Natrona

Natrona, Pa. was established in the 1850s as a company town for the Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Company. The unincorporated community in Harrison Township was an important transportation hub starting in the mid-19th century, with canal and railroad stops.

A few Jewish families settled in Natrona in the early 20th century, including the Friedman, Kremer, Jaffe, Perr, Scholnick and Wechsler families. The Jewish community was never large enough to support independent institutions or organizations and generally partnered with the larger Jewish communities in nearby Tarentum, Pa. and New Kensington, Pa. The three towns started a Hebrew Ladies Aid Society by 1915, a social club known as the Omri Club by 1915 and a Hebrew War Relief Association in 1919. As the smallest of the three towns, the Jewish community in Natrona generally relied on religious schools and synagogues in Tarentum and Natrona. The only available population figure for the community comes from the 1940-1941 edition of the American Jewish Yearbook, which counted 77 people in Birdville, Creighton and Natrona.