Les Juifs de Charleston (Caroline du Sud)

Charleston, in South Carolina, was one of the earliest and most important Jewish communities in North America, founded by Sephardim in the colonial era and later joined by Ashkenazim. Thanks to a tolerant colonial charter, the Jews there enjoyed early religious freedom and integrated into the commerce and life of the city. Charleston was a cradle of Reform Judaism in America, a reform movement having emerged there in the first half of the nineteenth century within the congregation Beth Elohim. Long one of the largest Jewish communities in the country, it remains a major historical center of American Judaism.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan
• Jewish Virtual Library ↗