Congregation Or VeShalom (Atlanta, Ga.) Records

Or VeShalom, meaning “Light and Peace” in Hebrew, traces its genesis to the Edict of Expulsion promulgated by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella on March 31, 1492 – the same year as the discovery of America by Columbus. The Spanish monarchy, spurred on by the Catholic Church, decreed that all Jews must leave Spain within six months or convert to Catholicism, under pain of death. These exiles fled to the Ottoman Empire where they remained for over four centuries in cloistered communities, keeping alive their Spanish language and culture in the hope of someday returning to their ancient homeland of Spain. The beginning of the 20th century found these exiles anxious to unshackle themselves from Moslem rule and they migrated to America by the tens of thousands. Some of them made their way to Atlanta and founded Or VeShalom in 1914. At that time there was a membership of 57 families. These Sephardic Jews emigrated with their families from the Isle of Rhodes and from Turkey. Today, we have an extremely diverse membership that traces its roots from the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, North and South America, and even Atlanta. (Source: Congregation Or Ve Shalom, “About Us,” http://www.orveshalom.org/.)