Dated events below follow published sources. Where those sources disagree on a year, both are noted in parentheses.
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Jewish families settle in Vermilionville (later Lafayette). ISJL notes that many came from Alsace-Lorraine and were at ease with the French-speaking Cajun culture; Temple Shalom describes a town that “spoke of opportunity for their skills, products, and services.”
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Jewish merchants and farmers establish themselves in Opelousas, advertising dry goods and other trades in the local press.
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Jews in Opelousas purchase a cemetery (ISJL). The burial ground on Bellevue Street later continues as the Temple Emanuel / Gemiluth Chassodim Cemetery.
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Carel Wolff donates land in Washington, St. Landry Parish, for Hebrew Rest Cemetery after his children Samuel and Fannie die of yellow fever in October 1867. This cemetery is distinct from Lafayette’s informal “Hebrew Rest” name.
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Opelousas Jews organize Gemiluth Chassodim (“Acts of Loving Kindness”), meeting in the Humble Cottage Masonic Lodge. ISJL dates the congregation to 1877; the City of Opelousas dates a Hebrew charter of that name to 1868.
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Former Louisiana governor Alexandre Mouton donated land at Lee and College Avenues for a Jewish burial ground. Neighbors call it “Hebrew Rest.”
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Jewish families settle in New Iberia and nearby towns along Bayou Teche, opening dry-goods and merchandise stores.
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On 4 June, Hyman Lieberman, Joseph Plonsky, Lazarus Levy, Benjamin Falk, Eugene Levy, and others organize the Hebrew Association Rodeph Sholom (“Pursuit of Peace”). Governor Mouton donates two lots on Lee Avenue for a synagogue. (ISJL dates this organization to 1881; Temple Shalom and some local accounts remember a congregation from 1869, the year of the cemetery gift.)
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Vermilionville is renamed Lafayette. Jewish merchants are already established downtown.
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The Rodeph Sholom synagogue is built on Lee Avenue. The local paper calls it a “tremendous building” for Lafayette’s Israelites. The congregation, begun as Orthodox, soon affiliates with Reform Judaism (Temple Shalom: at the time the building opened; ISJL: shortly after the association’s founding).
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The Lafayette cemetery association is chartered as Menachim Aveilim (“Comforting the Mourning”) after a meeting at Falk’s Opera House.
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Jews who had been worshiping in New Iberia’s Masonic Hall organize Congregation Gates of Prayer and plan a brick synagogue at Charles and Weeks streets.
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Abrom Kaplan, a Jewish rice miller, founds the town of Kaplan. He gives land to attract workers and lobbies for a railroad extension; the town never has its own synagogue or cemetery.
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Congregation Emmanuel is formed in Crowley, meeting in the Masonic Temple after years of traveling to Lake Charles for services. Membership later declines, and remaining Crowley and Rayne families join Lafayette.
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Gates of Prayer’s New Iberia synagogue is dedicated under student rabbi Julian Miller of Hebrew Union College.
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Gates of Prayer purchases cemetery land on West Main Street in New Iberia. Until then, local Jews were buried in New Orleans or Lafayette.
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Maurice Heymann, born in New Orleans in 1885 to Polish Jewish father Henry Heymann (born Leon Kopcwiski) and French Jewish mother Caroline Rosenthal, opens his first store in Lafayette.
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Temple Emanuel is founded in Opelousas with about 65 members, absorbing Gemiluth Chassodim. A brick synagogue on Haas family land at South Main Street is dedicated (cornerstone 9 June 1929; ISJL dates the building to 1930).
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Heymann opens a “food center” in his Lafayette department store, the city’s first supermarket-style grocery.
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Maurice Heymann develops the Heymann Oil Center. ISJL credits the project with drawing oil companies to Lafayette and with a sharp rise in the local Jewish population in the decades that follow.
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Lafayette’s municipal auditorium is completed, envisioned by Mayor Jerome Domengeaux and Herbert Heymann and designed by A. Hays Town (plans 1957). The building is later rededicated as the Heymann Performing Arts Center. ISJL estimates about 105 Jews in Lafayette this year.
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In December, a group leaves Rodeph Sholom and forms Yeshurun Synagogue, first meeting in members’ homes.
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Yeshurun builds on Kaliste Saloom Road. The new congregation affiliates with Reform Judaism and hires Hebrew Union College student rabbis.
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Siblings Herbert and Jacqueline Heymann found the Heymann Foundation in Lafayette to continue the family’s philanthropy in honor of Maurice Heymann and his brother Henry.
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Rodeph Sholom and Yeshurun merge as Temple Shalom, keeping the historic Lee Avenue sanctuary.
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The Temple Emanuel synagogue building in Opelousas is sold after nearly a century of use. The congregation continues, and the Bellevue Street cemetery is formally named Temple Emanuel Jewish Cemetery.
Further reading on Jewish history of Acadiana
This timeline is a short public summary, not original archival research. Dates follow the sources below.
- ISJL, Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities — Lafayette, Louisiana
- ISJL — New Iberia, Louisiana
- ISJL — Opelousas, Louisiana
- ISJL — Crowley, Louisiana
- ISJL — Kaplan, Louisiana
- Temple Shalom, “History”
- Temple Shalom, Lafayette (congregation site)
- Heymann Performing Arts Center — About
- The Advocate, “Jewish in Lafayette” (2023)
- Heymann Foundation — About the Foundation
- Preservation Alliance of Lafayette — Temple Shalom
- University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Jewish Temples of Southwest Louisiana records
- City of Opelousas — historic churches, including Temple Emanuel
- Carola Lillie Hartley, “The Opelousas Jewish Temple,” St. Landry Now
- Hartley, “Hebrew Rest Cemetery — Washington, LA,” St. Landry Now
- St. Landry Now — Temple Emanuel Jewish Cemetery renaming