Community near and far

Many of the first European Jews who migrated to Texas fled the Russian and Polish pogroms to settle in small Jewish communities throughout the state. As more Jews arrived, they reconnected with one another and found success and strength in community.

In 1816, the De La Porta brothers, Portuguese Jews living in New Orleans, helped finance the European settlement on Galveston Island, which would become a major Texas seaport.

As railroads transformed Texas in the late 1800s, many small Jewish communities sprang up along these rail lines. With them came small, Jewish-founded businesses that grew into beacons of industry, including the Sanger Brothers Dry Goods Company, Neiman Marcus, the K. Wolens department store and Zales Jewelry.

Rabbi Henry Cohen, originally from London, served as the Galveston rabbi for more than 60 years — from 1888 to 1949 — and was the first researcher to write about Jewry in Texas. He welcomed and helped settle thousands of Jews in Texas.

In 1855, Houston’s Jews formed the first recorded Texas institution, the Hebrew Benevolent Society, to benefit members of their “church” suffering “pecuniary or physical distress.”

Several Jewish newspapers have kept Texas Jews in touch with one another. These include The Texas Jewish Post, co-established by the Wisch family in 1947, and The Jewish Herald-Voice, established by Edgar Goldberg in Houston in 1908.

Zionism has a long history in Texas. The Texas Zionist Association was formed in 1905 to coordinate Zionist efforts statewide.

—Submitted by
The Texas Holocaust, Genocide and Antisemitism Advisory Commission