Shalom, Y’all: Visiting Savannah’s Congregation Mickve Israel

Estrella Salgado, WPAMC ’25

I had little idea what I was doing when I registered for classes in my first semester of undergrad, so I was fortunate to land in a fantastic course on religion in America. One day, we took a field trip to Detroit and visited different houses of worship, including the New Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church. It is a beautiful Romanesque building, typical of a place of worship, yet it has some unexpected details. Above the entryway, there are two carved menorahs, a Star of David, and the words BETH DAVID. Until 1958, this had been a synagogue.¹

At Winterthur, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to further reflect on the ways in which Jewish and Christian architectural history are intertwined. One of our first stops in Savannah, Georgia was Congregation Mickve Israel. I had never visited a synagogue before, as I did not grow up in a community where I might have attended Bar or Bat Mitzvahs, and did not want to accidentally overstep.

So, I was grateful to be immediately welcomed by our tour guide, a longtime member of the
congregation. When she led us into the synagogue from the lobby, I was immediately surprised by the interior design. I was still learning about Jewish architecture, but the organ, pews, Corinthian columns, Gothic arches, and stained glass looked a lot like a Christian church—in a way, the inverse of Detroit’s New Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church.

While Congregation Mickve Israel had always been a Jewish place of worship, this intriguing design choice was deliberate. As our tour guide explained, the first Jewish immigrants to Savannah had arrived in 1733, fleeing religious prosecution in London. A degree of tolerance was found in the colonies, and a meaningful victory for religious liberties came in the form of a 1790 letter from George Washington. This two-page letter, featured in an exhibit elsewhere on site, was a response to Jewish leaders who had written to the new president. Aiming to ensure a more tolerant society, they had written:

“Your unexampled liberality and extensive philanthropy have dispelled that cloud of bigotry and superstition which has long, as a veil, shaded religion—unrivetted the fetters of enthusiasm—enfranchised us with all the privileges and immunities of free citizens, and initiated us into the grand mass of legislative mechanism.”²

And yet, as we all know, anti-Semitic sentiment remained. The practicalities of religious
freedoms can be different than the legal mandates, so when the current building for Congregation Mickve Israel was designed, a Gothic style was selected. This bid to emphasize parallels with their Christian neighbors through a display of tremendous technical design skills in a popular style of the period (1876-1878) can be interpreted as a shield from discrimination or a bridge towards hopes of a shared, inclusive community.

Yet while it may superficially seem like a church, there are still clear markers of Jewish identity. The Torah is a major giveaway, of course, but even the stained glass reveals the beliefs of the congregation. Beyond an absence of imagery from the Christian New Testament, but there are also many uniquely Jewish symbols. Menorahs, Stars of David, and shofars help center and guide those who come to worship there.

No trip to a museum or historic site is complete without a visit to the gift shop, and I had to pick up a baseball cap embroidered with the words “Shalom, Y’all.” To me, the cheerful, welcoming phrase represents the complexities of cultural integration, the hope of peaceful religious plurality, and the importance of close looking in our communities.

1. City of Detroit City of Detroit / City Council / Historic Designation Advisory Board, “Final Report: Proposed New Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church/Beth David Synagogue Historic District,” 2. ↩︎
2. George Washington, “From George Washington to the Savannah, Ga., Hebrew Congregation, 14 June 2 1790,” National Archives: Founders Online. ↩︎