Anshe Chesed Temple congregation recently commemorated its 175th anniversary with Rabbi Jeremy Simons conducting the services.

Simons, who is head of services at Goldring Woldenburg of Southern Jewish Life, read the traditional Sabbath liturgy. The anniversary event also included a Torah service, in which Simons read from a Torah the Sartorius family had brought to Vicksburg in the 1830s from Germany.

“One of the first soldiers to be wounded in the campaign from Vicksburg was Philip Satorius at Milliken’s Bend. His brother, Emanuel, was wounded a few weeks later. The brothers had come from Alsace-Lorraine in the 1830s, bringing with them two Torahs, which are still used by the Anshe Chesed Temple Congregation today,” former Vicksburg resident Jill Jacobs said.

Like the Satorius brothers, there were many other Jews who made their way to Vicksburg.

“They came mainly from Germany, Bavaria, Prussia and Alsece-Lorraine fleeing religion persecution,” long-time temple member Bettye Sue Kline said.

Because many of the Jews who came were peddlers by trade, Vicksburg offered not only a leading trade center for them because of the Mississippi River, but the landscape of the city also reminded these immigrants of their homes along the Rhine.

Vicksburg had a population of 3,000 when it was incorporated in 1835 and 20 of those early settlers were Jewish, Kline said.

In 1841, the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation of Men of Mercy was established in Vicksburg, and in 1862, it received its Mississippi Charter.

After receiving the charter, the congregation was renamed the Anshe Chesed Congregation, which translated from Hebrew meant Men of Loving Kindness, Kline said, and she added there were approximately 50 families who were its founding members.

The congregation purchased 30 acres of land two years later for a Jewish cemetery, and during the Siege of Vicksburg, it became the site of one of the most important battles of the Vicksburg Campaign.

The Vicksburg National Military Park now surrounds the cemetery.

“An original Jewish cemetery preceded this one,” Kline said, “but the location of the site has never been determined.”

As the Jewish population continued to grow in Vicksburg, Kline said historians reported by 1865 there were about 90 Jewish families and 35 Jewish- owned retail stores in Vicksburg.

“The end of the Civil War had stimulated new growth, and the Jewish community experienced increases in population and affluence,” Kline said.

A magnificent Temple on Cherry Street was completed in 1879 and a citywide dedication celebration was held, which dignitaries attended from diverse faiths and political posts.

“Bernard Gotthelf, appointed by Abraham Lincoln as a chaplain for Union soldiers, became the first rabbi of the congregation. He died in 1878 from the Yellow Fever epidemic,” Jacobs said.

In 1903, Rabbi Sol L. Kory joined the congregation, and Jacobs said he was instrumental in bringing Reform Judaism to Vicksburg.

To meet the social needs of the Jewish community, the Young Men’s Hebrew Benevolent Association was organized in 1871.

The group eventually became the B’nai B’rith Literary Society, and a facility was constructed on the corner of Clay and Walnut streets in 1892 to house their events.

The B’nai B’rith was destroyed by a fire in 1915, but was rebuilt at the same location, and social functions continued there for the Jewish community until 1967.

The Jewish population began to decline in Vicksburg after WWII, as did the temple on Cherry Street.

A new temple was built at the end of Grove Street and was dedicated in 1970. This is where the Anshe Chesed Temple congregation meets today.

Since Vicksburg’s earliest beginnings, the Jewish community has been a vital contributor to the city’s tapestry.

Though numbers are now smaller, with the congregation being comprised of about 20 families and only five or six of those local, Simons reminded the congregation that they should be proud of their legacy.

“How fitting that this week’s Torah portion contains the reminder ‘Arami oved avi’ — my father was a wandering Aramean,” Simons said during the anniversary celebration.

“The verse reminds us we come from a people used to wandering, without a personal home. Indeed wandering has been a part of our story, from Aram to the land of Israel, to the Middle East, to Europe, to America and to Vicksburg. The thing about having a tradition based on the notion of wandering is, well, people wander, and the fact that a Jewish community stayed put in one place for 175 years is remarkable — 175 years of religious school, 175 years of sermons, 175 years of the shema, 175 years of Judaism and of 175 years of Jews who gave so generously to ensure this community prospered,” Simons said.