Congregation Temple Emanuel

Beaumont's Jewish families organized as Temple Emanuel in 1895, about fifty members under Rabbi Aaron Levy, meeting first in a small wooden building near Pine and Crockett. Women carried much of the early work. The Ladies' Benevolent Society formed that year, bought the Hebrew Rest burial ground in 1897 and gave $3,000 toward the 1901 temple, whose Broadway and Willow lot Pauline Schwerin bought and donated. The December 1, 1901 dedication drew rabbis from New Orleans and Galveston. The Byzantine-style temple of 1923 seated 600, and Rabbi Samuel Rosinger led the Reform congregation for 47 years.

What the plaque says

Congregation Temple Emanuel The first recorded Jewish worship services in Beaumont were held on Yom Kippur in September 1887. The congregation's first synagogue was built at the corner of Broadway and willow streets in 1901. In 1923, under the leadership of Rabbi Samuel Rosinger, a new temple was built at this site. Designed by Chicago architect Albert s. Gottlieb, the structure soon became a noted local landmark. Temple Emanuel continues to serve Jewish families in Beaumont and surrounding communities. (1990)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• McFaddin-Ward House — 0.5 mi
  A Beaux-Arts Colonial Revival mansion finished in 1906 and lived in by one family for 75 years, with free guided tours of three furnished floors, the carriage house and gardens.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 4.0 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.
• Village Creek State Park — 12 mi
  A 2,466-acre state park on one of the few free-flowing creeks in Texas, with a launch for the Village Creek Paddling Trail, boat rentals and sandy-upland trails in the Big Thicket.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 18 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.

More markers nearby

• The Clubhouse, The Woman's Club of Beaumont — steps away
• First United Methodist Church of Beaumont — 0.3 mi
• Pandit Mehar Chand — 0.4 mi
• Beaumont Enterprise — 0.4 mi