About
The Jewish Central Pennsylvania History Project was created by Casey Sennett in 2022. Casey graduated from the Pennsylvania State University in the spring of 2023 with her Master of Art’s degree in Anthropology and Bachelor of Art’s degrees in Anthropology, History, Jewish Studies, and Middle East Studies. Casey grew up in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, a small-town located thirty minutes west of State College. Growing up, she knew her hometown had a Jewish cemetery, but she never thought about why she did not know anyone growing up who was Jewish. As she developed an interest in Jewish history in college, however, she began wondering about the Jewish history of her hometown and the greater Central Pennsylvania region.
During the spring and fall semesters of 2022, Casey served as the Historic Preservation Intern with the Centre County Planning and Community Development Office (CCPCDO) in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. As the Historic Preservation intern, she researched the Rodef Shalom Cemetery in Bellefonte, and created biographies for all fifty people buried in the cemetery. During her internship, she realized few Central Pennsylvania residents knew about the region’s Jewish history. This encouraged her to create the Jewish Central Pennsylvania History Project and complete her combined undergraduate honors and master’s thesis, “Overlooked Histories: An Ethnographic and Historical Study of the Jewish Communities of Central Pennsylvania” (click here to view her thesis), about the Jewish histories of Aaronsburg, Bellefonte, Lock Haven, Philipsburg, and State College, Pennsylvania.
Through the Jewish Central Pennsylvania History Project, Casey aims to preserve the vibrant Jewish history of the Central Pennsylvania region and make the region’s Jewish history more accessible to local residents. In addition to writing her thesis about the Jewish history of several Central Pennsylvania towns, Casey, with the assistance of the Office of Digital Pedagogies and Initiatives in Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts, created both the Rodef Shalom Cemetery website (click here to view) and the Jewish Central Pennsylvania History Project website (click here to view). The Rodef Shalom Cemetery website includes all the materials she created during her CCPCDO internship. The Jewish Central Pennsylvania History Project website contains the Jewish histories of all five Central Pennsylvania towns, Aaronsburg, Bellefonte, Lock Haven, Philipsburg, and State College, she researched in her thesis. In the future, Casey hopes to expand the Jewish Central Pennsylvania History Project to preserve the Jewish histories of additional Central Pennsylvania towns.