Excerpt from Jubilee Souvenir of Temple Sinai, 1872-1922 In presenting the outlines of the history of Congrega tion Temple Sinai an introduction is called for, dealing with the preceding chronicles of the Jewish community of New Orleans. Partly, the life of a congregation can only be understood out of its origins and antecedents, in connection with the communal life around it; partly it happens that hitherto no one has taken the trouble of putting together the main events in the early career of New Orleans Jewry where they might be conveniently accessible to the casual searcher. In the history of our country there is no chapter more romantic than the story of Louisiana, from its age of discovery, through Spanish and French regimes, down to our day. In the history of the Jews of New Orleans, too, the unexpected, the fanciful and the unique is by no means lacking. It tells the noble story of the first of American Jewish philanthropists, Judah Touro; it records the phenomenal career of another Judah, the brains of the confederacy; it has to do with the Ameri can pianist and the American actress who were first to win triumphs in Europe; it passingly refers to a J ewess who became the reigning princess of Monaco. New Orleans Jews published the first German1 and one of the first French2 papers issued in the city; here was organized the only Jewish society for the special pur pose of Foreign Missions; here also was made the first attempt, in this country, to build up an agricultural colony for Russian Jewish immigrants. Other interesting facts, no doubt, could be unearthed in local and other archives by any one who might com mand the time, patience and detective ingenuity to hunt down such items, now buried in mortgage offices, news paper files and among other public and private records. The writer has been able to devote no more than one brief summer to the gathering of such data as could be gleaned from readily accessible sources. He, therefore, lays claim to neither completeness nor accuracy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.