Congregation Beth Israel (Hebrew: בית ישראל) is a Modern Orthodox synagogue located at 4004 West Esplanade Avenue in Metairie, Louisiana (a suburb of New Orleans) in the United States.

Founded in 1903 or 1904, though tracing its roots back to 1857, it is the oldest Orthodox congregation in the New Orleans region. Originally located on Carondelet Street in New Orleans' Central City, it constructed and moved to a building at 7000 Canal Boulevard in Lakeview, New Orleans, in 1971.

At one time the largest Orthodox congregation in the Southern United States, its membership was over 500 families in the 1960s, but fell to under 200 by 2005. That year, its Canal Boulevard building was severely flooded by the 2005 New Orleans levee failure disaster during Hurricane Katrina. Despite attempts to save them, all seven of its Torah scrolls were destroyed, as were over 3,000 prayer books. The building suffered further flooding damage caused by the theft of copper air-conditioning tubing in 2007.

In the wake of Katrina, another 50 member families left New Orleans, including the rabbis. The congregation began sharing space with Gates of Prayer, a Reform synagogue in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans. In 2009, the congregation purchased land from Gates of Prayer, and by 2012 had built a new synagogue next to it at 4000 West Esplanade Avenue. As of 2016^[update] the rabbi was Gabriel Greenberg.

Beth Israel is the oldest Orthodox congregation in the New Orleans region and its most prominent. Though it was founded as early as 1903, it traces its roots back to much older synagogues. In the mid-19th century New Orleans had a number of small Orthodox congregations of Eastern European Jews, generally "structured along nationalistic lines". These included a synagogue of Galitzianer Jews (Chevra Thilim), and two of Lithuanian Jews, (one—Chevra Mikve Israel—following the non-Hassidic liturgy, the other—Anshe Sfard—following the Hassidic liturgy). In 1857, a congregation consisting primarily of Prussian Jews from Posen organized as Tememe Derech, "The Right Way". As they followed the Polish rite, they were known as "The Polish Congregation".

Tememe Derech built a synagogue in the 500 block of Carondelet Street in the Central City section of New Orleans in 1867. It was the sole Orthodox congregation to construct its own building; only a minority of New Orleans' Jews were Orthodox, and other congregations rented space or met in members' homes. Tememe Derech's membership, however, never exceeded 50, and in 1903 or 1904 the synagogue disbanded, and merged with a number of other small Orthodox congregations and a burial society to form Beth Israel. Services were initially held in rented quarters in the same 500 block of Carondelet Street.

In 1905, Beth Israel purchased the home of New Orleans' former mayor Joseph A. Shakspeare at 1610 Carondelet Street. Funds for the new acquisition came from both the Orthodox and Reform communities of New Orleans. After remodeling the building, the congregation began holding services there, in time for the 1906 High Holy Days. Membership grew quickly; by 1910 Beth Israel was the second-largest Jewish congregation in the city, with 180 member families, and by 1914 that number had grown to 250 families. By 1918, however, membership had fallen to 175 families. That year the synagogue's income was $6,000 (today $125,000).

Moses Hyman Goldberg was the congregation's first rabbi, but within a year he moved to Chevra Thilim. Goldberg served as New Orleans' mohel until his death in 1940.