Aiken’s Earliest Jewish Residents 1850-1890

The history of the Aiken Jewish community is intertwined with the history of Aiken. A primer on early Aiken history is provided here.

There is evidence of Jewish residents in Aiken as early as the 1850s — with The information we have about these first Jewish residents coming from two sources:

 The Diary of John Cornish: minister of St Thaddeus Church from 1846-1860. His diary includes entries in the 1850s remarking on Jewish members of the community attending his services. He also mentions several meetings with Rabbi Gustov Poznanski of Charleston – an important figure of Reform Judaism in the Antebellum South who spent time in Aiken after leaving Beth Elohim Synagogue in Charleston in 1850. Rabbi Poznanski had been forced to resign as a Rabbi in Charleston after traditionalists in his congregation thought his reforms had gone too far.

In one diary entry, Rabbi Poznanski asks Reverend Cornish to tutor his young sons while he is in Aiken. In the diary entry below, Reverend Cornish recounts listening to Rabbi Poznanski with “much interest for some two hours”. In this conversation, Rabbi Poznanski shares some of his own frustrations with how he was treated saying that he “honors Jesus as a great Reformer” and that he sees himself as “suffering in a like manner at the hands of his Pharisaic brethren”.

   The Asmonean: a weekly New York Jewish newspaper that includes an editorial on August 22, 1856 about a “Fancy Fair held at Aiken S.C., and which several Israelites families were most active in promoting”. The purpose of the Fair was to raise money to build a new Methodist Episcopal Church in town. The editorial lauds the example of the Aiken Jewish families as "proving the fraternity of mankind".

A letter to the editor in the next week’s edition indicates that Rabbi Poznanski was also involved in this fund raising effort. That letter explains his two sons (one of whom later became a concert violinist) gave a musical performance a week before the “Fancy Fair”.

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While the identity of most of these first Aiken Jewish residents is not known, the spirit of their engagement in the local community is consistent with what we observe later. From the beginning, the Aiken Jewish community had a distinct identity but also contributed to the broader Aiken community.