History of the Jews in Washington, D.C.
As it has gained in numbers, it has also built up numerous communal institutions, including some of the oldest remaining synagogues in the United States, and has a legacy of pulling together in times of war and crisis for both the nation and the Jewish world at large.
Today, the Greater Washington community is the third largest in the United States, and remains active and influential in American politics and the broader Jewish world.
[2] Major Alfred Mordecai, raised in an Orthodox household in North Carolina, was a West Point graduate who settled in D.C. in 1828 after being assigned to the Washington Arsenal.
[1] When the Civil War broke out, Washington D.C. was a heart of the conflict as the Union capital, sandwiched by two slave states, and right across the river from Confederate Alexandria, Virginia.
[4] In 1869, upset by liturgical changes and the installation of an organ-like instrument, a group of members left Washington Hebrew to found their own congregation, Adas Israel.
[1][7] When World War I brought a wave of servicemen and government workers to the District, the Jewish community organized programs like dances and social events, often run by the YMHA and YWHA.
The Hebrew Sheltering Society, and numerous social service organizations, helped to provide kosher food, distribute clothing, and obtain housing for new arrivals D.C. still looking for work.
Also in this time, the Jewish community began to spread out to suburbs in Maryland and neighborhoods in the north of D.C.[1] Moving north, however, was somewhat restricted by the presence of covenants in some real estate deeds that prohibited leasing or selling the property to Jews, African Americans, and other groups in places like Spring Valley and portions of Chevy Chase, Maryland.
The community signed petitions and demonstrated to try and pressure the British government to allow Jews to immigrate to Mandatory Palestine, including filling DAR Constitution Hall with 4,000 protesters in 1938.
[1] After the war, many prominent members of the area's Jewish community helped to secretly raise funds for illegal immigration to Mandatory Palestine, as well as the Haganah.
After the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the council also worked with city and religious leaders to promote a peaceful transition to integration.
[11][12][13] In the 1970s and 1980s, many in the community dedicated themselves to the plight of Jews in the Soviet Union who were forced to suppress their Jewishness, as well as for refuseniks, who were denied permission to leave and emigrate to Israel.
They participated in large scale marches on the National Mall, and maintained a daily vigil outside of the Soviet Embassy, with the help of church groups that took over on Shabbat and Jewish holidays.
[17][18] DC Kosher, a project of the Ohev Sholom synagogue (an Open Orthodox congregation), certifies a number of products and restaurants as kosher, including Baked By Yael, Bubbie's Burgers, Evolve Vegan (also known as ELife Restaurant), PLNT Burger, Pow Wow, Rose and Robert L. Cohen Coffee Bar, Shouk, Sticky Fingers Sweets and Eats, and Whisked!
