Marathon Pundit: My Mississippi Manifest Destiny: Jewish Mississippi

As they have in the other forty-nine states, Jews have played a role in the development of Mississippi. According to Mississippi Now, a publication of the Mississippi Historical Society, Jews first came to what is now the Magnolia State in the 1700s, and it's believed that that the first Jewish service was held in Natchez in 1800. The first Jewish congregation was founded there--B'nai Israel (Children of Israel). In the bottom photograph is the current synagogue, that temple, replacing one that had burned in 1903, held its first service in 1905.

According to the same source, the Jewish population in Mississippi peaked in 1927 when 6,420 Jews lived there. Now only about 1,500 Jews call Mississippi home. As they did elsewhere in the USA, Jews faced anti-Semitism in Mississippi, but also success. And as they did in northern states, Jews gravitated towards owning their own retail establishments, but their children, after graduating from college, often moved on to what they thought were better opportunities in large cities.

The Jewish population in Mississippi was first concentrated in the Delta, now Jackson is the center of Judaism there. The state capital and largest city, along with Hattiesburg, are the only cities with full-time rabbis in Mississippi.

In the Delta region, just north of Natchez is Port Gibson, a town so beautiful, it's said that General Ulysses S. Grant refused to burn it during the Civil War. In 1891, the Gemiluth Chessed synagogue, pictured on top, added to the beauty of Port Gibson. It is a Moorish Revival structure, and it's believed to be the only such synagogue in Mississippi. Gemiluth Chessed no longer holds services, the Jewish population in Port Gibson is now quite small.