Congregation Beth Yeshurun of Houston records

Congregation Adath Yeshurun was founded in Houston, TX in 1891, as a merger of two Orthodox minyans, one made of primarily Russian and the other of Galician immigrants. Circa 1895, a building at Preston and Hamilton was purchased and served the membership until a new, larger building at Jackson and Walker was purchased and dedicated in 1908. The congregation had no formal rabbi until they elected Rabbi S. Glaser in 1901, but the congregation was served by chazzans from the community before then. Between 1907 and 1946 the congregation was also served by Rabbi Abraham I. Schechter, Rabbi Sanders A. Tofield, and Cantor Rubin Kaplan.

In 1924 the first Conservative synagogue in Houston was created and named Beth El. Beth El's early rabbis were Maxwell Farber, Nathan Colish, and finally Rabbi Aaron Blumenthal who served from 1934 until 1946.

In 1946, Adath Yeshurun merged with Beth El to become Beth Yeshurun. Merger documents including ballots voting on the merger from members of each congregation are included in this collection.

In the fall of 1946, after the merger, William S. Malev became the rabbi of the new Beth Yeshurun and served as rabbi until his passing in 1973.

The new congregation built a new home for themselves in 1950 in the Washington Terrace neighborhood at 3501 Southmore Avenue. However, the Jewish community was moving to the Southwest of the city as more African Americans were moving to the Washington Terrace and Riverside Terrace neighborhoods. In 1962 the congregation constructed a new building and moved to Meyerland at 4525 Beechnut Street.

In 1965 Jack Segal joined the congregation and served as rabbi alongside Rabbi Malev until 1973 when he became Senior Rabbi and served as such for the next 23 years. Several of Rabbi Segal's sermons are in the collection as both written transcripts and on cassette. It was during his tenure in 1975 that the congregation voted on the ritual participation of women, deciding that women would have the "privileges" of having an aliyah, opening the ark, reading the Torah, reading the Hafrotah, conducting services, and being counted as part of a minyan.

In 2002 Beth Yeshurun took on the members of Shearith Israel congregation in Wharton, Texas after it closed, and they took over care of its cemetery as well.

Congregation Beth Yeshurun is still at their campus in Meyerland although all the buildings were completely renovated between 1998 and 2004.

In 2017 Beth Yeshurun flooded, with parts of the building flooded in up to 6 feet of water.

Congregation Beth Yeshurun is currently the largest Conservative synagogue in the United States and is the religious home to nearly 2,000 families. They are led by Senior Rabbi Brian Strauss and Cantor Meir Finkelstein.