The Ways of the Ancestors

 

“The [American] Civil War began in 1861, when Confederate artillery batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. That same year, “in the year of the independence of the Confederate States of America,” as the [congregation’s] deed recites, Berith Shalome acquired the land on which its synagogue was located.

“Charleston was besieged and shelled by Union forces during the Civil War, and many people fled the city, Berith Shalome was the only one of Charleston’s three synagogues to keep its doors open during the [American Civil] War, and kosher meat as well as matzo on Passover were provided by the Synagogue during this trying period. A full complement of Berith Shalome’s members served the Confederate cause, and several Confederate veterans are buried in the congregation’s first cemetery.”

See <https://www.bsbisynagogue.org/history> (bold added).

Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘The Ways of the Ancestors,’ New Reform Club (May 29, 2023, 8:53 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-ways-of-ancestors.html>;