Jews have settled in Maryland since the 17th century. As of 2018, Maryland's population was 3.9% Jewish at 201,600 people. The largest Jewish populations in Maryland are in Montgomery County and the Baltimore metropolitan area, particularly Pikesville and northwest Baltimore. [1] As of 2010, Baltimore and Baltimore County was home to a Jewish community of around 100,000 people. [2] The Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. (Montgomery County and Prince George's County) have a Jewish population of around 116,700 as of 2017, with the majority residing in lower Montgomery County. [3] The Rockville/Potomac area is the center of Montgomery County's Jewish population, while sizable communities also exist in the Bethesda/Chevy Chase area and in Silver Spring's Kemp Mill neighborhood. [4] [5] [6] Smaller Jewish communities exist in Gaithersburg, Germantown, White Oak, Olney, and Takoma Park. [7] [8] Columbia, Frederick, Annapolis, Cumberland, and Easton are also home to smaller but significant Jewish populations. [9] [10] [11]
Because the Province of Maryland lacked major cities and the economy focused primarily around the tobacco industry, few Jews settled in Maryland for the first century and a half following the colony's founding in 1634. [12]
Jacob Lumbrozo is the first known Jewish resident of Maryland, having settled in the Province of Maryland in 1656. [13]
Prior to 1826, Jews were prohibited from holding public office in Maryland. Maryland was one of the last states to have antisemitic laws prohibiting Jews from holding public office. On January 5, 1826, the Maryland General Assembly passed the Jew Bill repealing the prohibition. [14]
The Jewish opinion of slavery in Maryland was divided. Some Jewish Marylanders owned slaves. Jewish Marylanders typically adopted the same values as their non-Jewish neighborhoods. In Southern Maryland, it was very rare for Jews to own slaves. [15] In 1861, the Orthodox rabbi Bernard Illowy delivered a speech at the Lloyd Street Synagogue wherein he denounced the abolitionist movement and cited the Hebrew Bible to justify slavery. Due to the popularity of his speech, Jewish supporters of the Confederacy invited Rabbi Illowy to serve as the lead rabbi at Congregation Shaarei Chased in New Orleans. Rabbi David Einhorn, a Reform rabbi who served as leader of Har Sinai Congregation, was a vocal advocate for abolitionism, denouncing supporters of slavery within the Jewish community and arguing that the Bible could not condone slavery because all humans are made in the Image of God. [16]
Between the 1830s and the 1870s, 10,000 German and Central European Jews settled in Maryland. Eastern European Jews began to settle in Maryland in the 1850s, with a mass emigration of Eastern European Jews occurring between the 1880s and the 1920s. [12]
In 1899, 35,000 Jewish people lived in the state of Maryland. [1]
In 1904, Isidor Rayner was elected the first Jewish US Senator from Maryland, one of the first Jewish US Senators in American history. [17]
In 1969, Marvin Mandel became the first Jewish Governor of Maryland. [18]
In the 21st century, an increasing number of Jewish Marylanders are Jews of color, including Black Jews, Asian Jews, Latino Jews, Indigenous Jews, and other non-white Jews. Sephardic Jews and Mizrahi Jews may or may not identify as Jews of color and may or may not be considered Jews of color by society. In 2017, 7% of Jewish adults in the Metro DC Jewish community identified as LGBT and 7% identified as Jews of color or Hispanic/Latino Jews (12,200 people). 9% of Jewish households in the region included a person of color, whether Jewish or non-Jewish. The majority of the DC region's Jews of color, three out of ten, live within Washington, D.C. [19] In 2021, around 8,000 Jews of color lived in Baltimore, around 8% of the city's Jewish population. 39% of Jewish adults in the city identified as secular Jews or as "just Jewish", rather than belonging to a movement such as Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, or Orthodox. 21% of Baltimore's Jewish community was Orthodox. 10% of Jewish households included a member who identified as LGBT. [20] [21]
The Chesapeake blue crab, an important aspect of Maryland's cuisine, is not kosher and is therefore not eaten by Jewish Marylanders who observe the laws of kashrut. Old Bay Seasoning, commonly used to season crab and shrimp, is certified kosher by the Orthodox Union. In 1939, a Jewish-German refugee from Nazi Germany named Gustav Brunn [22] started the Baltimore Spice Company, which invented Old Bay seasoning. [23]
Kemp Mill is a census-designated place and an unincorporated census area in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. The population was 13,378 at the 2020 census.
The Orthodox Union is one of the largest Orthodox Jewish organizations in the United States. Founded in 1898, the OU supports a network of synagogues, youth programs, Jewish and Religious Zionist advocacy programs, programs for the disabled, localized religious study programs, and international units with locations in Israel and formerly in Ukraine. The OU maintains a kosher certification service, whose circled-U hechsher symbol, U+24CAⓊ, is found on the labels of many kosher commercial and consumer food products.
Rabbi Dr. Bernard Illowy was a rabbi and leader of Orthodox Judaism in the United States.
Shmuel Herzfeld is an American Orthodox rabbi. He is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Elimelech. He previously served as the Senior Rabbi of Ohev Sholom - The National Synagogue in Washington, D.C. and before that as Associate Rabbi at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale. He is a teacher, lecturer, activist, and author.
Ohev Sholom Talmud Torah Congregation of Olney, commonly known as OSTT, is an Orthodox synagogue located at 18320 Georgia Avenue, in Olney, Maryland, in the United States.
Young Israel Shomrai Emunah is an Orthodox synagogue located at 1132 Arcola Avenue, in Kemp Mill, Montgomery County, Maryland, in the United States. Established as a congregation in 1951, it was the first Orthodox synagogue established in Montgomery County. It is also one of the largest Orthodox synagogues in Maryland and is recognized as a key synagogue in the Silver Spring, Maryland area.
The history of the Germans in Baltimore began in the 17th century. During the 19th century, the Port of Baltimore was the second-leading port of entry for immigrants, after Ellis Island in New York City. Many Germans immigrated to Baltimore during this time.
Rabbi Levi Shemtov is the executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad). He serves the Jewish community of Washington, D.C., as well as the daily governmental and diplomatic needs of the international Chabad-Lubavitch movement.
Few Jews arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, in its early years. As an immigrant port of entry and border town between North and South and as a manufacturing center in its own right, Baltimore has been well-positioned to reflect developments in American Jewish life. Yet, the Jewish community of Baltimore has maintained its own distinctive character as well.
Hispanic and Latino Marylanders are residents of the state of Maryland who are of Hispanic or Latino ancestry. As of the year 2019, Hispanics and Latinos of any race were 10.4% of the state's population. The largest concentration of Hispanics/Latinos is in the National Capital Area, where Hispanics and Latinos constitute 16.04% of the total population. Some Maryland communities such as Langley Park, Riverdale Park, East Riverdale, Templeville, and Marydel have Hispanic and Latino-majority populations. Other communities such as Wheaton, Glenmont, and Aspen Hill have a Hispanic/Latino plurality population.
The history of the Jews in Washington, D.C. dates back to the late 18th century and continues today. From only individual Jews settling in the city to the waves of Jewish migration in the 1840s, during the American Civil War, and in the late 19th century to the early 20th century and beyond, the community has steadily grown.
White Marylanders are White Americans living in Maryland. As of 2019, they comprise 57.3% of the state's population. 49.8% of the population is non-Hispanic white, making Maryland a majority minority state. The regions of Western Maryland, Southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore all have majority white populations. Many white Marylanders also live in Central Maryland, including Baltimore, as well as in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Garrett County (97.5%) and Carroll County (91.9%) are the counties with the highest percentage of white Americans. Garrett and Carroll counties also have the highest percentage of non-Hispanic whites at 96.3% and 88.7%, respectively. Prince George's County (27%), Baltimore (30.4%), and Charles County (42.8%) have the lowest percentages of white people. Prince George's County has the lowest percentage of non-Hispanic whites, at 12.5% of the population. White Marylanders are a minority in Baltimore, Cambridge, Charles County, Jessup, Owings Mills, Prince George's County, Randallstown, and White Oak. Non-Hispanic whites are the plurality in Montgomery County, Columbia, Elkridge, Reisterstown, Salisbury, and Severn.
The history of African Americans in Baltimore dates back to the 17th century when the first African slaves were being brought to the Province of Maryland. Majority white for most of its history, Baltimore transitioned to having a black majority in the 1970s. As of the 2010 Census, African Americans are the majority population of Baltimore at 63% of the population. As a majority black city for the last several decades with the 5th largest population of African Americans of any city in the United States, African Americans have had an enormous impact on the culture, dialect, history, politics, and music of the city. Unlike many other Northern cities whose African-American populations first became well-established during the Great Migration, Baltimore has a deeply rooted African-American heritage, being home to the largest population of free black people half a century before the Emancipation Proclamation. The migrations of Southern and Appalachian African Americans between 1910 and 1970 brought thousands of African Americans to Baltimore, transforming the city into the second northernmost majority-black city in the United States after Detroit. The city's African-American community is centered in West Baltimore and East Baltimore. The distribution of African Americans on both the West and the East sides of Baltimore is sometimes called "The Black Butterfly", while the distribution of white Americans in Central and Southeast Baltimore is called "The White L."
LGBT culture in Baltimore, Maryland is an important part of the culture of Baltimore, as well as being a focal point for the wider LGBT community in the Baltimore metropolitan area. Mount Vernon, known as Baltimore's gay village, is the central hub of the city's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities.
The city of Baltimore, Maryland includes a small Syrian population. The Syrian-American community is centered in East Baltimore. While Syrian-Americans have had a presence in Baltimore for over a century, most Syrians in Baltimore are recent immigrants and refugees who have fled the Syrian Civil War.
The city of Cumberland, Maryland is home to a small and declining but historically significant Jewish community. The city is home to a single synagogue, B'er Chayim Temple, one of the oldest synagogues in the United States. Cumberland has had a Jewish presence since the early 1800s. The community was largest prior to the 1960s, but has declined in number over the decades. Historically, the Jewish community in Cumberland maintained several synagogues, a Jewish cemetery, and a Hebrew school. By 2019, Cumberland's Jewish community had its lowest population point since the early 1900s.
Racism in Jewish communities is a source of concern for people of color, particularly for Jews of color. Black Jews, Indigenous Jews, and other Jews of color report that they experience racism from white Jews in many countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Kenya, South Africa, and New Zealand. Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews also report experiences with racism by Ashkenazi Jews. The centering of Ashkenazi Jews is sometimes known as Ashkenormativity. In historically white-dominated countries with a legacy of anti-Black racism, such as the United States and South Africa, racism within the Jewish community often manifests itself as anti-Blackness. In Israel, racism among Israeli Jews often manifests itself as discrimination and prejudice against Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews, Ethiopian Jews, African immigrants, and Palestinians. Controversially, some critics describe Zionism as racist or settler colonial in nature.
Temple B'Nai Israel is a Reform Jewish synagogue, located at 7199 Tristan Drive, in Easton, Maryland, in the United States. It is the only synagogue on Maryland's upper Eastern Shore. It is also known as the Satell Center for Jewish Life on the Eastern Shore.
The city of Frederick, Maryland is home to a small but growing Jewish community. With roots dating to the colonial era, Frederick's Jewish community is home to three synagogues, a Hebrew school, and a Jewish community center.
The history of Antisemitism in Maryland dates to the establishment of the Province of Maryland. Until 1826, the Constitution of Maryland excluded Jewish people from holding public office. Prior to the passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Act, Jewish people were excluded from living in many white Christian neighborhoods throughout Maryland due to the use of restrictive covenants and quotas. Between the 1930s and 1950s, quota systems were instituted at universities in Maryland to limit the number of Jewish people. During the 2010s and 2020s, Maryland has seen an increase in reported incidents of antisemitic vandalism and violence.
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