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Ahava Shalom, Summit

Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities - Congregation Ahava Shalom - Summit, Mississippi

Overview >> Mississippi >>  Summit >> Congregation Ahava Shalom
In 1877, Rabbi E.B.M. Browne came to Summit to give a lecture entitled “The Crucifixion and the Jews.”  This lecture ultimately changed the Jewish landscape in Summit.  Rabbi Browne was a flamboyant religious leader from Atlanta who was an advocate for Reform Judaism across the South.  While one of his goals in Summit was to explain properly the story of Jesus, his other goal was to gather the Jews of Summit together in order to start a local congregation.  A year before his speech, a group of Jewish women had attempted unsuccessfully to start a Sunday school for the local Jewish children.  Browne’s entreaties seemed to revive Jewish fervor in Summit, and after he left, local Jews began to organize a fully functioning synagogue in Summit.

In 1877, Solomon Hyman, a wealthy local merchant from Poland, and J.D. Jacobowsky helped found Ahava Shalom, a name meaning “Lovers of Peace” in Hebrew.  The temple first opened its doors for Rosh Hashanah in 1877.  Prayer were almost entirely in English; however, the choir did sing a few “Hebrew hymns.”  Interestingly, Ahava Shalom drew Jews not only from Summit but from neighboring communities like Osyka, where some of their community members described the Hebrew hymns at the Summit synagogue as being completely boring.  Women ran the Sunday school, while men ran the services every Friday night and during the holidays.  They served as lay leaders because they usually did not have a rabbi.  Occasionally, Rabbi Louis Myers would come to town to lead services.  After 1890, Rabbi Herman Bien of Vicksburg would come.  Louis Aaronson and later Felix Moyse were the lay leaders for the congregation.  Rabbi Max Heller of New Orleans officiated at several weddings in Summit, revealing the Summit Jewish community’s strong kinship ties with the crescent city. 

Ahava Shalom had nearly twenty member families in the 1890s.  Local Jews also belonged to other Jewish organizations.  In the 1900s, there was a local B’nai B’rith chapter known as the Ruth Lodge.  Local merchant Charles Levy led the short-lived.  In addition, a Jewish cemetery existed in north Summit alongside the railroad tracks.  Guarded by an iron fence, this cemetery featured such names as Henry Perlinsky, Abraham Wadel, and Jacob Hart.  Although still in existence today, it was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

As a result of the boll weevil, Summit’s Jewish population shrunk to the point of not needing a synagogue.  In 1908, only fifteen members belonged to the temple.  By 1910, the synagogue at the corner of the Illinois Central Railroad track and Baldwin Street closed its doors for good.  While some merchants were still around the area during World War I, few remained during the “Roaring Twenties.”  In 1924, a massive tornado hit Summit destroying the synagogue.  With no remaining congregants, the temple was not rebuilt.  Interestingly, stories also exist of another temple trying to form in 1906 in the Odd Fellows Hall called B’nai Israel, possibly in response to religious differences with Ahava Shalom.  Nevertheless, the Boll Weevil made the project short-lived.   

Like many places, Summit was a Mississippi community that not only had Jewish pioneers but also a functioning synagogue.  Starting as an establishment of both German and Eastern European Jews, economic changes in the early 20th century caused the Jewish community to shrink to only a family or two.  Ahava Shalom was a casualty of this population decline.

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