Temple Adas Israel

Temple Adas Israel, built in 1882, is a National Historic Landmark synagogue in Brownsville, Tennessee. It is thought to be the oldest synagogue building in Tennessee. [ [http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=T013 TN Encyclopedia: TEMPLE ADAS ISRAEL ] ]

The Jewish community of Brownsville was founded by immigrants from Germany. They first met for prayers in 1867 in a room in the home of Jacob and Karoline Felsanthal. The congregation built a wooden synagogue in 1882. [ [http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tnhaywoo/church/temple.htm Temple Adas Israel ] ]

This 1882 building is in a simple Gothic Revival style. It originally featured a small steeple, an extremely rare feature for a synagogue. The building underwent a major renovation in the 1920s, the wooden siding was replaced with brick, the steeple was removed, and new pews and an organ were installed. [America's Religious Architecture: Sacred Places for Every Community, By Marilyn Joyce SegalChiat, John Wiley and Sons, 1997, p 296] A particularly beautiful suite of stained-glass windows, arched in gothic style, were installed in 1910. The window over the aron kodesh is unusual in a synagogue in that it depicts a large, realistic human eye similar to the eye found on the dollar bill and in Masonic iconography. [And I Shall Dwell Among Them; Historic Synagogues of the World, Photographs by Neil Folberg, Preface by Arthur Hertzberg, Essay by Yom Tov Assis, Aperture Books, p. 88]

The congregation also owns the Adas Israel Cemetery. [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ssjdb/AdasBrownsville.htm] [ [http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tnhaywoo/cemetery/adas.htm Adas Israel Cemetery ] ]

External link

* [http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tnhaywoo/church/temple.htm Temple Adas Israel]

References