Fort Worth Jewish Archives

Over the New Year’s holiday in 1906-1907,  the Texas Zionist  Association (TZA) held its second annual convention in Fort Worth. The city’s Reform rabbi, Joseph Jason, was elected TZA president.  The official group photo shows Beth-El’s young rabbi in the third row, one of the few men without a hat. Fort Worth was among the first six cities to join the TZA, along with  Dallas, Houston, Waco, San Antonio and Beaumont. They were soon joined by grassroots groups from Galveston, Tyler, and Austin.   The TZA became a model for uniting grassroots Zionist clubs in other states.

The Golden Book, 1926

The Golden Book of Donors, commissioned in 1926 by Congregation Ahavath Sholom, was handcrafted at Jerusalem’s Bezalel School of Arts & Crafts. Adorned with ivory and bronze, it honors those who supported Fort Worth’s Hebrew school and symbolizes the enduring bond between local and global Jewish heritage.

Photograph of the members of Young Judea, a Jewish youth organization in Fort Worth, Texas. The organization held a regional conclave at the Ahavath Sholom Synagogue, where over one hundred members and group advisors posed, on the front steps in the 800 block Taylor Street, for the photograph