Fond du Lac (Fond du Lac County)

Though Jewish community life has waned, Fond du Lac's Jewish history harkens back to Wisconsin's first two Jewish residents, Jacob Franks and John Lawe of Green Bay. Franks established a trading post along the Fond du Lac River in the late 1790s. Lawe conducted business there in the late-1790s.

Fond du Lac has had a small Jewish presence since before the Civil War and an organized Jewish community since 1905. The Industrial Removal Office resettled seven immigrants here from 1905-1917. (See "Guide to the Records of the Industrial Removal Office undated, 1899-1922" at www.cjh.org/nhprc/IRO5.html.)

The city's first Jewish residents were pioneering merchants who apparently established no community organizations. S. Maddewitch opened a clothing store in 1849. Seligman & Bros., established the city's first large clothing store in 1857. Rafael Katz, who founded a clothing business in 1869, was active in the Democratic Party and served as a state representative from 1901-1902.

That was the time that a Russian and Eastern European Jewish immigrants began coming to town. They prayed together as early as 1905 in the home of Jacob Cohen. Soon after, worship was held at the home of Mr. Hurawitz, the shochet (kosher butcher). The Orthodox Jews organized themselves as Jacob's Congregation, in honor of Jacob Cohen, in 1914. The congregation, calling itself Kehillath Jacob, dedicated a large new synagogue in 1923 at 180 Military St., on the corner with Ruggles St. The building, now privately owned, still stands.

The community's Jewish population has varied from 25-30 families in 1913 to 125 people in 1920, a high of 175 in 1937 and 100 in 1981.

The Jewish community built Temple Beth Israel in 1960 and sold Kehillath Jacob. Fond du Lac's few Jews maintain the synagogue, but rarely if ever use it.

The Jewish community has purchased a portion of Rienzi Cemetery in Fond du Lac to serve as a Jewish cemetery

The building that housed Kehillath Jacob, a former Orthodox congregation, still stands in Fond du Lac.

The building that housed Kehillath Jacob, a former Orthodox congregation, still stands in Fond du Lac.

All of these articles are always open to the addition of new information. Readers who have more data about, or documents or artifacts from, these communities are welcome to contact Leon Cohen at the Wisconsin Society for Jewish Learning at 414-963-4135 or lcohen@wsjl.org.