How a 198-year-old New Orleans synagogue became one of America’s fastest-growing Jewish communities

This story was originally published in the Forward .  Click here  to get the Forward’s free email newsletters delivered to your inbox.

This article is based on extensive interviews and on-site reporting for the latest installment in our Holy Ground series featuring stories of Jewish resilience and reinvention across America.

NEW ORLEANS — By the time a trumpet player rose from the pews, candy was already flying through the sanctuary.

Children scrambled across the bimah beneath Touro Synagogue’s green-and-gold dome while the crowd clapped to the music and a 13-year-old boy in orange Nike sneakers stood beside his mom before two open Torah scrolls — one for the bar mitzvah boy, the other for his mother, who was 47, a recent convert celebrating her adult bat mitzvah.

By the end of services, congregants carrying guitars, flutes, and tambourines had transformed the sanctuary into something resembling a Mardi Gras second line.

In most American synagogues, this would have felt unusual. At Touro, located along the famous parade route, it felt nearly routine.

Across the country, congregations are shrinking, aging and consolidating. Denominational loyalty is weakening. Younger…