In 1867 the “Israelites of Jacksonville” met to form a Jewish congregation. Even though they failed to seek a charter, they set a pattern of worship that has continued to this day.
The first Jacksonville City Directory, published in 1870, lists 23 recognizable Jewish names, and by 1880 there were 130 Jews living in Jacksonville.
Congregation Ahavath Chesed was formally chartered in 1882, with Rabbi Marx Moses officiating at the dedication of the synagogue on September 8th of that year.
The architectural style of the Orthodox synagogue reflected the European origins of the membership, most of who came from Prussiaand Germany. It remained Orthodox until the mid 1890’s when the congregation adopted the Reform Movement. 
Tragedy struck in 1901: the great fire of Jacksonvilledestroyed all of the downtown area, including our beloved synagogue. It was rebuilt in the same style, but soon became too small for our growing congregation, and plans were drawn for a new house of worship.
In 1910 the move to Laura and Ashley Streets was made with Rabbi Pizer Jacobs delivering the dedication address. We had several rabbis until Rabbi Israel Kaplan came in 1916. He was responsible for the formation of the Interfaith Thanksgiving Services first held in 1917 with 3 other religious congregations participating. We now have over 30 houses of worship taking part. 
We continued to grow and in 1927, we purchased a beautiful residence in Riverside.. It is a Henry Klutho design and was built in 1907.
The Temple purchased this building in 1927 and served as our religious community center and all activities formerly held in the Laura and Ashley street Vestry rooms moved to Riverside. Sisterhood, Brother, Hunior Congregation, TempleMen's Club, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts met there.
It served us well until 1940 when a fire destroyed this beautiful building. All records of the Congregation, including boy scouts, brotherhood, sisterhood and TIR were also destroyed.
On the retirement of Rabbi Kaplan in 1946, Rabbi Sidney M. Lefkowitz became our spiritual leader. Plans to build a new house of worship on the grounds of the Temple Home became a reality. The location was ideal and in 1950 we dedicated a new temple for our Congregation. In the mid 1960’s, enough land was purchased on San Jose Boulevard to build a large synagogue with room for growth.
In 1979 we dedicated our new facility. In 1986, we added our current Chapel and more classrooms, and most recently, we completely remodeled the building to house a new Education Wing, a state-of-the-art kitchen, a larger Library and the Archives Display room and storage.
The Temple in 1979 The Temple Now
