For in-depth interviews and accounts of the history of the Jewish community in Western North Carolina, go to "Jewish Life in Western North Carolina", a special online collection of archival materials housed in the D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina - Asheville.

There is a saying “Whenever the first Jew arrives there is always a Jew there to greet him.” This was true in isolated, hard-to-reach, Asheville until 1880. That year heralded the arrival of the railroad to our city. Suddenly Asheville was accessible and people began arriving in large numbers.

The population increased from 2,500 in the 1860’s to more than 10,000 just ten years later. Just why were so many people, Jews included, drawn here during that period and continuing until the early 20th century? Three reasons emerge:

• Economic opportunity. The city was growing quickly and business opportunities were numerous.
• Healing. Doctors of the time were sending people with respiratory issues, such as tuberculosis, to the mountains to breathe clean mountain air. Doctors arrived and established many sanatoriums in the area.
• Natural beauty. People who came here told friends and family about what a lovely city Asheville was and that opportunities abounded here.

Most early Jewish settlers, some Eastern Europeans new to America, were merchants or connected to retail. They wanted to preserve their Jewish traditions and educate their children. By 1891, 27 Jewish men met to form a Conservative synagogue, Beth Ha Tephila. Less than 10 years later in 1899, 8 Jewish citizens, fearing that the current synagogue had strayed too far from Jewish tradition, formed Congregation Bikur Cholim, which in 1951 affiliated with the Conservative movement and changed its name to Beth Israel.

In the 1890s it was not a certainty that Asheville’s small Jewish population could support two congregations. At first neither could even afford full time rabbis. But by 1902 Beth Ha Tephila was able to purchase its first building, a former 40-year-old Baptist church on Spruce Street, practically across from My Old Kentucky Home. In 1904 Solomon Schechter, head of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, was brought to Asheville to negotiate a merger of the two congregations. The merger didn’t succeed and, in 1908, Beth Ha Tephila joined the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and became a Reform congregation.

For a short period in 1916 a small group split from Bikur Cholim and formed a third congregation called Anshei Yeshuran. 1916 also saw the completion of a synagogue building for Beth Israel on Liberty Street, just a half a block down Spruce Street and across Woodfin Avenue from Beth Ha Tephila. Tragedy struck the eve of Rosh Hashanah that year as the brand new Bikur Cholim synagogue mysteriously burned. The rebuilt synagogue opened in 1924 on the silver anniversary of the congregation.

Beside the two synagogues, other Jewish organizations were founded in those early years including the Zionist Society of Asheville (1906), a Young Men’s Hebrew Association, ladies auxiliaries (which became sisterhoods in each synagogue), Hadassah and, in 1938, the Jewish Community Center which had acquired a building by 1940.

The Jewish community, though small in numbers, has contributed to the advancement of Asheville well beyond the proportion of its numbers. Most of Asheville’s Jewish residents were business people who felt a responsibility to the community in which they lived. Today we see the results of their efforts: The University of North Carolina took over Asheville Buncombe College and built the present-day UNCA campus in 1969. Buildings there display the names of honored long-time supporters such as Coleman Zageir, Lewis Lipinsky, Samuel Robinson, Morris Karpen, Sprinza Weizenblatt and Ernest Mills who contributed not only funds, but time and effort. Mission and St. Joseph Hospitals have entire hospital wings named for supporters like Shirley and Harry Blomberg. The Masons, United Way, and the Chamber all had founders from the Jewish community.

Jan Schochet and Sharon Fahrer, as History@Hand, documented 435 of the Jewish businesses in their project: The Family Store, A History of the Jewish Businesses of Downtown Asheville, 1880-1990. Several of these businesses still exist: Harry’s on the Hill, The Grovewood  complex, Asheville Showcase, Finkelstein’s Pawn Shop, Ness Disposables, and Dave Steel. The long history of Asheville’s Jewish community’s efforts to maintain their heritage and contribute to their hometown is the foundation upon which our thriving present-day Jewish institutions are built. We’re very fortunate to have many of our stories, photographs and mementos preserved in the Jewish Archives at the University of North Carolina-Asheville’s Ramsey Library, Special Collections.  Look in the “Manuscripts” section, then choose “Jewish Life” to see the various collections.

For a more detailed history of the Asheville Jewish community, visit the Institute of Southern Jewish Leadership's "Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities" 

One Jewish Asheville graciously acknowledges the contribution of Sharon Fahrer of History@Hand for providing the content for this site.

Photos courtesy of UNC-Asheville Ramsey Library Special Collections.