History of the Jews in Houston
As of 2008, Jews lived in many Houston neighborhoods and Meyerland is the center of the Jewish community in the area.
Until 1880 Houston had a smaller Jewish population than Galveston Island, then the cultural center of the state.
In 1850, the Jewish community in Houston had 17 adults and in 1854, the Orthodox Beth Israel Congregation opened in a former house that had been converted to a synagogue.
[2] Congregation Beth Israel was first established in a frame building on LaBranch Street near the Third Ward settlement.
The Galveston Plan, an early 20th Century plan that called for sending Eastern European Jewish immigrants from heavily populated East Coast areas to less densely populated areas between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, sent many Jews to Houston.
[4] Jewish families moved to Riverside Terrace in the 1930s since they were not allowed to settle in River Oaks.
[5] Allison Wollam of the Houston Business Journal stated that, at one point, Riverside Terrace "was once on the same affluent level as the swanky River Oaks area".
After World War II, more Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe moved to Houston.
[7] In 2024 the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston criticized some of the proposed changes to Texas public elementary school curriculum, arguing that these changes biased towards Christianity and against Judaism.
[9][10] Houston Jews had origins from throughout the United States, Israel, Mexico, Russia, and other places.
[2] Philadelphia had a Jewish population more than five times larger than that of Houston, which had surpassed Philadelphia as the fourth largest city in the U.S. Bell wrote that the smaller relative population results in a combination of "the close-knit feeling of a middle-sized town with big-city sophistication and large-scale institutions".
[11] Bell wrote that Southwest Houston is the "Jewish core of town, if not exactly an ethnic stronghold" and that synagogues had opened in Clear Lake City, Kingwood, and The Woodlands.
The Orthodox Judaism community includes several congregations: Chabad Lubavitch Center of Houston, the Sephardic Beth Rambam Congregation, Young Israel of Houston, Meyerland Minyan, and the Sephardic synagogue Torah Vachesed.
[15] Congregation Or Ami is located in Westchase,[16] in west Houston, in proximity to Greater Katy.
[17] There are two Jewish places of worship in The Woodlands, Congregation Beth Shalom, established circa 1984.
[21] It is a branch of the worldwide Chabad Lubavitch movement, offering traditional-style services to contemporary Jewish families.
[22] Chabad of The Woodlands inaugurated and sponsors the annual Chanukah on Market Street celebration,[23] and established the first Jewish preschool in the area.
[26] Mickey Leland founded the Youth Kibbutz Internship, which sends ten minority children to Israel during Summer periods.
[29] The Jewish Community Center (JCC) has a main location on South Braeswood Boulevard and a Memorial-area west Houston branch.
[30] Roselyn Bell wrote that synagogues and other major Jewish institutions in Houston "are built Texas-style; big, spread out, commodious, and pleasant to look at".
