Congregation Mikveh Israel

Congregation Mikveh Israel (Hebrew: קהל קדוש מקוה ישראל, lit. 'Holy Community Hope of 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.

The congregation moved to its current building at 44 North Fourth Street in 1976. The synagogue is located within Philadelphia's Old City Historic District and adjacent to Independence Mall. Mikveh Israel is an active community synagogue with services on the Sabbath, holy days, and special occasions. It offers adult education and cultural programming with a focus on the Spanish and Portuguese tradition and history. It is active within the Center City Jewish community and its kitchen is under the kosher supervision of the Community Kashrus of Greater Philadelphia The Keystone K.

Rabbi Emeritus Albert Gabbai led the congregation from 1988 to 2023. Rabbi Yosef Zarnighian came to the synagogue as Assistant Rabbi in September 2021 and succeeded Rabbi Gabbai in 2023.

Nathan Levy was a Jewish merchant in Philadelphia when one of his children died in 1738. Desiring a dedicated place for burial, he applied to John Penn, Pennsylvania's colonial proprietor, for "a small piece of ground" with permission to make it a family cemetery. This property was at the corner of 9th and Walnut Streets, the present site of the Walnut Street Theatre.

Congregation Mikveh Israel traces its history to September 25, 1740, when the Province of Pennsylvania and Thomas Penn authorized the burial ground at the north-west corner of Spruce Street and South Darien Street (between 8th and 9th Streets) meant to be a permanent burial ground for the entire Jewish community of Philadelphia. Levy was buried there upon his death in 1753. This burial ground became the Mikveh Israel Cemetery.

Jews in Philadelphia in the 1740s and 1750s organized themselves informally for services. In 1761 they acquired a Torah scroll and met in a private residence on Sterling Alley, then between Cherry and Race Streets and Third and Fourth Streets. The congregation moved to a rented building on Cherry Street and held their first Sabbath services on July 25, 1771. The group chartered itself as an organization in 1773.

It is estimated that in 1775, the city of Philadelphia had a population of approximately 35,000 of whom 300 were Jewish. Mikveh Israel counted among its members revolutionary patriots including Jonas Phillips, the Gratz family, and Haym Solomon who financed the war.

Gershom Mendes Seixas (1745–1816) was minister of Congregation Shearith Israel in Manhattan when the British occupied New York City during the Revolutionary War in 1776. Seixas closed the synagogue and left the city rather than align with the British. He moved first to Connecticut and then to Philadelphia where he led Mikveh Israel.