Faith & Footsteps: Jewish History Walk
Madison's Jewish presence roughly began around 1850. About 40 Jewish houses, primarily storekeepers from West Prussia and Bohemia, had formed a women's auxiliary, a burial organization, and a synagogue by 1863. The majority of the founding members either passed away, stopped practicing Judaism, or relocated during the 1870s. Monroe, Wisconsin, a nearby city, had a tiny Jewish community from 1880 until 1910. Polish and Austrian merchants with connections to Chicago wholesale businesses made up its membership.
The University of Wisconsin was what set Madison apart from other small Jewish communities. Since the early 1860s, Jews have attended, and in 1888, psychologist Joseph Jastrow became the school's first Jewish faculty member. Many Jews were unable to secure tenure-track professorships because of antisemitism in numerous academic departments. A few academics who were escaping the Holocaust made Wisconsin their home. Departments throughout the institution stopped discriminating against hiring Jewish teachers in the late 1940s and early 1950s.