The Jewish communities of the United States have tended to be concentrated in major urban centers, such as New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. Many books have been written about these and similar communities, but to get a fuller picture of American Jewish life, we need books on the smaller, less-known areas. Julian H. Preisler’s The Synagogues of Central and Western Pennsylvania (Fonthill), helps us to learn about this region’s Jewish religious and demographic trends.

The many black-and-white and color photographs in this intriguing book help bring to life the synagogues that served the spiritual and related needs of Jews in places such as Harrisburg, Altoona, Johnstown, Pittsburgh, and other locales throughout Pennsylvania. This is important, for most of the time when people think of Jewish Pennsylvania, they have in mind Philadelphia and other eastern towns near New Jersey. Preisler’s book makes a strong case for examining the Jewish experience of other parts of the Keystone State.

This book’s strengths are in covering the demographic fluctuations of the Jewish population over time, and in surveying the architectural design and decoration of the synagogues of this region. Preisler himself photographed many of the remaining buildings, and located fascinating archival photographs and illustrations of others, including several that no longer stand. We can see the various styles that these congregations favored and adapted.

I admired two particular synagogues on pages 70 and 79, one from Homestead and another from McKeesport, that strongly resemble each other. Both buildings still stand, both are in Allegheny County, and both became churches when the Jewish groups moved out. These two examples do point out important trends: synagogue buildings have often been designed and constructed with elements found elsewhere, and American Jewish mobility has resulted in the re-purposing of synagogue buildings.

Thus this book is both heartening and bittersweet, a scholarly take on a religious and ethnic cohort as well as an ode, at times sad, to a community that has moved on and around.

I cannot help but compare the synagogue buildings depicted in this book, several of which are magnificent and others more modest, to the many synagogues (active and not) that can be found in New York City and New Jersey. Throughout my own research on these synagogues, I have been struck by the variety of design and interesting use of space by congregations. This holds true in western and central Pennsylvania too.

I would like to have known more about the religious life inside these walls, perhaps with accounts of clergy and congregants. A worthwhile topic for further research and writing, hopefully more people will research, write about and contribute to this regional study, based on Preisler’s prompting.

by Ellen Levitt