Congregation Mikveh Israel
Congregation Mikveh Israel, is a Sephardic Orthodox Jewish synagogue located at 44 North Fourth Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The congregation traces its history from 1740. Mikveh Israel is a Spanish and Portuguese congregation that follows the rite of the Amsterdam esnoga. It is the oldest synagogue in Philadelphia, and the longest running in the United States.
Mikveh Israel in 2013
Mikveh Israel Cemetery (2007)
3rd and Cherry Streets (1782)
Cherry Street building sanctuary (1825)
Spanish and Portuguese Jews
Spanish and Portuguese Jews, also called Western Sephardim, Iberian Jews, or Peninsular Jews, are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardic Jews who are largely descended from Jews who lived as New Christians in the Iberian Peninsula during the few centuries following the forced expulsion of unconverted Jews from Spain in 1492 and from Portugal in 1497. They should therefore be distinguished both from the descendants of those expelled in 1492 and from the present-day Jewish communities of Spain and Portugal.
Painting of the Amsterdam Esnoga—considered the mother synagogue by the Spanish and Portuguese Jews—by Emanuel de Witte (ab. 1680).
Burning of Crypto-Jews in Lisbon, Portugal, 1497
Spanish Synagogue
Synagogue of Livorno