Synagogue B'nai Abraham

About this property

Congregation Tiferet Israel is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Austin, Texas. The building was dismantled and relocated from Brenham, Texas, where it had been known as the B'nai Abraham Synagogue, a congregation organized in 1885. Early Jewish settlers in the Washington County of Texas arrived during the 1860s. B. Levinson, an original founder, arrived in 1861. Alex Simon arrived in 1866. These individuals became active in the business community of Brenham, and as other Jewish settlers arrived, the need for a synagogue grew. The present building was constructed in 1893, after the first caught fire in 1892. L. Fink served as first president, F. Susnitsky as vice president, L. Z. Harrison as treasurer, and J. Lewis and Abe Fink as secretaries. The twenty charter members were led by Rabbi Israel. In the 1990s the synagogue was believed to be the oldest Orthodox Jewish synagogue to have been in continuous use in Texas. Leon Toubin, a Jewish Texan community and business leader, was the caretaker of this place of worship. Due to the fall of the Jewish population of Brenham, the synagogue fell out of use. Leon and Mimi Toubin arranged for and paid for moving the building from its original site to Austin, Texas. In early 2015, the building was cut into three sections and moved 90 miles (140 km) west to the Dell Jewish Community Center in the Northwest Hills neighborhood of Austin. The building was pieced back together and upgraded with new insulation, restrooms, air-conditioning and electrical wiring. The synagogue became the home of the Congregation Tiferet Israel. The move resulted in the loss of historic status for the structure. The structure, originally located on 302 North Park Street, served as an Orthodox Shul. The projecting structure on the near side is the Mikveh. The white clapboard structure with its pointed arched windows closely resembles the small country churches in the region. Inside the building the Aron Kodesh can be seen on the eastern wall and in the center the Bimah where the Sefer Torah was read. National Register of Historic Places listings in Washington County, Texas Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks in Washington County B'nai Abraham Synagogue, Brenham from the Handbook of Texas Online

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

More in Washington County

Historic places, battles, and census history across Washington County.

More historic places in Texas

Browse all historic places in Texas.

Conflict records

Explore 19,000+ military engagements across American history.

Texas history

Colonial settlement, territorial period, and statehood narrative.