas towns, congregants came from several towns in the “Bootheel” region of southeast Missouri, including Caruthersville, Hayti, Kennet, and Steele. In order to accommodate out-of-town members (as well as shopkeepers who did business on Fridays and Saturdays) Temple Israel held religious school and services on Sunday afternoons in the 1930s. The small congregation affiliated itself with the Reform movement, although many members came from traditionally observant backgrounds. Services took place primarily in English (in keeping with Reform practice of the era), but men often wore yarmulkes and tallit in synagogue (traditions that many Reform Jews eschewed at that time). Some local families, such as the Borowskies of Manila, maintained traditional dietary laws by shipping in meat from Memphis or other cities.
A few Jews made their livings in fields outside retail and agriculture. Samuel J. “Jimmy” Cohen received a degree in engineering in Russia before emigrating in the 1910s. After nearly a decade in New York City, he moved to Blytheville with his wife, Luba Tooter Cohen, in 1920 and took a job with a local engineering firm. In the early 1930s Jimmy founded the S. J. Cohen Company, which specialized in canals, levees, and highway construction. Attorney Oscar Fendler, whose father owned a store in Manila, set up an office in Blytheville following his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1933.
Jewish activity in Blytheville increased in the 1930s, in part because the city had grown considerably, but also because Temple Israel—as the congregation began calling itself by 1930—attracted participants from as far as 40 miles away. For most of Temple Israel’s history, in fact, a minority of its congregants lived in Blytheville. In addition to members in Manila, Osceola, and other Arkansas towns, congregants came from several towns in the “Bootheel” region of southeast Missouri, including Caruthersville, Hayti, Kennet, and Steele. In order to accommodate out-of-town members (as well as shopkeepers who did business on Fridays and Saturdays) Temple Israel held religious school and services on Sunday afternoons in the 1930s. The small congregation affiliated itself with the Reform movement, although many members came from traditionally observant backgrounds. Services took place primarily in English (in keeping with Reform practice of the era), but men often wore yarmulkes and tallit in synagogue (traditions that many Reform Jews eschewed at that time). Some local families, such as the Borowskies of Manila, maintained traditional dietary laws by shipping in meat from Memphis or other cities.
While laypeople such as Richard Jiedel and Sam Orgel had led services in the congregation’s early years, the community hired a recent ordinee, Rabbi Maurice Lyons, in 1936. The congregation consisted of 69 member families at the time, and 19 Jewish children attended religious school in Blytheville. The young rabbi only stayed for a year, however. Rabbi Herman Pollack succeeded Rabbi Lyons and served the congregation for four years. Newspaper notices indicate that Rabbi Pollack’s sermons stressed progressive politics that were popular among Reform rabbis of the time, with sermons titled “The Basis of Racial Antagonism” and “The Ten Commandments and the Rural South.” Two more rabbis, Pizer Jacobs and Jerome Rosen, served the Blytheville congregation for brief terms in the early 1940s. These short stays reflected the difficulties that Temple Israel and other small communities had in securing long-term rabbinical leadership. Small-town rabbis often departed for more prestigious or better paying jobs, and progressive rabbis such as Herman Pollack sometimes faced backlash for promoting Jewish social justice in Jim Crow environments like the Arkansas Delta.
The population of Blytheville grew quickly in the 1940s, in part due to the establishment of a nearby Army Air Corps training site (which was reactivated as an Air Force base in the 1950s). The local Jewish community sought to expand as well, and in 1942 they sold the original Jewish Community House and purchased land at the corner of Chickasawba and 15th Streets with plans to build a new synagogue. Wartime rationing and limited financial resources delayed construction, but the congregation finally broke ground on July 10th, 1946. In 1947 Temple Israel formally dedicated its new facility, a small brick temple with Moorish design elements that included a social hall, kitchen, rabbi’s study, and classrooms. Eight stained glass windows lined the sides of the 150-seat sanctuary.
The population of Blytheville grew quickly in the 1940s, in part due to the establishment of a nearby Army Air Corps training site (which was reactivated as an Air Force base in the 1950s). The local Jewish community sought to expand as well, and in 1942 they sold the original Jewish Community House and purchased land at the corner of Chickasawba and 15th Streets with plans to build a new synagogue. Wartime rationing and limited financial resources delayed construction, but the congregation finally broke ground on July 10th, 1946. In 1947 Temple Israel formally dedicated its new facility, a small brick temple with Moorish design elements that included a social hall, kitchen, rabbi’s study, and classrooms. Eight stained glass windows lined the sides of the 150-seat sanctuary.
Temple Israel dedicated its new synagogue during the congregation’s only period of rabbinical stability. Rabbi Alfred Vise—a German refugee who had previously served a small congregation in Clarksville, Tennessee—arrived in 1945 after the Blythevile congregation had been without a full-time spiritual leader for two years. Rabbi Vise proved popular with congregants and the general community alike, as well as with Jewish service members stationed at Blytheville Air Force Base. He served Temple Israel until his death in 1957, and the congregation employed visiting rabbis for the remainder of its history.
Business and Civic Life
From the early twentieth century onward, Jewish businessmen occupied prominent positions in the local community, and Jewish men and women played important roles in the civic life of Blytheville and the surrounding area. Mollie Sternberg (pictured above), whose husband Silvey was a merchant and cotton broker, assisted in the founding of the Blytheville Women’s Club and served as an early leader, reflecting her acceptance into white, Christian society in the 1910s and 1920s. Jewish men belonged to civic and fraternal organizations including the Masons and the Elks Club, and, although the Ku Klux Klan became a strong presence in the area during the 1920s, they did not agitate against local Jews.
As the movement for Black civil rights gained momentum in the 1950s, Jews in Blytheville and nearby towns held a range of perspectives on desegregation and related issues. Like other southern Jews, they were more likely to express sympathy for racial justice movements than their white, non-Jewish neighbors. At the same time, area Jews had benefited from their place in the racial hierarchy and sometimes identified with the segregationist cause. Even progressive Jews tended to take a cautious, moderate approach and often avoided public statements.
Attorney Oscar Fendler was not afraid to draw attention to himself, but still demonstrated contradictory thoughts on the subject of desegregation. A veteran official of the state and county Democratic Party, Fendler publicly refused to support the segregationist Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Johnson in 1966. Fendler, who had attended a civil rights conference at the White House three years earlier, referred to himself as a “segregationist” but renounced Johnson for campaigning “on a platform of hate and bigotry.” In the early 1970s he also led litigation that resulted in the closure of penal farms in Mississippi and Philips Counties.
Among Blytheville’s Jewish women, Huddy Cohen stood out for her civic involvement. A New England native, she married Jerry Cohen (son of engineer S.J. Cohen) in 1947 and moved to Blytheville, where the couple raised their two daughters. In addition to her leadership at Temple Israel, where she chaired the religious school and served as a sisterhood officer, Cohen became active in community affairs, and she earned recognition as Blytheville’s “Woman of the Year” in 1955. Cohen was also vocally progressive. In 1969, for instance, she joined a biracial group of women to establish a low-cost daycare center that would serve the children of Black working mothers, who had few options for quality childcare at the time.
As the movement for Black civil rights gained momentum in the 1950s, Jews in Blytheville and nearby towns held a range of perspectives on desegregation and related issues. Like other southern Jews, they were more likely to express sympathy for racial justice movements than their white, non-Jewish neighbors. At the same time, area Jews had benefited from their place in the racial hierarchy and sometimes identified with the segregationist cause. Even progressive Jews tended to take a cautious, moderate approach and often avoided public statements.
Attorney Oscar Fendler was not afraid to draw attention to himself, but still demonstrated contradictory thoughts on the subject of desegregation. A veteran official of the state and county Democratic Party, Fendler publicly refused to support the segregationist Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Johnson in 1966. Fendler, who had attended a civil rights conference at the White House three years earlier, referred to himself as a “segregationist” but renounced Johnson for campaigning “on a platform of hate and bigotry.” In the early 1970s he also led litigation that resulted in the closure of penal farms in Mississippi and Philips Counties.
Among Blytheville’s Jewish women, Huddy Cohen stood out for her civic involvement. A New England native, she married Jerry Cohen (son of engineer S.J. Cohen) in 1947 and moved to Blytheville, where the couple raised their two daughters. In addition to her leadership at Temple Israel, where she chaired the religious school and served as a sisterhood officer, Cohen became active in community affairs, and she earned recognition as Blytheville’s “Woman of the Year” in 1955. Cohen was also vocally progressive. In 1969, for instance, she joined a biracial group of women to establish a low-cost daycare center that would serve the children of Black working mothers, who had few options for quality childcare at the time.
Peak and Decline
By the time that school desegregation finally arrived in Blytheville, the area’s Jewish population had peaked. Blytheville itself grew through 1970 or so, but rural populations in Mississippi County and surrounding areas dropped quickly in the postwar period. Whereas agricultural workers once poured into Blytheville and other market towns to shop on Saturday nights, the mechanization of cotton and other changes in the rural economy depleted the pool of customers for Jewish retailers. At the same time, Jewish children raised in Blytheville and nearby towns during the mid-20th century, tended to leave the area for college and then settle in larger cities that offered greater professional opportunities.
In 1947, at the outset of Temple Israel’s most active years, the congregation claimed 109 adult members. That number fell to 71 total adults in 1972, when they celebrated 25 years in their synagogue building; the religious school still enrolled 26 children that year. Approximately seventy children attended religious school at Temple Israel during its first two-and-a-half decades, and the community hosted 20 bar mitzvah ceremonies and celebrated 5 bat mitzvahs in that time. Adult membership did not drop off sharply during the 1970s, but the number of Jewish children in the area did. Consequently, Temple Israel became a community of middle aged and older adults by 1980. During the next decade, the area’s Jewish population declined rapidly, and only three Jewish families remained in Blytheville itself as of 1990.
In 1947, at the outset of Temple Israel’s most active years, the congregation claimed 109 adult members. That number fell to 71 total adults in 1972, when they celebrated 25 years in their synagogue building; the religious school still enrolled 26 children that year. Approximately seventy children attended religious school at Temple Israel during its first two-and-a-half decades, and the community hosted 20 bar mitzvah ceremonies and celebrated 5 bat mitzvahs in that time. Adult membership did not drop off sharply during the 1970s, but the number of Jewish children in the area did. Consequently, Temple Israel became a community of middle aged and older adults by 1980. During the next decade, the area’s Jewish population declined rapidly, and only three Jewish families remained in Blytheville itself as of 1990.
Temple Israel relied on student rabbis and visiting clergy for religious leadership for most of its existence and continued to do so during its final years. During the 1990s they hired Ariel Barak Imber to lead high holiday services as well as monthly religious services. Imber, a former B’nai B’rith professional and Jewish Federation of Arkansas president, was perhaps an odd fit for the aging Reform congregation. He sang Conservative melodies, incorporated American Indian spirituality into his sermons, and maintained a vegan diet. At the same time, Temple Israel members appreciated his experience and enthusiasm, and he led regular services at the congregation until his unexpected death in 2001.
By the early 1990s, it became clear that Temple Israel was nearing the end of its existence. The congregation shifted from Friday evening to Sunday morning services during Ariel Imber’s tenure, in large part because night driving had become less safe for the majority of members, who were over 65 years old and drove from out of town. Many remaining congregants were making plans to relocate for their final years, and they began preparing to close the congregation as well.
By September 2000 the congregation had removed the eight stained glass windows from their building; the windows underwent repairs before being installed in a small chapel of the newly constructed Beth Sholom Synagogue in Memphis. Temple Israel held its final religious service in November 2003 and then put its building up for sale. In addition to the stained glass windows, Beth Sholom accepted a number of synagogue artifacts, including Temple Israel’s yahrzeit memorial boards. The congregation’s Torah scrolls went to congregations in Memphis, Kansas City, and Columbia, Missouri.
The Jewish population of Blytheville and the surrounding area continued to decline in the early 21st century, but former members of Temple Israel remained connected despite being dispersed to other communities. In 2023, twenty years after the congregation’s closure, only a handful of adult members from the congregation’s peak years survive. Children raised in Temple Israel from the 1950s to 1970s retain memories of congregational life, however, and remain connected to one another through their experiences in the local Jewish community.
By September 2000 the congregation had removed the eight stained glass windows from their building; the windows underwent repairs before being installed in a small chapel of the newly constructed Beth Sholom Synagogue in Memphis. Temple Israel held its final religious service in November 2003 and then put its building up for sale. In addition to the stained glass windows, Beth Sholom accepted a number of synagogue artifacts, including Temple Israel’s yahrzeit memorial boards. The congregation’s Torah scrolls went to congregations in Memphis, Kansas City, and Columbia, Missouri.
The Jewish population of Blytheville and the surrounding area continued to decline in the early 21st century, but former members of Temple Israel remained connected despite being dispersed to other communities. In 2023, twenty years after the congregation’s closure, only a handful of adult members from the congregation’s peak years survive. Children raised in Temple Israel from the 1950s to 1970s retain memories of congregational life, however, and remain connected to one another through their experiences in the local Jewish community.
Last updated June 2023.
Selected Bibliography
Ferris, Marcie Cohen. Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005).
LeMaster, Carolyn. A Corner of the Tapestry: A History of the Jewish Experience in Arkansas, 1820s-1990s (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1994).
Ferris, Marcie Cohen. Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005).
LeMaster, Carolyn. A Corner of the Tapestry: A History of the Jewish Experience in Arkansas, 1820s-1990s (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1994).