By Terri Jo Ryan

Tribune-Herald staff writer

“Bis a hundert un tsvantsig! (May you live to be 120!)”

The traditional Hebrew blessing for a good, long life has worked for Waco’s Congregation Agudath Jacob, which recently celebrated the 120th anniversary of its chartering.

The congregation — founded by some 15 Jewish families seeking an Orthodox sanctuary on the Brazos River — received its charter on Feb. 14, 1888.

By 1876, 150 Jews called Waco home. Temple Rodef Sholom, part of the Reform movement of Judaism, was founded in 1879.

But with the influx of primarily Eastern European Jews fleeing persecution and political unrest in the 1880s and 1890s, the town’s Jewish population started to swell. Some wanted to keep the religious customs of their homelands rather than worship in the assimilationist style of their Reform brethren.

In 1886, 15 Orthodox Jewish families brought the Rev. Samuel Levy to Waco to help form the congregation.

After gaining its charter, Agudath Jacob conducted religious services in a rented room over a grocery store until 1894, when the congregation built a frame synagogue at 624 Columbus Ave.

Those pioneer Jews of Waco took care of immigrants and other Jewish newcomers to Central Texas in a particularly homey style.

According to synagogue histories recorded in the Texas Collection at Baylor University, in the early 20th century, Abe Novich — one of the founding fathers of Agudath Jacob — would meet the train in East Waco when new Jews were expected.

The newcomers would be taken either to Novich’s store or that of the Sanger Brothers — who were affiliated with the Reform temple — and fed, then placed with a local Jewish family until more permanent quarters could be arranged.

Incidentally, Waco’s Jews — Reform and Orthodox — were among the earliest supporters of a permanent Jewish homeland in Palestine.

In the early 1900s, in fact, Waco was home to the Zionist monthly newspaper called Jewish Hope, co-edited by a Polish-born Fort Worth rabbi named Joseph Jasin.

Agudath Jacob’s old wooden frame synagogue was destroyed by a tornado in 1913, so the following year, the congregation had a brick sanctuary built on the site.

To accommodate growth in post-World War II Waco, a new synagogue was built in 1950 at 15th Street and West Waco Drive. It included a social hall and classrooms.

In 1966, the traditional Orthodox congregation voted to ally itself with the Conservative movement.

The congregation built its current home — at 4925 Hillcrest Drive — and dedicated it in April 1972.

tjryan@wacotrib.com

757-5746