y the mid-1700s Jews began to settle in Richmond. By 1789 about 100 of Richmond’s 3700 residents were Jews of mostly Portuguese and Spanish descent. They formed the Sephardic congregation Kahal Kadosh Beth Shalome, Richmond’s first Jewish congregation and the sixth earliest in the area that was to become the United States.During the early 1800s many German and Eastern European Jews immigrated to Richmond joining the congregation. Because they preferred the Ashkenazic form of worship they split-off from Kahal Kadosh forming Congregation Beth Ahabah and building their first synagogue at Eleventh and Marshall streets. Beth Ahabah joined the Reform movement in 1875 and built a new synagogue at the same site five years later. In 1898 K.K. Beth Shalome merged into Congregation Beth Ahabah.

By 1904 growth of the congregation made a larger synagogue necessary. The current Franklin Street location was acquired and the local architectural firm of Noland and Baskerville was engaged to design the new synagogue which was dedicated on December 9, 1904. The neo-classical architectural style with a domed sanctuary is believed to have been patterned after Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home and the rotunda at the University of Virginia.

The synagogue has 29 stained glass windows, one created by the famous Louis Comfort Tiffany Studios of New York, depicts a volcanic Mount Sinai. In 1977 the excellent Beth Ahabah Museum & Archives was established adjacent to the synagogue. Its focus is the history and culture of Richmond’s Jewish community and the Southern Jewish experience. Open Sunday through Thursday there are three galleries featuring changing exhibits in addition to the permanent exhibits.