Philipsburg

Establishment of Philipsburg

The Philipsburg Borough is located in the Allegheny Mountains in western Centre County along the Moshannon, meaning “Black Water,” Creek. The brothers Henry and Francis Philips of Manchester, England, founded the town in 1797. They belonged to a family with a worldwide import and export business, and they were both sent to the U.S. to manage their family’s affairs there, including the purchasing of land in the Pennsylvania wilderness. Henry purchased approximately 350,000 acres of land on the western slope of the Allegheny Mountains for $173,000. The location of Philipsburg was selected for its proximity to the Moshannon Creek, the area’s elevation, which offered flood protection, and its connection to other towns through the state highway system.

After both brothers died, their younger brother, Hardman, replaced them. Hardman began clearing the densely wooded land and dammed Cold Stream to create a millpond. He started an iron forge, foundry, and screw mill factory to provide employment for early settlers. The developing town, however, suffered from insufficient transportation. While attached to the state highway system, it was insufficient to transport bulk natural resources and Hardman struggled to transport needed goods to his store, which he relocated to Philipsburg in 1821. Paired with the death of all his young children, his inability to change the town’s “Old Mud Church” from nondenominational to a pseudo-Anglican, Episcopal branch, and his dislike of Jacksonian democracy, the prominent form of politics in the U.S. at the time, led him to sell his Pennsylvania holdings to the Hale family and returned to England.

The region developed around the lumber and, later, coal industries. Philipsburg was added to the railway system in 1863 with the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Tyrone and Clearfield Branch. New York Central’s Beech Creek Branch arrived a few decades later in 1894 and competition ensued among the two railroads over domination of Philipsburg’s developing mining industry. The growth of Philipsburg led to its expansion across the Moshannon Creek into Clearfield County. Chester Munson developed this area of the town, later named Chester Hill after him. The decline of the coal industry, however, also led to a decline in the town. Following the collapse of the coal industry in the area, Lee Industries, formerly Lee Metals, provided many jobs in the town.

Early Jewish Settlers

Similar to other Central Pennsylvania Jewish communities, the first Jewish settlers of Philipsburg were of Central European descent. One Central European Jewish family, the Schmidt’s, came from the area of Kleinkarlbach in Southwest Germany. They arrived in Philipsburg in the 1860s. At least four of the ten siblings, David, Henry, Solomon, and Fannie, settled in Bellefonte for a couple years prior to moving to Philipsburg. At least seven of the ten siblings, David, Henry, Solomon, Fannie, Rosa, Bertha, and Colmon, settled in Philipsburg, at least for a short period of time. In Philipsburg, Henry and Solomon operated a butcher shop, H. & S. Schmidt, and Fannie and Rosa operated a dry goods and millinery store, F. & R. Schmidt’s, on Front Street.

The Schmidt family were potentially part of a greater “chain migration” from their town of origin in Germany. In Solomon Schmidt’s obituary in the Democratic Watchman, for example, it is noted he and Abraham Baum, a Central European Jewish immigrant who settled in Bellefonte, were childhood friends and grew up in the same town in Germany, “The Schmidt family and the Baum family lived less than three miles apart [in Germany] and Sol and Abe were boyhood chums and together almost every day. One day the young men were together, and Abe remarked in a casual way, ‘Sol, I’m leaving tomorrow for America.’ And a year or so later Sol followed and both their homes since have been in Centre County.”

According to Elaine Navasky Ziff, a former Jewish community member of Philipsburg, the first Eastern European Jewish settlers arrived in Philipsburg in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Many of these individuals immigrated to the U.S. to avoid being drafted into the Russian army. They often began their careers as peddlers or shopkeepers and in census records were listed as “peddlers of junk” or “rag pickers.” One of the earliest Eastern European Jewish families in Philipsburg was the Adelman family. The patriarch of the family, Benjamin Adelman, was born in Russia in 1861 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1880. He first appears in the 1900 census with his wife, Sarah, and their eight children. Adelman was a dry goods merchant and was one of the owners of the A. & R. Department Store. He died in 1907 at the age of 46 and has one of the earliest graves in the Sons of Israel Cemetery in Philipsburg.

Elaine noted one of the prominent stories within the Jewish community regarding the reason for Eastern European Jewish settlement in Philipsburg was the confusion of “Philipsburg” with “Pittsburgh.” The immigration of Morris Stein, one of the founding members of the Sons of Israel congregation in Philipsburg, for example, was sponsored by his cousin, Adler, who lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. On the train from New York City to Pittsburgh, Morris heard the conductor call, “All off for Philipsburg, Munson, and Winburne,” at the train’s stop in Tyrone. Unfamiliar with English, he confused Philipsburg with Pittsburgh and got off the train in Tyrone. Morris ended up permanently settling in Philipsburg, where his wife, Shenel, and their two oldest children later joined him.

Religious Life

Little is known about the religious practices or expressions of the early Central European Jewish settlers in Philipsburg. In Solomon Schmidt’s obituary in the Democratic Watchman, however, he is described as someone of the “Jewish faith,” but had “…been a faithful attendant at the Lutheran church.” Solomon is buried in the Sons of Israel Cemetery in Philipsburg while three of his siblings, Fannie, Bertha, and David, are buried in the Rodef Shalom Cemetery in Bellefonte. A fourth Schmidt, Morris, the son of their brother, Henry Schmidt, is buried in Bellefonte’s Rodef Shalom Cemetery. Due to the burial of Morris in a Jewish cemetery, both of his parents, Henry Schmidt and Amelia Strouse Schmidt, the latter of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, must have been Jewish or Morris was at least raised in the Jewish faith.

Figure 2: A gate, reading “Schmidt Sisters,” in front of the graves of Bertha and Fannie Schmidt in the Rodef Shalom Cemetery in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Photographed by Casey Sennett.

With the immigration of Eastern European Jewish immigrants to Philipsburg, the town’s Jewish community developed its first Jewish organizations. According to Justin Houser, Philipsburg’s Jewish community members were buried in the Rodef Shalom Cemetery, founded in 1875, prior to the establishment of Philipsburg’s Jewish cemetery, Sons of Israel, in 1899. Only one Central European Jewish family from Philipsburg, the Schmidts, however, are known to be buried in Rodef Shalom. Jewish residents in Philipsburg purchased land for their own cemetery, adjoining the existing Philipsburg Cemetery, in 1897 for $175.

On December 1, 1912, the Independent Order of Brith Sholom, a national Jewish fraternal organization, issued the charter for the Sons of Israel congregation in Philipsburg. The twenty-six founding Jewish families in Philipsburg included: Cohen, Finberg, Garfinkle, Goldberg, Greenberg, Isenberg, Jaffe, Kaplan, Luxemberg, Marks, Markowitz, Mirbach, Novey, Press, Spillman, Sckaist, Steinberg, Stein, Steerman, and Ziff. Several of these families, including Cohen and Marks, are not listed as living in Philipsburg in the town’s census records and do not have any family members with those last names buried in the Sons of Israel Cemetery. Elaine Navasky Ziff predicts these families might have left Philipsburg relatively early for economic opportunities elsewhere.

Early Jewish religious services were held in the Odd Fellows Building on the west side of the 200-block of Front Street. Congregation President Harry Ratowsky and Vice President Morris Stein secured a lot on Sixth Street near Spruce Street in 1918, where the community’s synagogue was constructed. The synagogue measured 18 by 60 feet and was visually defined by the six-point Star of David hanging on the front. The star is now located on one of the pillars inside the Sons of Israel Cemetery. Elaine remembered the synagogue’s foyer, which was where the prayer books, tallit (prayer shawls), and yamulkes (skullcaps) were located, opened into the sanctuary. She recalled the sanctuary had two rows of pews with men on one side and women on the other. Two additional pews were located on the side walls where men could also sit. The bimah contained the ark, an altar, and burgundy upholstered chairs on both sides of the ark. In the late 1940s, an adjoining building, the Jewish Community Center (JCC), was erected next to the synagogue for social events. Elaine recalled the JCC contained a large social room, a kitchen, two Sunday school classrooms, a coatroom, and restrooms in the basement.

In 1938, when Bernard Navasky and his family moved to Philipsburg from New York City, he recalled in his memoir, “There was a synagogue in town, but I understood regular services were not held, but rather, it was on call for local members when memorial services for a deceased person were held. I was also informed that adjacent to the synagogue, there was a room where, according to Jewish tradition, a deceased person was prepared for burial, rather than having a local undertaker do it. In addition, for many of the orthodox families requiring kosher chicken, a rabbi from another community would kill the chicken, again according to Jewish acceptance.” For the high holiday services in 1940, Navasky recalled the synagogue being at capacity with the congregation’s forty-five Jewish families in attendance. Congregants included those living in Philipsburg, such as Dr. Sam Stein and Charles Garfinkle, but also Jewish community members from Houtzdale, including the Isenberg family.

The congregation’s first rabbis included Rabbi Sckaist, Rabbi Kahn, Rabbi Plotke, and Rabbi Levi. In the early 1940s, Rabbi Krickstein led the congregation for several years before retiring to Michigan. Under Rabbi Krickstein, Bernard Navasky’s son, Edward, was educated in Hebrew for his bar mitzvah. Edward’s bar mitzvah was held at the Midwood Jewish Community Center in Flatbush with the following celebration at the Brooklyn Jewish Center, where Bernard and his wife, Helen were married. The entire Philipsburg Jewish community was invited to the event.

 

Figure 3: Sons of Israel Synagogue in Philipsburg. Photograph from The Synagogues of Central and Western Pennsylvania: A Visual History.

In the late 1940s, the congregation was led by Rabbi Abraham Leibtag. According to Elaine Navasky Ziff, compared to the congregation’s prior rabbinical leaders, Rabbi Leibtag was more “modern” and very popular among members. He and his wife, Florence, lived in a red brick apartment attached to the former Rowland Mansion, now the Whispering Sisters Bed and Breakfast, on South Centre Street. Rabbi Leibtag was close friends with Reverend Charles Bickel of Philipsburg’s Methodist Church and together they hosted the annual Brotherhood Week. The week consisted of events held in both the synagogue and church and culminated in a combined service. Rabbi Leibtag left the congregation a position in Akron, Ohio, in the early 1950s.

 

Figure 4: Students at a Sunday school day camp in Black Moshannon State Park, c. 1946-1947. Photograph from Elaine Navasky Ziff.

While in high school, Elaine remembered Rabbi Milton Schlinsky served the congregation. She recalled being one of the thirteen teens who studied under him for their bar mitzvah or confirmation service. She was in the confirmation class of 1951, the only confirmation ceremony ever conducted in the Sons of Israel synagogue. Rabbi Leiter, the congregation’s next rabbi, joined the congregation in the mid-1950s. The congregation’s last full-time rabbi, Rabbi Jack Goldman, led the congregation from 1957-1959. Elaine recalled Rabbi Goldman as being very Orthodox. She remembered him building a glass wall at the back of the sanctuary and made women sit behind the wall. Elaine’s brother, Eddie, wanted to marry a non-Jewish woman, Dona Ruden from Philipsburg, who was willing to convert to Judaism, but Rabbi Goldman was too strict on conversion, so the family encouraged her to not go through with it. Since they were an inter-faith couple, Rabbi Goldman also refused to marry them. Instead, a Reform rabbi in Bedford agreed to marry them.

 

Figure 5: The only confirmation class at the Sons of Israel Synagogue, 1951. Photograph from Elaine Navasky Ziff.

While originally an Orthodox synagogue, the Sons of Israel congregation adopted to the changing needs and desires of the congregation. As a child, Elaine Navasky Ziff remembers that no English was used in the congregation’s services. By the age of 12, however, Rabbi Leibtag began incorporating English into services. Additionally, in the 1960s, the desire for wives to sit with their husbands led to the end of gender-segregated worship in the sanctuary.

In the absence of full-time rabbis, the congregation continued their worship through the service of student rabbis. Elaine remembered student rabbis visiting the congregation during high holidays to hold services. Member of the congregation in the late 1950s and early 1960s offered Hebrew lessons through the services of Jacob Shore, a Penn State student from Williamsport. He was learned in Hebrew and helped prepared the congregation’s young boys for their bar mitzvahs. Elaine Navasky Ziff recalled traveling three days a week to State College for her children to attend Hebrew School and other events. She also enrolled in a night class about Jewish holidays. In the early 1970s, Bernard Navasky recalled re-tiling the ceiling of the synagogue and re-paneling the walls in preparation for his grandson, Chuck’s, confirmation service. After the service, everyone went to the State College Country Club to celebrate. In 1977, the bar mitzvah of Bernard’s grandson, Simon Ziff, was one of the last events held in the Sons of Israel synagogue in Philipsburg. He learned Hebrew in State College from Rabbi Eisenstat.

The nearly forty Jewish families in Philipsburg in the 1940s shrank to less than ten Jewish families by the 1980s. Bernard Navasky attributed this decline with the development of malls in State College and Altoona, which destroyed small businesses, which many Philipsburg Jewish community members were involved with. Around this time, he sold his outlet stores to maintain the upkeep of his factory storeroom in Philipsburg. During a Penn State football game in 1987, Elaine Navasky Ziff’s husband, Phil, ran into Chuck Stein, who was forming a new synagogue in Mentor, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. After learning about Philipsburg’s dwindling congregation, Chuck said their congregation would appreciate anything the Sons of Israel congregation would be able to pass on to them. A few weeks later, he arrived with several friends to transport Philipsburg’s ark, Eternal Light from above the bimah, the burgundy upholstered chairs from the altar, and the altar itself from the Philipsburg’s synagogue. The congregation donated their Torah to Brit Shalom in State College and Brit Shalom holds a yearly service in honor of the Philipsburg Jewish community for the donation.

Following the closure of the Sons of Israel synagogue, the remaining Philipsburg Jewish community began attending synagogue at either Brit Shalom in State College or Temple Beth Shalom in Clearfield. After the Temple Beth Shalom congregation in Clearfield disbanded in 2010, however, the remaining Philipsburg Jewish community members became members of Brit Shalom. Elaine Navasky Ziff and Marjorie Hurwitz, both Philipsburg Jewish community members, chose to attend services at Brit Shalom in State College following the closure of Brit Shalom. Marjorie, who is a native of Curwensville, Pennsylvania, but moved to Philipsburg after she married, recalled not knowing many of the State College Jewish community members as time passed, but would attend High Holiday services there or with her daughter in Pittsburgh.

 

Figure 6: The Sons of Israel Synagogue’s original ark, now located in a synagogue in Mentor, Ohio. Photograph from Elaine Navasky Ziff.

The Sons of Israel synagogue in Philipsburg, however, continued to be used for religious purposes in the 1990s. Annette Woodside Smith, who led the Conemaugh Baptist Congregation in Philipsburg, conducted services in the building for several years. After the congregation disbanded, however, they deeded the building back to Philipsburg’s remaining Jewish community. Eddy Navasky gave his son-in-law, Scott Taylor, the building to convert it into an apartment with the stipulation Scott donated to a Jewish organization every year. In the process, the synagogue’s stained-glass windows, which honored deceased family members, were removed. The former Sons of Israel synaogoue building continues to serve as an apartment today. After discovering the Jewish community’s JCC building was built on a spring, and its foundation were actively decaying, the building was closed and removed in the late 1990s.

 

Social Life

Elaine’s family, who moved from New York City to Philipsburg around 1938, found, to her mother’s surprise, “…a wonderful [Jewish] community there… [the] Stein and Jaffe [families] were closer to us than our family.” She fondly remembered her parent’s best friends as being like aunts and uncles. Elaine recalled that this older generation spoke Yiddish amongst themselves. Elaine, however, did not mention whether she learned Yiddish or spoke it at home with her parents.

Within the Philipsburg Jewish community, they had a chapter of B’nai Brith for male Jewish community members and a sisterhood for female members. In the JCC building, Elaine recalled the sisterhood hosting dish suppers on Sunday evenings and sponsoring events for local Jewish teenagers to mingle with one another. These socials included interaction with Jewish teenagers in State College, Bellefonte, Clearfield, and Dubois. Elaine remembered meeting and establishing a friendship with Janice Krauss, later Shapiro, from Bellefonte. Elaine believes Philipsburg hosted more of the local socials because they had one of the best social rooms in the region. In the 1950s, Elaine recalled her children also being part of the BBYO, B’nai B’rith Youth Organizations, in State College. Elaine noted that the younger generation of Jewish community members formed very close friendships with members of the Jewish community in State College.

 

Figure 7: B’nai B’rith Sports Banquet in 1986. Left to right: Eddie Navasky, Larry Holmes, Howard Letterman, and Bernard Navasky. Photograph from Bernard Navasky’s Suits to Nuts.

In Philipsburg, the social hall also served as a meeting place for the boy scouts and the sisterhood hosted rummage sales twice a year there. The local lodge of B’nai Brith hosted an annual Sports Banquet, which included guest speakers like Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, Penn State sports broadcaster Milton “Mickey” Bergstein, and Penn State Wrestling coach Rich Lorenzo. During the event, Elaine recalled, “Everyone looked forward to a meal of kosher hot dogs and corned beef sandwiches.” Even after the decline of Philipsburg’s Jewish community in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the sisterhood remained active and hosted events to bring together the dwindling congregation. Additionally, in town, the congregation used prominent businesses to celebrate important life events. Elaine noted, for example, many bar mitzvah celebrations, wedding receptions, and first dates were held at the Philips Hotel on Presqueisle Street.

 

Professional Endeavors

Of the one known Central European Jewish family in Philipsburg, the Schmidts, one of the sisters, Fannie Schmidt, began working as a sales lady for I. V. Gray at his dry goods store in the Gray Building at 103 East Presqueisle Street in Philipsburg around 1878. By 1892, Fannie left her job with I. V.  Gray to start a dry goods store, Fannie and Rosa Schmidt, and later F. & R. Schmidt’s, with her sister, Rosa, in the Foster building, located at the Foster Block from 2-8 North Front Street in Philipsburg. Following Fannie’s death in 1895, Rosa continued the business until at least 1917. Another sister of Rosa and Fannie, Bertha, clerked at the F. & R. Schmidt’s store during the busy seasons. Additionally, one of the Schmidt brothers, Solomon, moved from Bellefonte to Philipsburg in 1862 to clerk for his brother, Samuel’s, store. Solomon later opened a butcher store, H. & S. Schmidt, in Philipsburg with his brother, Henry. It is unknown where either the Samuel or H. & S. Schmidt store was located.

 

Figure 8: Advertisement for Fannie & Rosa Schmidt in Philipsburg. Advertisement from the Daily Journal.

While some of the early Eastern European Jewish community members in Philipsburg began their careers as peddlers, many eventually opened permanent stores or were involved in different business ventures. Benjamin Adelman, who immigrated to the U.S. from Russia around 1880, opened the A. & R. Department Store at the corner of Front and Spruce Streets in 1903 with his brother-in-law, Harry Ratowsky. The building, commonly referred to as “A&R,” sold clothing, furniture, and other goods. Morris Stein, who immigrated from Russia around 1907, began working as a peddler, but later worked for politicians. He delivered alcohol on behalf of politicians looking to secure the votes of town residents. After leaving Philipsburg in 1923 to open a butcher shop in Altoona, he returned to Philipsburg to work as a fruit store merchant.

Morris’ son, Lewis Stein, began his career as an employee at the A. & R. Department Store and later started his own company, Elliot Coal Company, which mined coal during the Second World War. The company developed new techniques and methods in strip mining, reforestation, and backfilling. It was one of the suppliers for Niagara Mohawk Power, Long Island Lighting, and PP&L. Lewis also founded the Stein Construction Company, Philipsburg Builder Supply, and the Elliot Overseas Corporation, the latter of which imported gold saris and ivory figurines to the U.S. from India. Lewis was also one of the founders of the Philipsburg Association of Commerce, which brought General Cigar, Sylvania, and McGregor Manufacturing to Philipsburg to lessen the decline of the coal industry on the town’s economy and employment. Lewis’ brother, Samuel, attended the University of Pittsburgh through the support of Harry Ratowsky, who agreed to pay for Sam’s college education if he studied dentistry and returned to Philipsburg to practice. In 1932, Sam graduated from Pitt and returned to Philipsburg, where he opened his own dental practice at the corner of Laurel and Front Streets.

 

Figure 9: Finberg Building at 200 North Front Street, the former location of the Finberg’s Men’s Store. Photograph from the Centre Daily Times.

Louis Finberg, a Russian immigrant who arrived in the U.S. around 1900, worked as a clothing merchant and dry goods merchant in Philipsburg. He opened a storefront at 200 North Front Street for the Finberg’s Men’s Store in an unknown year, where both of his sons worked as clerks. The Finberg family were also involved in the coal industry and owned several real estate properties, including his storefront on North Front Street, which still bears the name Finberg. Louis’ brother, Isaac, immigrated to the U.S. in 1916. His daughter, Ann Finberg, married Jake Hurwitz of Karthaus, a town in Clearfield County, who opened the Hurwitz Furniture & Appliance Store at 18 North Front Street, the former location of the Dollar General, in Philipsburg. Ann and Jake’s children, Edsel and Alfred, developed the large swampland at the edge of Philipsburg into the Ames Plaza, now known as the Peeble’s Plaza.

Members of Philipsburg’s Jewish community expanded beyond the boundaries of Philipsburg. A prominent Philipsburg Jewish family, the Isenbergs, were from Houtzdale, Pennsylvania, a town located about 10 miles southwest of Philipsburg in Clearfield County. According to the Rauh Jewish Archive at the Heinz History Center, Houtzdale chartered a Jewish congregation, Sons of Israel, in April of 1874, but little is known about it (Click here to read more about Houtzdale’s Jewish community). Unable to support a congregation for long, the rather small Jewish community of Houtzdale began attending religious services in other towns, primarily Philipsburg or Tyrone. Isaac “Ike” Isenberg, immigrated to the U.S. from Russia in 1905 with his family, a wife and two children, joining him in 1911. He owned and operated three farms in the Brisbin area along with the Houtzdale Wholesale Produce Company and the Dubois Wholesale Produce Company in Houtzdale and Dubois, respectively. He and his sons distributed produce throughout Central Pennsylvania. Their largest clients were Penn State University’s food services. The businesses operated for over 50 years until the mid-1960s. Another Jewish community member, Walter Levine, moved to Philipsburg around 1948, but operated a scrap metal business in State College. An active supporter of Penn State Athletics, he was eventually honored by Penn State for being one of the founders of the Nittany Lion Club.

Simon Ziff, who immigrated to Philipsburg following his sister, Annie, and his son-in-law, Louis Jaffe, worked as a peddler in the early twentieth century. By 1920, Simon worked as a retail merchant of dry goods and in 1930 he owned property with his brother-in-law at 210 North Front Street, where Simon operated the Ziff Economy Store. Of the Garfinkle family, second-generation American Charlie, son of Philip Garfinkle, owned and operated a ladies dress shop, the Rite Style Shop, on the 200-block on North Front Street, near the former Grattan’s Pharmacy.

 

Figure 9: Eddie Navasky with Sammy Davis, Jr., one of the prominent endorsers of Charles Navasky Co. & Inc. Photograph from the Bernard Navasky’s Suits to Nuts.

Bernard Navasky was the son of Charles Navasky, a clothing manufacturer in New York City. After his father was beat up due to his refusal to unionize, the family decided to relocate. Philipsburg was chosen because Bernard and Charles knew the owners of a clothing manufacturing firm, Quaker Tex Clothes, located in Philipsburg and as the business began failing, Bernard offered to take it over. Located at 124 Walton Street, the former location of a candy factory, Bernard named the business the Philipsburg Sportswear Company. It later became known as the Charles Navasky Co. & Inc. The company employed more than 600 people at its peak and operate thirteen outlet stores in Central Pennsylvania from Allentown to Indiana, Pennsylvania. Elaine’s brother, Eddy Navasky, continued the family business and with the endorsement of Sammy Davis Jr., a prominent African American singer, dancer, actor, producer, and director, the clothing company rapidly grew as a major supplier for men’s ware within African American communities. Eddy remained the head of the company until his death in November of 2010. His daughters continue the business today.

Additional Jewish-owned businesses included Morris Berger’s tire company in Chester Hill, Don Bresnick’ Peanut Shop on Front Street, and the Parksy family operated a clothing store between Front and Second Streets. Other Jewish businesses in Philipsburg included Hurwitz Hardware, the Betty Jay Shop, Goldberg’s Ladies Shop, Selbst’s Variety Store, Ester Landy’s Vogue Dress Shop, and Sam’s Furniture. Other notable Jewish community members included Leonard Strohl, who served as a Justice of the Peace, and Mel Neumann, who served as the manager of the General Cigar factory.

Sons of Israel Hebrew Cemetery (1899-Present)

On February 28, 1895, the Centre County Court of Common Please granted a charter to the Philipsburg Hebrew Association. The charter stated the organization’s mission as, “…[associating] themselves together for the purpose of founding a congregation to worship God according [to] the doctrine and usages of the Hebrew faith and to provide a cemetery, to be conducted without profit for the burial of those of the Hebrew faith…” The members, all residents of Philipsburg, included: Benjamin Adelman, S. W. Wright, Sander Gilfand, Morris Brendman, D. Abramson, Jacob Press, A. Markowitz, Gilbert Locks, Julius Davidson, Samuel Ratowsky, Jacob Snyder, John Snyder, E. Snyder, B. Zigler, B. Cramer, Chas. Zigler, Barney Ratowsky, and Abe Robinson. The first trustees of the association were Samuel Ratowsky, Abraham Robinson, and David Abramson.

 

 

Figure 11: The location of Sons of Israel Cemetery in Philipsburg. Map from Cemeteries of Rush Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania.

The Philipsburg Hebrew Association purchased one acre of land for $175.00 from R. D. Showalter on June 15, 1897, for the purpose of creating a Jewish cemetery. Later named the Sons of Israel Hebrew Cemetery, it adjoins the larger Philipsburg Cemetery, in which a chain-link fence separates the two cemeteries. Two pillars exist at the front of the cemetery with a gate between them. Elaine Navasky Ziff believes the pillars were erected in the 1940s because the bricks used in the pillars match those used in the building of the social rooms of the congregation, which were built in the 1940s. The left pillar reads: “Sons of Israel Congregation.” The right pillar reads: “Hebrew Cemetery, 1899.” The cemetery, which remains active, has more than 120 graves. A few of the earliest graves include infant Solomon Reuban Brandman and an unnamed infant child of Benjamin Adelman, who both died in 1899. The next oldest grave is of the teenager Olga Garfinkel, who died in 1900. The Philipsburg Cemetery Corporation maintains the cemetery’s upkeep.

 

Figure 12: One of the pillars outside the Sons of Israel Cemetery. Photographed by Lisa Sennett.

 

Figure 13: One of the pillars outside the Sons of Israel Cemetery. Photographed by Lisa Sennett.

 

Figure 14: The Star of David, which originally hung outside of the Sons of Israel Synagogue, now hangs inside the Sons of Israel Cemetery. Photographed by Lisa Sennett.

Aside from the connections between Philipsburg’s known Central European Jewish family, the Schmidts, and Bellefonte as well as several of Philipsburg’s Jewish community members attending synagogue at Brit Shalom in State College following the disbanding of Sons of Israel in the 1990s, there is little overlap between Philipsburg and other Central Pennsylvania Jewish communities researched in this project. The Jewish community of Philipsburg appeared to engage more with Clearfield County Jewish communities, like Houtzdale and Clearfield, than Jewish communities in Centre and Clinton Counties.

While Lock Haven, Bellefonte, and State College all have a dedication or anniversary book produced by their congregations and Aaronsburg has a couple books written entirely about the town’s Jewish founder and the Aaronsburg Story, the most robust document about Philipsburg’s Jewish history is Elaine Navasky Ziff’s speech about Jewish Philipsburg from the Philipsburg’s Historical Foundation dinner in 2015. This chapter has a heavy bias on the Navasky-Ziff family because the two main documents used are written by Elaine Navasky Ziff and her father, Bernard Navasky. With few Philipsburg Jewish community members remaining, only two Jews currently live in Philipsburg, and a limited number of documents about Philipsburg’s Jewish history exist, I believe the Jewish history of Philipsburg is the most vulnerable of all the towns in the research project to be lost.

Figures

Figure 1: A. Pomeroy & Co., Philipsburg map, 1874, Atlas of Centre County, Pennsylvania: from actual surveys via the Pennsylvania State University Libraries, https://digital.libraries.psu.edu/digital/collection/maps1/id/25454.

Figure 2: Casey Sennett, Schmidt Sisters Gate, personal photograph, March 29, 2023.

Figure 3: Nolan, Sons of Israel Synagogue, 2007, photograph, in The Synagogues of Central and Western Pennsylvania: A Visual History by Julian H. Preisler, 33. Stroud: Fonthill Publishing, 2014.

Figure 4: Sunday School Students at Black Moshannon, c. 1946-1947, photograph, in “A History of The Jewish Community of Philipsburg, PA” by Elaine Navasky Ziff. Philipsburg Historical Foundation Dinner, October 7, 2015.

Figure 5: Confirmation Class, 1951, photograph. In “A History of The Jewish Community of Philipsburg, PA” by Elaine Navasky Ziff.

Figure 6: Sons of Israel Ark, n.d., photograph. In “A History of The Jewish Community of Philipsburg, PA” by Elaine Navasky Ziff. Philipsburg Historical Foundation Dinner, October 7, 2015.

Figure 7: B’nai B’rith Sports Banquet, 1986, photograph. In Suits to Nuts by Bernard Navasky. Owings Mills, MD: Watermark Press, 1991.

Figure 8: Fannie & Rosa Schmidt, 1895, advertisement, Daily Journal, November 18, 1895.

Figure 9: Finberg Building, 2019, photograph, in “Shindig Alley to Host Reopening at New Location,” Centre Daily Times, November 26, 2019, https://www.centredaily.com/news/business/article237746104.html.

Figure 10: B’nai B’rith Sports Banquet, 1986, photograph, in Suits to Nuts by Bernard Navasky. Owings Mills, MD: Watermark Press, 1991.

Figure 11: Philipsburg Jewish Cemetery Map, 2010, map, in Cemeteries of Rush Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania, by Centre County Genealogical Society. State College: Centre County Genealogical Society, 2010.

Figure 12: Lisa Sennett, Left Pillar: Sons of Israel Congregation, personal photograph, March 31, 2023.

Figure 13: Lisa Sennett, Right Pillar: Hebrew Cemetery 1899, personal photograph, March 31, 2023.

Figure 14: Lisa Sennett, Star of David, personal photograph, March 31, 2023.

 

Works Cited

Centre County Genealogical Society. The Cemeteries of Rush Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania. State College: Centre County Genealogical Society, 2010.

Houser, Justin. Interviewed in person by author. February 12, 2022.

Hurwitz, Marjorie. Interviewed in person by author. March 26, 2022.

McGeehan, Debra Schnarrs and Dennis McGeehan. Images of America: Around Philipsburg. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2016.

Navasky, Bernard. Suits to Nuts: The Author’s Life Story about the Clothing Industry in America and the Phenomena of Psychics, Mediums and Healing Hands. Owings Mills, MD: Watermark Press, 1991.

“Olga Garfinkel.” Find A Grave, n.d. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/117264853/olga-garfinkel.

Ostrich, Rabbi David. Interviewed via phone by author. February 1, 2022.

“Philipsburg Borough, Pennsylvania.” Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, n.d. https://www.achp.gov/preserve-america/community/philipsburg-borough-pennsylvania#:~:text=Philipsburg%20Borough%2C%20Pennsylvania%2C%20(population,the%20western%20slope%20of%20the.

“SCHMIDT.” Democratic Watchman, January 26, 1917.

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