It has been 28 years since the Philadelphia Phillies won baseball’s World Series, and it has been 20 years since the IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy visited Philadelphia. In summer 2009, however, the 29th conference will come to Philadelphia. Co-sponsored by the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) and the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Philadelphia (JGSGP), the conference will take place August 2–7, 2009, at the Sheraton City Center Hotel at 17th and Race Streets. Right in the heart of Center City, the hotel is easily accessible from the airport and train station and also is accessible to local genealogical repositories.
The story of Jewish Philadelphia predates William Penn’s presence in 1682. Jewish traders were in Philadelphia environs before Penn took possession of the land. Isaac Miranda, the first Jew in England’s American colonies to hold a judicial position, owned property in the town at an early date; he arrived in Philadelphia about 1710 and at once engaged in trade with the Indians. The presence of several Jewish families in the city in 1734 is proven by the fact that the German traveler Von Beck enumerates them among the religious sects of the town. One of the earlier inhabitants was Nathan Levy (1704–53) who, in 1738, applied for a plot of ground to be used as a place of burial for his family. Levy obtained this grant on September 25, 1740, and the plot was thenceforth known as the “Jews’ burying ground.” The first Jewish cemetery in the city, situated on Spruce Street near 9th Street, is the final resting place of Hyam Solomon, financier of the Revolutionary War, and Rebecca Gratz, founder of the first Hebrew Sunday school in America. Today, Pennsylvania Hospital is across the street.1
Philadelphia Jews played an active role in forming the infant nation. When the Constitutional Convention convened in Philadelphia in 1787, Jonas Phillips of Congregation Mikveh Israel implored the assembly to guarantee religious freedom in the new nation and to remove any religious tests for public oaths.2
At the parade to celebrate the ratification of the Constitution in 1788, the leader of Philadelphia’s Jewish congregation walked arm-in-arm with members of the Christian clergy. The city even provided a special kosher table so that the Jewish partygoers could join in the festivities.3
At Congregation Kesher Israel, founded at the end of the 19th century and located at 412 Lombard Street, one can still pray as one’s ancestors did. The story of Kesher Israel “chronicles the lives of the east European Jewish immigrants who prayed at the synagogue and lived and worked in nearby streets and alleys.”4 Located just one block from Congregation Kesher Israel is Congregation B’nai Abraham at 527 Lombard Street. B’nai Abraham is the same vintage and still is active today.
After working long days in the sweatshops or peddling their wares, the Jews sought diversion from the tedium of everyday life. They found this relief in the Yiddish theater that thrived in the late 1880s with such beloved actors as Boris Thomashevsky, the Thomashevsky family and Jacob Adler. Yiddish drama was available at five locations in Philadelphia: two halls within the Jewish Quarter and three theaters just outside the Jewish Quarter. For more information about the Yiddish theater in Philadelphia, see Harry Boonin, The Jewish Quarter of Philadelphia, published by Jewish Walking Tours of Philadelphia, 1999.
Life was difficult for the immigrant Jews, many of whom had settled around the South Street area and opened shops there and on surrounding streets. The 1920s, however, were prosperous years, and the 1929 stock market crash did not hit the immigrants immediately. Like the rest of the nation, most of the new Jewish population struggled during the Depression years of the 1930s.
From their mass arrival in Philadelphia at the turn of the 20th century, Philadelphia Jewish immigrants went on to play a major role in all aspects of American social, economic, scientific and political life.5
Resources Near Conference Hotels
As rich as Philadelphia is in Jewish history, it also is rich in resource repositories for research. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Mid-Atlantic regional office is located 10 blocks from the conference hotel on Chestnut, between 9th and 10th Streets. Here, NARA houses copies of national censuses on microfilm, city directories for various cities, passenger lists, indexes and naturalization papers for several federal districts.
The city offers two vast resources of information. The City Archives at 31st and Market Streets houses Philadelphia births for the period 1860–1915, deaths for 1879–1915 and naturalization papers for 1793–1930. City Hall has the index for all marriage certificates and, for a small fee, will mail a copy of the original. The Pennsylvania Department of Health Division of Vital Records has moved to 110 North 8th Street, Suite 108. Here, direct relatives may apply for a birth or death certificate.
Two repositories unique to Philadelphia are the Pennsylvania Historical Society (PHS) and the Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center. Located on the 1300 block of Locust Street, the PHS houses many documents relating to the ethnic populations of Philadelphia. Its collections include family papers, vital records, tax lists, census records, genealogical scrapbooks, fraternal organizational records, Philadelphia city directories, military muster roles and much more. The Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center (PJAC), formerly located at 125 North 8th Street, plans to move to the Samuel Paley Library at Temple University to become part of the Urban Archives. The vast collections at PJAC include a Historical Guide to Philadelphia Synagogues, records of the Federation of Jewish Agencies of Greater Philadelphia, Immigrant Bank records and Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) records (1894–1990). Publications held by PJAC include The Forward (Philadelphia edition) (1903–46), the Jewish Times (1926–68) on microfilm and the Jewish Exponent (1946–present).
PJAC also holds archives from southern New Jersey communities. In the 1880s and 1890s, Baron Maurice de Hirsch established several utopian Jewish agricultural communities to provide refuge and opportunity for Russian immigrants fleeing the pogroms and the crowded cities of America. The area later attracted a second wave of Jewish immigration from Germany and the Holocaust.
JGSGP is eager to showcase its city, rich Jewish heritage and vast resources. Society members have created an extensive resource directory to be available online to assist those planning to attend the conference.
Keep Track of Conference Matters
To see current happenings in Philadelphia, go to <www.philadelphiausa.travel/iajgs>. To get information about the conference, visit its website at <philly2009.org>. Information is being added regularly to this site. JGSGP members look forward to the opportunity to create a great conference as well as make many new friends.
Notes
- Jewish Encyclopedia, published in Philadelphia 1901–06 by Cyrus Adler and A.S.W. Rosenbach.
- Beth Wenger, The Jewish Americans (Doubleday, 2007), p. 11.
- Ibid.
- Harry D. Boonin The Life and Times of Kesher Israel, Philadelphia: Jewish Walking Tours of Philadelphia, 2007, p. 6.
- Harry D. Boonin The Jewish Quarter of Philadelpha, Philadelphia: Jewish Walking Tours of Philadelphia, 1999, p. 148.
David Mink is the co-chair of the 29th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.
