Rosenband, Nathan J.

Berith Shalome is the oldest Orthodox synagogue in the South and one of the oldest Ashkenazic congregations in the United States. Founded by Polish and Prussian immigrant Jews in 1854 in Charleston, S.C., the congregation was continually strengthened by waves of Eastern European arrivals who found their way to Charleston throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Internal tensions within the membership led to the establishment of a second Orthodox Shul, Beth Israel Congregation in 1911. Those strains were eased in 1955 by a newly merged Brith Sholom Beth Israel Congregation.