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. The cornerstone was laid in 1923, and the building was in use in 1924. Formal dedication was in June 1925. The Temple admitted women into full membership in 1923, which represented an early break with tradition.

The Temple Emanuel building has Upjohn’s typically attenuated proportions, strikingly slender columns with no fluting, and beautifully stylized Corinthian capitals. Upjohn also designed Greensboro’s Holy Trinity Episcopal Church and Grace United Methodist Church.

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. 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.