Atlanta Jewish Community History
In 1992 the Jewish population was estimated at more than 70,000. A decade later the metropolis served as home to about twenty-five synagogues,and seven Jewish day schools.
Currently Atlanta is also home to a vibrant Jewish community, estimated to include 127,000 individuals in 61,300 households, (as of 2011) making Atlanta's Jewish population the 11th largest in the United States, up from 17th largest in 1996.
Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica.
The mid-1940s to 1950s witnessed the beginning of Atlanta's coming of age as a center of southern Jewry. Everything was planned. A population study (locating 9,630 Jews) was undertaken, experts were consulted, and a community calendar was established. Most of the congregations and the Jewish Community Center, successor to the Jewish Educational Alliance, launched building drives. Jewish Children's Services replaced the Hebrew Orphans Home, which had been created by the B'nai B'rith fifth district lodge in 1889. A Jewish old-age home (1951) was created as was the Bureau of Jewish Education (1946) and the Hebrew Academy (1953). Local or regional chapters of the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Welfare Board, and the Zionist Organization of America made Atlanta their home. The creation of Orthodox Congregation Beth Jacob, soon under the leadership of Emanuel Feldman (1952), served as a harbinger of the ceremonial/religious revival of the last half of the twentieth century.
Emanuel Feldman