Congregation Beth Israel (Hebrew: בית ישראל) is a Modern Orthodox synagogue located at 4004 West Esplanade Avenue, Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States.

[3][4] That year, its Canal Boulevard building was severely flooded by the 2005 New Orleans levee failure disaster during Hurricane Katrina.

In the mid-19th century New Orleans had a number of small Orthodox congregations of Eastern European Jews, generally "structured along nationalistic lines".

[15] Tememe Derech's membership, however, never exceeded 50,[2] and in 1903 or 1904[1] the synagogue disbanded, and merged with a number of other small Orthodox congregations and a burial society to form Beth Israel.

[22] Beth Israel's new Byzantine Revival building, with its seating capacity of 1,200, reflected "the growing economic and social confidence of the membership": it had "beautiful" stained-glass windows, a "magnificent" imported European chandelier, and "hand-carved Stars of David in the ceiling".

[16] In 1926 Beth Israel built the "Menorah Institute" Talmud Torah building on Euterpe Street, adjoining the Carondelet synagogue.

[4][16] Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke's successful 1989 run for a Louisiana House of Representatives seat in nearby Metairie was a cause for concern in the congregation.

"[29][30] During the campaign an anti-Duke rally was planned to be held at Beth Israel by Mordechai Levy of the Jewish Defense Organization (JDO).

[4] As a result of Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent 2005 levee failures in Greater New Orleans, the congregation's building at 7000 Canal Boulevard filled with at least ten feet of water, and Beth Israel garnered national attention after attempts were made to save its Torah scrolls.

The group used rubber rafts to reach Beth Israel and enter it, where Leider waded into the sanctuary and rescued the Torah scrolls and their silver ornaments.

[7] In addition to losing all of its Torah scrolls, Beth Israel lost all its furniture, and over 3,000 siddurs and mahzors, and almost all of its members' homes were flooded, forcing them to move.

[7] Hayley Fields, a 14-year-old from Los Angeles, heard of Beth Israel's difficult circumstances, and with the support of her mother, spearheaded a fund-raising drive, selling 3,500 watches.

[34] At that ceremony the National Council of Young Israel also donated 150 new Artscoll mahzors, in time for the High Holy Days.

After the flood Beth Israel's board of directors informed Shiff, who had joined they synagogue in April 2002, that it would not be able to meet its contractual obligations and pay him past December.

Shiff resigned effective November 1, 2005, citing this loss, and the lack of a functioning Jewish Day School in the area for his children.

[9][35] Soon after the flood, Beth Israel received an offer to temporarily use space from Congregation Gates of Prayer, a Reform synagogue in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans.

[36] The building suffered further flood damage in July 2007 when thieves stole the copper tubing for the main air-conditioning system.

[5] In 2007, the congregation began some joint programming with Anshe Sefard,[37] New Orleans' only other remaining Orthodox synagogue,[16] and in the summer hired Uri Topolosky as its new rabbi.

[38] A graduate of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah,[39] Topolosky had previously served as the associate rabbi of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale,[40] and had been one of 21 rabbis arrested at the United Nations during an April 2007 sit-in demanding that Iran be expelled from the U.N.[41] To help attract new members, in the summer Topolosky started a recruitment campaign, placing an advertisement in the New York newspaper The Jewish Week,[38] and re-designing Beth Israel's website.

According to Topolosky, with the move of four new families to the area, New Orleans likely had proportionately the fastest growing Modern Orthodox community in the United States.

New Orleans' premier Jewish school, which had been established in 1996, closed for a year after Hurricane Katrina, and struggled to regain its peak enrollment of over 80 students.

Both Rabbis were active in the Day School and played a pivotal role in the vibrant Jewish life along the West Esplanade Avenue corridor in Metairie.