I lived in West Philadelphia for three years in the early 1970s while attending law school and still think about the city. Philadelphia has a large Jewish community, but the subject of this book, the Jewish Community of South Philadelphia was almost entirely gone and had moved to other neighborhoods well before my law school years. And law school kept me busy indeed. I had some familiarity with the area and recognized some of the places in this book, "The Jewish Community of South Philadelphia" (1998). The author, Allen Meyers, was raised in the community. He has written several books about Jewish communities in Philadelphia and New Jersey together with books about Philadelphia trolleys and streetcars, He knows and loves the material in this book and brought this historical community to life. The book is part of the Images of America Series of photographic local histories of the many communities in the United States.
"The Jewish Community of South Philadelphia" offers a varied treatment of a community which at its height in the 1920s numbered about 125,000 people , The community was formed by the wave of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe beginning about 1880 seeking a better life in the United States. The first chapter of this book describes the immigration process to Philadelphia, which had its own immigration station along the Delaware River, similar to the much more famous Ellis Island.
The remaining ten chapters of the book offer perspectives on immigrant life in South Philadelphia that helped create a cohesive community for the new Americans. The book shows people to different degrees trying to keep their old customs while becoming Americans and adopting to their new home and the opportunities it provided. The book deals with broad areas of community life while offering some wonderfully particular views of people, places, businesses, and synagogues.
The second chapter of the book shows the "Landsmanschaften Organizations" which formed quickly to smooth the way for new comers. A chapter deals with Jewish cemetries followed by a chapter of Philadelphia trolleys which helped the community to expand from South Philadelphia to the rest of the city and beyond. (Like the author, I love old trolleys and street cars). The book shows, and lists, the variety of small businesses and shops in the community. I was moved by this as I remembered my family's own small clothing business in Milwaukee. The book shows in two chapters places where community members would go for vacations and to unwind. A chapter deals with education and schools, secular and religious. A chapter in the book focuses on indviduals who called South Philadelphia home, including sports figures, singers, artists, physicians, and community leaders. The final and most moving chapter of the book offered a look at some of the many synagogues that once served the area. Almost all these synagogues are no more. A few of the synagogues managed to survive into the late 1970s and early 1980s, shortly after my own years in Philadelphia. It would have been good, in retrospect, to have seen them. Meyers has written a large unpublished manuscript on Philadelphia synagogues which I think would be valuable to have in print. Much of the material in such a book and in this book on South Philadelphia is not readily available and deserves to be preserved.
I was moved reading about the history of the Jewish community in a city where I lived and came to love. I though about how the members of the community loved our country, worked hard to become Americans, and also tried to preserve something of their own traditions. I thought about other Jewish communities in places where I have lived, about similarities and differences, and about the promise of American life.
