18th Century Torah scrolls, Savannah Georgia

Jewish life in colonial Georgia

Jews arrived in Georgia as an organized group of forty-two people in 1733, only six months after Georgia's incorporation as a colony. They brought with them a Torah, a set of instruments for circumcision, and a wooden box to serve as an ark. They soon acquired land for a cemetery from Georgia's founder, James Oglethorpe, and in 1735, they officially became Mikveh Israel, Hope of Israel. They were soon split by Ashkenazi (descendents of German-speaking lands) and Sephardic (descendents of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking lands) loyalties, but together they worked against local Anglican and Lutheran missionaries. By 1740, the Jewish community and the colony of Georgia were breaking apart and almost dissolved. Slowly the colony strengthened again and the Jews returned, and the community grew in the 1760s. However, the official request for new cemetery land was refused; in 1773, land was donated by Mordecai and Levi Sheftall. The community tried to organize into a congregation once again just before the revolution, but they ran out of time, and the organization of congregational Jewish life in Savannah stalled until 1786.