Congregation Rodef Sholom
Waco, McLennan County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Waco's Hebrew Benevolent Association formed in 1869 and bought land for use as a cemetery. The organization received its charter in 1873. That year, a group of 25 Jews in the Waco area received a charter for the Eureka Lodge No. 198 from the International Order of B'nai B'rith, a fraternal service organization. During the 1870s, residents held religious services in homes, businesses and rented rooms, adopting Reform Judaism liturgy and practices. The Benevolent Association acquired a Torah scroll for use in Jewish congregation services, and in 1879, Eureka Lodge members resolved to establish Waco's first Jewish congregation. It was to be called Rodef Sholom, which means "pursuing peace." Under the direction of Louis Migel and Sam Sanger, the congregation began with 40 families meeting at Lehman's Hall. It received its charter in June 1879. Rudolph Lessing was elected the first president, and the Rev. M.M. May became the congregation's first rabbi. Waco architect W.W. Lamour designed the congregation's first synagogue, which was built by R. Rogers and located at 924 Washington Avenue; the congregation dedicated it August 1881. The members held their first Jewish confirmation service in 1893, and in 1907 affiliated with the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. In 1910, members built their second synagogue, designed by architect Milton W. Scott, on the same site. The Temple Sisterhood formed in 1922 and joined the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods. Congregation Rodef Sholom grew and relocated to 1717 N. 41st Street (North New Road) with a new synagogue in 1961. The congregation continues its heritage of service and philanthropy. (2006)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Waco's Jewish community organized a benevolent association in 1869 and a B'nai B'rith lodge in 1873, holding Reform services in homes and rented rooms before formally founding Congregation Rodef Sholom—"pursuing peace"—in 1879. Led by figures such as Louis Migel and Sam Sanger, the forty founding families built their first synagogue on Washington Avenue in 1881 and a second on the same site in 1910. The congregation, with its Temple Sisterhood and later synagogue on North New Road, has continued a long tradition of service and philanthropy.
Why it matters
Rodef Sholom documents the establishment and endurance of Reform Jewish life in Central Texas, part of the broader story of immigrant communities building lasting institutions across America.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
The roots of Congregation Rodef Sholom reach back to 1869, in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, when Waco was a growing Central Texas town on the Brazos River. This was the Reconstruction era giving way to the Gilded Age, a time when Waco was drawing merchants and tradespeople and building the institutions of a permanent city. Among the newcomers were Jewish families, many part of the broader nineteenth-century migration of Jews from Central Europe who spread across the American South and West as they built businesses and communities.
A Jewish community's first institutions often tell the same story in the same order, and Waco's followed the pattern. First came a benevolent association and the purchase of land for a cemetery in 1869—because caring for the dead according to tradition is among the earliest obligations a community assumes. Then came fellowship and worship, held wherever space allowed.
By the 1870s these families were putting down deep roots, adopting the liturgy and practices of Reform Judaism, the movement then reshaping American Jewish life. What began as scattered gatherings in homes and rented rooms was steadily becoming a congregation.
People & events
The community organized step by careful step. The Hebrew Benevolent Association formed in 1869 and received its charter in 1873; that same year, twenty-five area Jews chartered Eureka Lodge No. 198 of the B'nai B'rith, the fraternal service organization. Through the 1870s they held services in homes, businesses, and rented rooms, and the Benevolent Association acquired a Torah scroll for congregational use.
In 1879 the members of Eureka Lodge resolved to establish Waco's first Jewish congregation, and they gave it a name of quiet aspiration: Rodef Sholom, "pursuing peace." Under the direction of Louis Migel and Sam Sanger, forty families began meeting at Lehman's Hall, and the congregation received its charter in June 1879. Rudolph Lessing was elected its first president, and the Rev. M.M. May became its first rabbi.
From there the congregation built—literally. Waco architect W.W. Lamour designed the first synagogue, erected by R. Rogers on Washington Avenue and dedicated in August 1881. The community marked its first confirmation service in 1893 and affiliated with the Union of American Hebrew Congregations in 1907. In 1910 the members built a second synagogue, designed by architect Milton W. Scott, on the same site. The Temple Sisterhood formed in 1922, and in 1961 the growing congregation relocated to a new synagogue on North New Road, carrying its heritage of service and philanthropy forward.
Its place in the American story
Rodef Sholom is a Central Texas thread in one of the great American stories: immigrant communities building lasting institutions on new ground. The nineteenth-century arrival of Jewish families across the South and West, and their embrace of Reform Judaism—an American-shaped movement that adapted ancient tradition to a new country—unfolded in countless towns like Waco. The congregation's very sequence, from benevolent society and cemetery to lodge to synagogue, mirrors how Jewish communities took hold throughout the United States.
The name itself, "pursuing peace," points to a value woven deep into Jewish tradition, and the congregation's long record of service and philanthropy reflects the ethic of communal responsibility that these institutions carried into their wider towns. A synagogue was never only a house of worship; it was a civic anchor.
That this community organized so soon after the Civil War, chartered its congregation in 1879, and remains active generations later speaks to endurance. The American religious landscape was built by exactly this kind of steady institution-making, repeated by many faiths in many places, each adding its own to the national fabric.
If you visit
Come to this marker to trace a community's arc across more than a century and a half. The congregation has worshiped in more than one building over its history—its first synagogue rose on Washington Avenue in 1881, a second on the same site in 1910, and a later home on North New Road from 1961—so the site invites you to think in terms of continuity rather than a single structure.
As you read, notice how many small firsts the marker records: the first cemetery land, the first Torah scroll, the first president, the first rabbi, the first confirmation. Each is a milestone in a community teaching itself to endure. It's a good reminder that institutions we take for granted were assembled deliberately, milestone by milestone.
Waco is a natural stop for anyone drawn to Central Texas history, and this story adds a dimension travelers sometimes overlook—the presence and contribution of a Jewish community woven into a Texas city since the years just after the Civil War. Let it prompt you to look for the many threads that make up any American town's past.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Louis Migel
- · Sam Sanger
- · Rudolph Lessing
- · M.M. May
Themes & tags
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