South Dallas
Before Preston Hollow became the hub of Dallas’ Jewish population, South Dallas included one of the largest Jewish settlements in the Southern United States. Neighbors often walked to Tiferet Israel together and there was a concerntration of Jewish owned businesses. Forest Avenue, which is now called Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, was both a lynch pin and a dividing line in the neighborhood. Prominent families in the area include the Sangers, Schepps’, Freidmans, Goldins, Silvergolds. These families ran bakeries, department stores, and other businesses that influenced and propelled Jewish life throughout Dallas. Jews began migrating north in the 1940s and 50s, due to changing demographics and social climates, as well as construction of highways that physically separated the neighborhood. After WWII, Dallas residents began expanding into the suburbs to get more “bang for their buck.”
