Greensboro’s oldest Jewish congregation.

The first permanent Jewish residents of Greensboro arrived in the middle 1890s. During that decade Greensboro experienced a growth spurt with the population jumping from 3,317 in 1890 to 10,035 by 1900. The Jewish community grew too. Greensboro’s first documented Jewish religious services were on the High Holy Days of 1907. Services in those early times were held in the rented second floor of a grocery store.

In 1908 a meeting was held to discuss the purchase of its first synagogue, a former Friends Church on East Lee Street. In 1909 the group assumed the name Greensboro Hebrew Congregation but their synagogue building was named Temple Emanuel. In 1920, due to continued growth, architect Hobart T. Upjohn was engaged to design a new building overlooking Fisher Park. Upjohn also designed Greensboro’s Holy Trinity Episcopal Church and Grace United Methodist Church. The new neo-Classic synagogue was put into use in 1924.

By 1995 the Congregation had once again outgrown its facilities so a 10 acre tract was purchased on suburban Jefferson Road. Construction was begun on that campus and the new synagogue was completed in time for High Holy Day services in 2002. Speaking about the new synagogue, Benjamin Briggs, executive director of Preservation Greensboro said, “When the congregation built a new sanctuary on Jefferson Road, the Temple imported the sand-colored stones from Israel for an 18-foot-tall rock wall. The congregation didn’t just go for biggest utilitarian space; they went for meaningful.”

Temple Emanuel still owns and maintains in pristine condition the historic Fisher Park synagogue. It is used for High Holy Day services and special events by the 600 family unit Congregation.