The Temple of Israel is a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish house of prayer located on the corner of Fourth and Market Streets in Wilmington,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Built in 1876, the Temple of Israel is the oldest synagogue in North Carolina and one of the earliest

Reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...

synagogues in the American South. Temple of Israel is led by

Rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

Emily Losben-Ostrov.

History

Sephardic Jews Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefa ...

first arrived in North Carolina during the early 18th century. By 1852, a Jewish Burial Society was formed in Wilmington with a Hebrew cemetery opening in 1855. An

Orthodox Jewish Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on M ...

congregation was formed in 1867, but did not succeed. In 1872, a Reform congregation was started by

German Jews The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

and their synagogue, the Temple of Israel, was dedicated on May 12, 1876. Princeton All American football player and World War I hero Arthur Bluethenthal was a member of the synagogue.

Architecture

The Temple of Israel's architecture is a combination of

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

and Moorish styles. The Moorish architecture is unique in the city of Wilmington, but was common during late 19th century for many American synagogues. The synagogue features

horseshoe arch The horseshoe arch (; Spanish: "arco de herradura"), also called the Moorish arch and the keyhole arch, is an emblematic arch of Islamic architecture, especially Moorish architecture. Horseshoe arches can take rounded, pointed or lobed form. Hi ...

es and twin towers topped with golden onion domes. The building's exterior was restored in 1982, 2000 and 2013. It is a contributing building in the

Wilmington Historic District The Wilmington Historic District is a national historic district located at Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina. The district encompasses 875 contributing buildings 38 contributing sites, and 3 contributing structures in the histori ...

Notable members

* Arthur Bluethenthal (1891–1918), college football player and World War I pilot

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Israel (Wilmington, North Carolina) 1872 establishments in North Carolina Buildings and structures in Wilmington, North Carolina German-American culture in North Carolina German-Jewish culture in the United States Gothic Revival architecture in North Carolina Gothic Revival synagogues Greek Revival architecture in North Carolina Greek Revival synagogues Reform synagogues in North Carolina Synagogues completed in 1876 Religious organizations established in 1872 Moorish Revival architecture in North Carolina Moorish Revival synagogues