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Columbia's Jewish Heritage Sites

Since Columbia’s earliest days, Jews have played a key role in shaping South Carolina’s second capital city. Rising to prominence during the antebellum era, Jews held important leadership roles in Columbia’s governance, economy and cultural development. Having rebuilt during post-war Reconstruction and thereafter, Columbia’s established Jewish population grew during the 1880s through 1920s as Eastern Europeans relocated to the United States for greater freedom and opportunities. In the wake of World War II, the city’s Jewish community welcomed displaced Holocaust survivors who immigrated to Columbia for new lives. While many generations-old families assimilated into the broader community, others forged culturally distinct lives. Many left a lasting imprint on the city’s character. 

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720 Blanding Street

720 Blanding Street

Hebrew Benevolent Society Cemetery

Founded in 1822 as the Hebrew Burial Society, the Hebrew Benevolent Society established this cemetery in 1826 on land believed to have been donated by the DeLeon family. The extant brick structure, built about 1860, served as a meeting space and entrance to the original Hebrew cemetery. Phineas Solomon (1802-1850) served as the Society’s first president, and almost all of Columbia’s Jewish lawyers, politicians and businessmen, including Isaac, Henry and Jacob Lyons, Alexander Marks, Jacob and Lipman Levin, and Levy and Elias Pollock, were members during the antebellum period.

  • 720 Blanding Street

  • Hebrew Benevolent Society Cemetery in 1850

  • 1872 birds eye of cemetery

  • 720 Blanding Street

  • 720 Blanding Street

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Historic Columbia

© 2023 Historic Columbia

Administrative Offices
1601 Richland Street
Columbia, SC 29201

Tours
All historic house and garden tours start at the Gift Shop at Robert Mills.
1616 Blanding Street
Columbia, SC 29201

Questions? Call (803) 252-7742.

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