Artifacts | Synagogue | Strands of Judaism | Ark and Reader’s Desk | Getting Started | Community
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North Carolina’s Jewish communities started small. Jewish tradition says that ten men constitute a quorum for a prayer community. The first spiritual leader was often an unordained “reverend,” a learned, observant man who taught children and slaughtered kosher meat and chicken. Jews worshiped in homes or in rooms above their stores, sometimes in converted churches. As communities grew, they built synagogues and hired ordained rabbis to lead them and educate their children. “Circuit rabbis” served multiple small communities into the 1950s.
Many North Carolinians see themselves as Jewish even though they do not follow religious practice. Instead they identify with Jewish food, humor, literature, or art. |
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