Connellsville Drum and Bugle Corps
The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
Connellsville, Pa. was incorporated as a township in 1793 and as a borough in 1806. It merged with nearby New Haven in 1909 and became a city in 1911. The area around Connellsville in Fayette County experienced a large increase in population in the 1880s with the development of the Connellsville Coalfield and the local production of coke.
According to a community history from 1919, the first Jewish families in Connellsville arrived before heavy industry reached the area. Anecdotal evidence recalled a Jewish man named Gustav Boasch (or Basck) who had briefly settled in Connellsville before 1859. The Goldsmith family also settled in the Connellsville area by the late 1850s.
By the turn of the 20th century, the local Jewish population had grown large enough to support communal institutions. A group of families in Connellsville and New Haven chartered B’nai Israel Congregation about 1898. The early Jewish community had both liberal and traditional contingents, each attracting the attention of Jewish communal leaders in Pittsburgh. In 1890, Rabbi Moshe Shimon Sivitz of Shaare Torah Congregation (Orthodox) sent the newly immigrated Rabbi Jacob Goldfarb to Connellsville. A month later, Rabbi Goldfarb was transferred to nearby Washington, where he remained for 50 years. In 1901, Rabbi Michael Fried of Tree of Life Congregation (Conservative) traveled to Connellsville to establish a Jewish Religious Society and an associated religious school. By 1903, the society counted some 40 members. Whether the society and its school were associated with B’nai Israel is unclear from reports. In bylaws written about 1908, B’nai Israel described its denomination as being “conservative-orthodox,” which suggests some accommodation between various factions within the community.
B’nai Israel Congregation acquired a building and a neighboring lot at 434 N. Pittsburg St. from the United Presbyterian Church in 1910 and converted it into a synagogue. The congregation extensively renovated the building in the mid-1950s into the Connellsville Jewish Community Center. With the switch, the synagogue building increasingly served a social function within the local Jewish community, and local Jewish families often travelled to nearby communities for religious functions such as prayer and education.
The Jewish community of Connellsville founded B’nai B’rith Lodge No. 508 in 1901, but the lodge appears to have disbanded over the following decade. As part of a regional canvassing campaign in 1916, Richard Rauh and Edward Hemple established the B’nai B’rith Tri-Town Lodge No. 1231 in Connellsville, Mt. Pleasant, and Scottdale.
By 1919, a group of Jewish women in Connellsville had joined with women in nearby Uniontown to start a local chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women. The chapter oversaw a local religious school under the auspices of the Southwestern District of Pennsylvania Jewish Religious Schools program. The Connellsville Council of Jewish Women is also credited with initiating the remodel of the synagogue in the early 1950s.
Spiritual leaders of Congregation B’nai Israel of Connellsville include Rabbi Rosenson, Rev. Samuel Strauss (1911 to 1918), and Rabbi Kurt Metzger, among others.
| Type | Year | Population | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total population [Connellsville] | 1860 | 996 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Connellsville] | 1870 | 1,292 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Connellsville] | 1880 | 3,609 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Connellsville] | 1890 | 5,629 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Connellsville] | 1900 | 7,160 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Connellsville] | 1910 | 12,845 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Jewish population [Connellsville] | 1919 | 383 | American Jewish Yearbook, Vol. 21 [1919-1920] |
| Jewish population [Connellsville] | 1919 | 75 families | Jewish Criterion [May 23, 1919] |
| Total population [Connellsville] | 1920 | 13,804 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Jewish population [Connellsville] | 1927 | 100 | American Jewish Yearbook, Vol. 30 [1928-1929] |
| Total population [Connellsville] | 1930 | 13,290 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Jewish population [Connellsville] | 1937 | 150 | American Jewish Yearbook, Vol. 42 [1940-1941] |
| Total population [Connellsville] | 1940 | 13,608 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Connellsville] | 1950 | 13,293 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Jewish population [Connellsville] | 1951 | 160 | American Jewish Yearbook, Vol. 52 [1951] |
| Total population [Connellsville] | 1960 | 12,814 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Connellsville] | 1970 | 11,643 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Connellsville] | 1980 | 10,319 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Jewish population [Connellsville] | 1984 | 110 | American Jewish Yearbook, Vol. 84 [1984] |
| Total population [Connellsville] | 1990 | 9,229 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Connellsville] | 2000 | 9,146 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Connellsville] | 2010 | 7,637 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Connellsville] | 2020 | 7,031 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
Families known to be associated with the Jewish community of Connellsville include: Abromvitz, Adler, Altman, Applebaum, Baker, Balber, Berezofsky, Berger, Berkofsky, Bloom, Boyer, Brill, Buchmann, Callet, Charapp, Cohen, Corman, Daniels, Dates, Davis, Diamond, Donshefsky, Drexler, Ekstein, Elpern, Engel, Exler, Farber, Farber-Glantz, Feiinberg, Flamm, Foltzer, Frank, Friedlander, Glantz, Glicenstein, Goldberg, Goody, Gordon, Grossman, Halden, Harris, Hitowitz, Hochberg, Hoyt, Introligator, Jacobson, Jurczyk, Kahanowitz, Kamerman, Karelitz, Kaufman, Kay, Laufe, Lefkowitz, Levine, Levy, Liebman, Lipman, Loundy, Lurie, Mace, Magadof, Markowitz, Mervis, Miller, Mistroff, Moidel, Moldovan, Mullen, Neumann, Nevins, Olesker, Pomerance, Pavloff, Pomerance, Pomerantz, Pretter, Quint, Rabinowitz, Redlich, Robinowitz, Rose, Rubensein, Rubin, Schendowich, Schindowich, Schultz, Schwartz, Scott, Shapiro, Shendow, Shirey, Shoff, Shofnosky, Shor, Shrager, Sine, Solof, Solomon, Soltz, Stein, Sucatzky, Vance, Weber, Werblin, Wolf, Wolfe, Wolinsky, Young, Zakowitz, Ziff, Ziskind, and Zober.
Edgar J. Kaufmann briefly operated a store in Connellsville after graduating from Yale University and working in Europe. There is no known record of his participation in the local Jewish community before returning to Pittsburgh in 1909 to work for his family.
