Jewish History of Northeastern Arkansas

The Jewish history of Arkansas dates back to 1824 when Abraham Block opened a store in Washington, Arkansas.  However, much of this initial settlement was southern and western portions of the state as migrants expanded from Texas and Louisiana.  Cities such as Fort Smith and Van Buren in the west, Little Rock in central Arkansas, and Pine Bluff in the southern half of the state were the first cities to flourish.  However, eventually the thriving Mississippi River trade encouraged Jewish settlement.  Still, Jewish migration to the state was slow and by 1860 there were only 300 Jewish residents in Arkansas.

After the war, Arkansas became increasingly tied. to regional and national trading markets because of its location along the Mississippi River.  This brought Jewish peddlers and merchants to the state from regional market centers in Memphis, St. Louis, and New Orleans.  These Jewish migrants maintained strong economic connections to the river towns along the Mississippi and Ohio, helping develop Arkansas, which was previously agrarian and relatively isolated.  A testament to this active role in development is the city names themselves.  Fourteen towns in Arkansas were either founded by Jews or named after early Jewish residents, including Atheimer, Berger, Bertig, Felsenthal, Goldman, and Levy.

Despite the growing presence of Jews in Arkansas, the northeastern part of the state did not develop organized Jewish communities until the 20th century.  The first organized Jewish community in the region was in Jonesboro, which organized in 1897.  Oceola, Forrest City and Wynne followed in the years leading up to World War I and a community in Blytheville organized in the 1920s.  By 1937, 6,510 Jews lived in Arkansas, and  thirteen cities had a Jewish population over fifty.  Despite this growth, Jews never constituted more than a one half of one percent of Arkansas's population.  This would prove to be the high-water mark for Arkansas's Jewish communities, with the state Jewish population falling to 1,675 by the end of the 20th century.