Reform Judaism Born in Charleston

Five blocks from the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, is the Beth Elohim synagogue where Reform Judaism was born. RF took an oath that put the Return to Zion, in their past. The quest of their ancestors, was not their quest. These Sephardic Jews declared America their new ‘Land of Milk and Honey’ that God led them to. They wanted to resemble fellow Americans, thus they altered the orthodox way of worship. However, when organ music was introduced there was a schism and the formation of another Reform synagogue. What now united these two groups, was, they went down to the docks to look over the new arrival of kidnapped slaves. Perhaps they can get a deal.

There is a debate about how involved the Sephardic Jews were in the Slave Trade. They had cornered the indigo market. These slaves and their grandchildren filled the pews  of Emanuel African…