Arkansas
Where you dig for diamonds and find something more.
Little Rock · Hot Springs · Murfreesboro · Bentonville · Palestine
The Journey
Arkansas was one of those states whose character revealed itself slowly.
In Little Rock, we visited the State Capitol and experienced a capital city that felt quieter and more intimate than many others we had seen across the country. While at the Capitol, we encountered a rally for LGBTQ rights, giving us an immediate glimpse into some of the cultural and political battles playing out over the soul of Arkansas.
Hot Springs was something completely different. Feeling the warm steam from the thermal waters on our faces was an amazing experience. The national park is woven right into the city, built around waters that have drawn people to Arkansas for generations. The beautiful blooming trees, old bathhouses, mountains, and steaming springs gave the city a character unlike anywhere else we had visited.
Then came one of the most fun experiences of the trip, Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro. We got down into the dirt and actually searched for diamonds. Real diamonds still come out of the ground here, and if you find one, you get to keep it. We found some interesting stones and gems, but luck did not strike us that day. Still, the possibility that the next handful of dirt might contain a diamond kept us digging.
Even the roads gave us little surprises, including passing through Palestine, Arkansas, one of those unexpected names that makes you stop, take a picture, and remember exactly where you were.
Arkansas was not a state that screamed for our attention. We had to look a little closer. Once we did, there was plenty to find.
Jewish Arkansas
What surprised me about Arkansas was how much Jewish history was hiding in a state with such a small Jewish population today.
The story begins early. Abraham Block, considered the first known Jewish settler in Arkansas, arrived in the territory in the 1820s and built a life in Washington, Arkansas, long before there was a synagogue anywhere nearby.
In Little Rock, standing outside Congregation B'nai Israel which was organized in 1866 and became the state's first chartered Jewish congregation was surreal. But the deeper I looked, the more Jewish footprints I found across Arkansas. Jewish merchants settled throughout the state, and a surprising number of Arkansas towns were either founded by Jews or named for early Jewish residents.
Hot Springs had an especially remarkable Jewish story. The Jewish community helped establish the Leo N. Levi Hospital in 1914 for people who came to the city's thermal waters seeking healing. It maintained a kosher kitchen while treating people of every faith. We got to see t hat building while there. Sadly, after more than a century of service, the hospital stopped treating patients in 2025.
Then there was Jacob Trieber of Helena, who in 1900 became the first Jewish federal judge in American history. We even stopped by the Jacob Trieber Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Helena, later named in his honor. Seeing his name on a federal courthouse in a small Arkansas town made that piece of Jewish American history feel much more real.
Today, Little Rock remains the center of Jewish life in Arkansas, with Jewish communities continuing in Hot Springs, northwest Arkansas, Fort Smith, and elsewhere.
The Jewish population may be small, but once again, the deeper I looked, the more Jewish Arkansas I found.
What Stayed With Me
Arkansas reminded me that not every place is an open book.
At Crater of Diamonds, we spent hours looking through ordinary dirt because somewhere beneath it there might be something precious. In a way, the rest of Arkansas felt similar.
The more I looked, the more I found: natural springs rising from beneath the earth, small towns with unexpected stories, Jewish merchants who helped build communities across the state, a Jewish hospital in Hot Springs, and the first Jewish federal judge in American history.
And while I wish we had come home with a diamond, we came home with something far more valuable: beautiful family memories and meaningful moments that stayed with us.
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