(Jewish Group) When a Texas synagogue burned to the ground, there were no Jews left to mourn it

A former synagogue building in the small Texas city of Breckenridge was destroyed by fire earlier this week — but it hasn’t been home to a Jewish community for decades.

The former Temple Beth Israel building caught fire early Sunday morning and burned for an hour. Its brick walls later had to be knocked down because they were unstable, the local fire department said. The building reportedly was being used as a storage facility and work area.

Temple Beth Israel was dedicated in 1929 by the 60 Jews who lived in the town. It had been built with funds solicited from Jewish organizations and congregations across the country, as well as from the broader community, according to the Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities, a project of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life.

According to the institute, the first Jews to settle in Breckenridge were Hungarian immigrant Nathan Winkler and his family, who arrived in 1920 from Fort Stockton, Texas. Winkler opened a dry goods store “to cater to the tremendous number of oil workers and fortune seekers moving to Breckenridge.” Later that year, a second Jewish family, Charles and Bertha Bender, moved their dry goods business from Lubbock, Texas, to Breckenridge.

more...