Johnstown Jewish Community Records 1849-1989, 1922-1976 (bulk)
- Repository
- Heinz History Center
- Title
- Johnstown Jewish Community Records,
- Collection Number
- MSS#450
- Extent
- 8 linear feet (15 boxes and 2 volumes)
- Date
- 1849-1989, 1922-1976 (bulk)
- Abstract
- The Records of the Johnstown Jewish Community contain information about synagogues, community organizations, and individuals in the Jewish community of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. These records include correspondence, meeting minutes, reports, newspaper clippings, notebooks, programs, and photocopies of articles, vital records, and obituaries. They provide information about members of the Jewish community of Johnstown and their religious, social, and philanthropic activities.
- Language
- The material in this collection is in English, German, Hebrew, and Yiddish.
- Sponsor
- Funding for this project was made available by the Simon Hafner Charitable Foundation.
- Publisher
- Heinz History Center
- Address
- 1212 Smallman St.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
library@heinzhistorycenter.org
URL: https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org
History
The Records of the Johnstown Jewish Community contain information about synagogues, community organizations, and individuals in the Jewish community of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Most of the records date from the early twentieth century through the 1970s. Jewish settlement in Johnstown, which is located in Cambria County approximately fifty-five miles east of Pittsburgh, began in the 1850s, following the development of the iron and steel industries there. The first Jews to arrive were German shopkeepers, followed by Eastern European peddlers and industrial workers.
An Orthodox congregation, Rodef Sholom, was chartered in 1899, with 30 member families. Hyman Kaminsky served as the first religious leader of this congregation. Regular religious services and Hebrew instruction were conducted in private homes, and High Holy Day services were held in rented rooms until 1904, when the congregation built its first synagogue building, known as "the Iron Street Synagogue," where services were held until 1950. A new synagogue was built in 1950 in the suburb of Westmont. In 1952 Rodef Sholom and the Jewish Center of Johnstown, which had provided educational and recreational services, merged.
The decade of the1920s was a time of transition for Rodef Sholom: the English language was introduced in services, girls were included in Sunday religious classes, and women became more involved in congregational life. By 1931, Rodef Sholom had become loosely affiliated with the Conservative movement. Rabbi Ralph Simon (1931-1936) was the first American-born and the first Conservative rabbi to serve Rodef Sholom. An English-language Bulletin was among the innovations he introduced. Both Orthodox and Conservative rabbis succeeded Rabbi Simon through the 1930s and 1940s. Some level of tension between Orthodox and Conservative affiliation and practices continued on through the years, until the establishment of the new building for the synagogue and Jewish Center in Westmont. By that time, the Conservative element dominated the congregation.
The Orthodox minority of Rodef Sholom withdrew to form Ahavath Achim Congregation, composed primarily of Hungarian, Polish, and Lithuanian immigrants, many of whom worked as peddlers. Its Cedar Street synagogue building in the Hornerstown district served the congregation from 1921 to 1973, when the congregation was dissolved. The building was torn down in 1996.
Reform Jews organized Beth Zion Temple in 1894; it was chartered in 1920 with 50 families and no building. Isadore Reichert was the first rabbi to serve this congregation, beginning in 1903. Beth Zion's Reform practice also expressed elements of Conservatism and Orthodoxy, including traditional bar mitzvah and extensive use of Hebrew in services. Its first permanent location was the former Nathan family home on Vine Street, where services were held from 1924 to 1950. Hulda Nathan Elsasser, the second president of Beth Zion (1929-1934), was one of the first women elected president of an American Jewish congregation.
Beth Zion sponsored the very successful Beth Zion Forum (1926-1950), founded by Harry Bandell and continued by Rabbi H. Goren Perelmuter. This community lecture series brought nationally and internationally known speakers to Johnstown. Rabbi Perelmuter served Beth Zion from 1941 to 1957, supervising the transition to its new building in Westmont in 1951. Leonard Winograd was installed as rabbi in 1962 and Sion A. David in 1970.
Between 1905 and 1951, five synagogues were built in the greater Johnstown community. As a steel-producing community, Johnstown experienced an economic boom during and after World War II, and the Jewish community also grew, to approximately 2,000 people. The general demographic shift toward suburbanization also occurred in the Jewish community, and both Rodef Sholom and Beth Zion moved to locations near each other in Westmont in the early 1950s. Soon, however, an economic downturn caused a concomitant decrease in the Jewish population.
As the Jewish community became geographically dispersed and then declined in numbers, the congregations merged and dissolved, eventually leaving one remaining congregation. Beth Zion and Rodef Sholom joined their Sunday schools in 1972, and four years later the Beth Sholom Congregation was formed by the full merger of Rodef Sholom and Beth Zion. Rav A. Soloff became the rabbi of the united congregation. Currently, nearly all of Johnstown's Jews are members of the merged congregation, which practices a mixture of Reform and Conservative Judaism and keeps a kosher kitchen out of respect for members who observe dietary laws.
Jewish philanthropy and social service work followed the development of the Jewish community in Johnstown and increased with the prosperity of its members. Secular Jewish organizations tended to arise from and overlap with the activities of the different synagogues. A range of organizations, including local chapters of national organizations (such as Hadassah, the National Council of Jewish Women, B'nai B'rith, etc.), flourished at various times and with varying degrees of coordination by the Johnstown Jewish Community Council and the more recent United Jewish Federation, which replaced the Council in 1975. Members of the Jewish community participated actively in the '77 Flood Relief Center, organized locally after the devastating 1977 flood, the second major flood in Johnstown's history. During the 1970s, volunteers kept extensive scrapbooks of newspaper clippings about members of the Johnstown Jewish community.
The prominent Glosser family, of Russian descent, founded the Glosser Brothers Department Store in 1907, later operated the chain of Gee Bee stores, and took an active part in Jewish Community organizations. Solomon and David Glosser, Joseph Goldstein, Sam Rapoport, and Leonard Olbum held leadership positions during the time of the merger of Rodef Sholom and Beth Zion. Glosser Brothers was one of the largest employers of both Jews and non-Jews in Johnstown; some of the store's employment records from the 1920s and 1930s are included in this collection. The store's closing in 1991 reflected the continued economic decline of the region.
Ewa Morawska, a sociologist and historian who was affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh, chose Johnstown as the location for her research on the adaptation of Eastern European immigrants to life in an American small town in the years from 1890 to 1940. She has published two books as a result of this research, which she began in 1980. For Bread with Butter: Life-Worlds of East Central Europeans in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, 1890-1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985) and Insecure Prosperity: Small-Town Jews in Industrial America, 1890-1940 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996) are both available in the Heinz History Center Library. Some of her research materials for the second book are included in this collection. Insecure Prosperity provides a thorough and detailed study of many aspects of the Johnstown Jewish community, incorporating both documentary and oral history materials.
Scope and Content Notes
The Records of the Johnstown Jewish Community are housed in 15 archival boxes and 2 shelf volumes and are arranged in six series. Series have been designated for Rodef Sholom Synagogue, Beth Zion Congregation, Beth Sholom Congregation, Johnstown Jewish Community Organizations, Scrapbooks, and the research materials of Ewa Morawska. The arrangement is alphabetical by subject and then chronological. These records include correspondence, meeting minutes, reports, newspaper clippings, notebooks, programs, and photocopies of articles, vital records, and obituaries. They provide information about members of the Jewish community of Johnstown and their religious, social, and philanthropic activities.
Series I: Rodef Sholom Synagogue
This series includes a golden anniversary book, which contains very detailed information about the congregation's history; Bulletinsfor the years 1942-1976; programs; minutes; reports; and speeches. Sisterhood activities are well covered for the years 1953-1971. See Series VI for photocopies of earlier Rodef Sholom Board Minutes.
Series II: Beth Zion Congregation
This series is divided into Subseries for the Board of Trustees, Bulletin, Forum, Sisterhood, and Other. It contains minutes, Bulletins, correspondence, financial reports, newsclippings and other records covering primarily the period from the 1920s until the merger with Rodef Sholom in 1976. Activities of the Sisterhood are well documented. There are detailed records for the Beth Zion Forum series, including promotional materials for traveling lecturers, correspondence with national theatrical agents and speakers such as Rabbi Barnet Brickner, Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof, Max Lerner, Senator Claude Pepper and Dorothy Thompson, and arrangements for hall rental and transportation for visiting lecturers.
Series III: Beth Sholom Congregation
The collection contains few records for Beth Sholom, as this congregation is still active in Johnstown. This series contains primarily bulletins dating from the formation of the congregation by the merger of Rodef Sholom and Beth Zion in 1976 through the mid-1980s.
Series IV: Johnstown Jewish Community Organizations
This series contains annual reports, correspondence, minutes, program announcements, financial statements, newsclippings, and other documents relating to the operation of a variety of organizations in the Jewish community of Johnstown. Of special interest are the records of the '77 Flood Relief Center, an ad hoc interfaith group formed in response to the 1977 flood; Ruth Glosser was particularly active with this group. There are two composition notebooks containing handwritten payroll records for the Glosser Brothers Department Store for the years 1922-1942.
Series V: Johnstown Jewish Community Scrapbooks
A series of scrapbooks, mainly from the mid-1970s, consisting almost entirely of newsclippings and program announcements, has been photocopied onto acid-free paper for preservation. These document in minute detail the activities of individuals and organizations in the Johnstown Jewish community. In addition, there is one intact scrapbook containing the memorabilia of Manny Schwartz, a World War I veteran and Johnstown businessman who was active in veterans' organizations; he lived into his nineties. See also MSO# 450 for the French Croix de Guerre Certificate presented to Manny Schwartz.
Series VI: Ewa Morawska Research Materials
This series contains some of the materials used by sociologist Ewa Morawska in the research for her book about the Johnstown Jewish community, Insecure Prosperity: Small-Town Jews in Industrial America, 1890-1940. Most of this material consists of photocopied records of various Johnstown Jewish organizations. Dates given are those of the original documents, not date of photocopying. Many of these documents contain handwritten annotations by Ewa Morawska. Of note are the Rodef Sholom Board Minutes, which are in Yiddish and/or a mixture of Yiddish and English. Some have been translated into English at a later date. Many of these are heavily annotated with handwritten notes and translations by Ewa Morawska in English and Polish. Records of the Hebrew Cemetery Association of Johnstown (1888-1909) represent some of the earliest records in this collection. One folder contains copies of correspondence with the Industrial Removal Office in New York, which was created as part of the Jewish Agricultural Society to assimilate immigrants into American society by helping to match the skills of new immigrants with available jobs in communities outside of New York. The records of this organization are available through the American Jewish Historical Society at http://www.cjh.org/nhprc/IRO5.html.
Conditions Governing Access
No Restrictions.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
These materials came in one accession on December 19, 2005.
Acc#2005.0308-Gift of Lawrence Rosenberg, President of Beth Sholom Congregation
Preferred Citation
Johnstown Jewish Community Records, 1849-1989, MSS#450, Rauh Jewish Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center
Processing Information
May 1, 2007; collection arranged and inventory written by Martha L. Berg, with generous support from the Simon Hafner Charitable Foundation.
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights reside with the Senator John Heinz History Center. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the Library and Archives of the Senator John Heinz History Center.
Separated Materials
One folder of newspapers (The Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown, PA, July and August, 1977), describing the 1977 flood, and two books have been transferred to the Library and separately catalogued.
.65 linear feet of photographs have been separately arranged and described as MSP# 450.
Eight folders of oversize photographs have been separately arranged and described as MSR# 450.
One folder of oversize documentary materials has been separately arranged and described as MSO# 450.
Subjects
- Rodef Sholom Synagogue--Johnstown, Pa.
- Beth Zion Congregation--Johnstown, Pa..
- Beth Sholom Congregation--Johnstown, Pa..
- Morawska, Ewa
- Glosser family
- Perelmuter, H. Goren--Rabbi
- Winograd, Leonard--Rabbi
- Schwartz, Manny
- Philanthropy--Johnstown, Pa.
- Jews--Johnstown, Pa.
- Synagogues--Johnstown, Pa.
- Johnstown Flood --Johnstwon, Pa.--1977
- Johnstown Flood --Johnstwon, Pa.--1977