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  • The 1794 Synagogue of Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim of Charleston:Reconstructed and Reconsidered
  • Daniel Kurt Ackermann (bio)

On September 19 , 1794 , the last Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah, Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (KKBE) dedicated its new synagogue in Charleston, South Carolina. Governor William Moultrie, along with "the lieutenant-governor, the civil and military officers of the state, the municipal authorities, (and) the reverend clergy," attended the ceremony. Reputedly they were all "highly delighted and edified by what they saw."1 The building completion, celebrated by Governor Moultrie and Charleston's civic and religious leaders, demonstrated how well integrated Jews were in the fabric of society.2

Six days later the congregation gathered again, this time to commemorate the beginning of the Jewish year 5555 . In Jewish eyes the synagogue acquired additional meanings. As the Rosh Hashanah morning light streamed in through the double rows of compass-headed windows, the Jews of Charleston knew that their house of worship was different from others previously built in the Judeo-Atlantic world.3 Its interior sought [End Page 159] to integrate the desires of a growing and increasingly prosperous Ashkenazic population within the forms and expectations of a traditionally Sephardic Atlantic Judaism.

Unfortunately, KKBE's 1794 synagogue does not survive. It burned in 1838 in one of Charleston's most destructive conflagrations.4 Today the synagogue's form is known through painted and engraved depictions by the Jewish artist Solomon Nunes Carvalho and through a sketch by John Rubens Smith in the Library of Congress. Carvalho and Smith both show the exterior of the building from the southwest (figures 1 and 2 ). Carvalho's painting of the interior of the synagogue was made from memory in the immediate aftermath of the fire (figure 3 ). It was offered to the congregation, who judged it "neat & accurate" and paid him the then-considerable sum of fifty dollars.5 Smith's sketch was drawn about 1812 and makes a detailed study of the interior and exterior architecture possible by providing another pair of eyes—a pair trained in topographic rendering—to check Carvalho's accuracy.6 An 1826 document written by the architect Robert Mills provides a brief description and basic measurements of the building. When pieced together into a digital model, Smith's sketch, the Carvalho painting and engravings, and the Mills description tell us a great deal about the articulation of KKBE's exterior and the functional and liturgical arrangements of its interior (figure 4 ).

Construction of the synagogue began in January 1792 . The congregation was called together by Daniel Hart, Gershom Cohen, and Moses Levy on behalf of the building committee to witness the laying of cornerstones for the new building. The first stones were laid by Israel Joseph on the east side and Philip Hart on the west. The two men had already given generously toward the project. The honor of laying the other six stones was distributed by auction to Lyon Moses, Isaac Moses, Emanuel Abrahams, Mark Tongues, Hart Moses, and Abraham Moses Sr. "Conducted by the rules and regulations of the ancient and honorable fraternity of Freemasons," the ceremony echoed similar ones held at synagogue dedications elsewhere in the Judeo-Atlantic world.7 [End Page 160]


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Figure 1.

Lithograph of the exterior of Beth Elohim synagogue, Charleston, ca. 1838, by Solomon Nunes Carvalho (1815–1894). (Courtesy American Jewish Historical Society)


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Figure 2.

"Jews synagogue in Charleston," ca. 1812. Pencil on paper by John Rubens Smith (1775–1849). (Courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, John Rubens Smith Collection)

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Figure 3.

Interior of Beth Elohim synagogue, Charleston, 1838. Oil on canvas by Solomon Nunes Carvalho. (Courtesy Special Collections, College of Charleston Library, and Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, Charleston)


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Figure 4.

Interior of Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim synagogue. Digital model by Suhoon Bae and Daniel Kurt Ackermann, 2005.

[End Page 162]

Cornerstones laid and money partially raised, major construction began in earnest.8 Charleston's Jews wanted their synagogue's architecture to engage with other buildings in the city's civic...

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