Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (Charleston, S.C.)

The Congregation was organized in 1749 in Charleston, SC, following the Sephardic ritual. In 1764, the Congregation obtained a burial ground on Coming Street. Friction with the growing number of Ashkenazic members led the Sephardic group to withdraw in 1775; they bought a separate cemetery on Hanover Street, and worshipped in a different building. By 1790, the two factions had reunited. In 1791, Beth Elohim was incorporated. In 1799, another cemetery
near Hanover Street was purchased by a group of members. In 1824, several members petitioned the governing body to introduce reforms. Rebuffed, the members withdrew and created the Reformed Society of Israelites, which functioned on its own until 1833 after which date, most rejoined the congregation. In 1838, the synagogue building was lost in a fire; a temporary tabernacle was constructed on the site and a new building was finished in 1841. The installation of an organ at that time prompted a schism; many withdrew to form the orthodox Shearith Israel Congregation which bought a cemetery adjoining KKBE's Coming St. property and one at Rikersville. KKBE continued as a Reform Congregation until 1865, when the remnants of Shearith Israel rejoined and compromises in ritual were made. Another organ was introduced in 1872 and the next year, KK Beth Elohim became a charter member of the Reform Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (Hebrew: קהל קדוש בית אלוהים, also known as K. K. Beth Elohim, or more simply Congregation Beth Elohim) is a Reform Synagogue located in Charleston, South Carolina. Having founded the congregation in 1749, it was later claimed to be the first Reform synagogue located in the United States,[3] the current 1841 synagogue was built by enslaved African descendants owned by David Lopez Jr, a prominent slaveowner and proponent of the Confederate States of America, after the original synagogue was destroyed in a fire in 1838. It is one of the oldest Jewish congregations in the United States.[4] The congregation is nationally significant as the place where ideas resembling Reform Judaism were first evinced. It meets in an architecturally significant 1840 Greek Revival synagogue located at 90 Hasell (pronounced as if it were spelled Hazel) Street in Charleston, South Carolina. It was designed by Cyrus L. Warner.