Congregation B'nai Israel takes its Hebrew name from the words Sons of Israel. 'Sons of Israel'), the Reform Jewish congregation that has been part of Galveston's story since it was organized by German Jewish immigrants in 1868. This congregation, worshiping here in The Rabbi Henry Cohen Memorial Temple at 3008 Avenue O, is the oldest Reform congregation and the second chartered Jewish congregation in the state.
Feel the long reach of history: German Jews who arrived from the German principalities in the 1840s established the first Jewish cemetery in Texas here in 1852 and held the first organized Jewish services in the state in Galveston in 1856. They organized formally in 1868 and secured their charter in 1870. A few decades later this community played a wider role in immigrant life: through the Galveston Movement, from 1907 to 1914, Congregation B'nai Israel helped attract thousands of eastern European Jewish immigrants to the city, the Gulf Coast, and the middle region of the United States.
Stand here and imagine those generations arriving, worshiping, and building community. Picture the thousands of eastern European Jewish immigrants this congregation helped welcome to the Gulf Coast between 1907 and 1914.