In 1842, German born Jacob Hirsch settled in the twelve-year old village of Jackson, Michigan, joined within a few months by Jacob Levy, and in 1846 by Bernard Wolff. In 1858 the Jewish residents organized the Hebrew Benevolent Society. First officers were: Henry Lang, president; Joseph Hanauer, vice president; Louis Zunder, secretary; and Joseph Hirsch, treasurer.
This group formed the nucleus of the Jewish congregation that purchased an acre of land for a burial ground in 1859. On May 21, 1859, Rosa Hirsch, thirty-eight year old wife of Jacob Hirsch, was interred there. Rabbi Liebman Adler of Temple Beth El in Detroit conducted the funeral rites and consecrated the cemetery.
The earliest Jewish prayer meetings were held at the home of Jacob Hirsch, 189 Mechanic Street. Jackson was a city of 10,000 in 1862 when the congregation was formed, the second Reform Synagogue in the State of Michigan. Ten Jewish families of German descent purchased a small Greek Revival building for $400, a former Baptist Church building on the public square in the heart of the city. Consumer's Energy Office building is currently located on the site. The building had a steeple, town clock and bell, contained sixty pews and would seat 300. Its first membership totaled thirty-one. Reverend Mayer Wetterhahn from Cleveland was hired as spiritual leader, teacher and shochot supplementing his $360 annual salary with three and five cent fees for ritual slaughtering of poultry.
A Hebrew-German school was established at that time for secular and religious education. From the time of the founding of the Congregation through all or most of the remaining forty years of the nineteenth century, the minutes of Board meetings were taken in German.
