SCRANTON

SCRANTON, city in N.E. Pennsylvania, U.S.; county seat of Lackawanna County. The earliest Jews, who came to Scranton before the Civil War, lived in Wilkes-Barre, where a synagogue existed, and came to Scranton to peddle their wares. Scranton grew because of the large coal fields located nearby. Many immigrants, just after the Civil War, were brought to the area just to become miners. The Jews came to open stores and businesses. By 1860 there were enough Jews who had settled in the city so that they could form their own congregation, "Anshei Hesed." The synagogue was actually incorporated in 1862. Itinerant rabbis assisted them throughout the war. In 1866 a property was purchased on Linden Street. Just prior to Passover in 1867, on a Friday afternoon, the synagogue building was dedicated with great fanfare in the city. The guest speaker was Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise, then a rabbi in Cincinnati. A few years later when he founded the Reform movement in America with a rabbinical school, HUC, and a congregational arm, UAHC, "Anshei Hesed" was one of the first congregations to affiliate. Rabbis served two functions in Scranton – first as the spiritual leader and second as the Jewish educator. At times the rabbi even led a school in German and English, teaching both secular and religious subjects. In 1869 the Amos lodge of B'nai B'rith was founded with 18 members. The lodge still exists and holds two annual events of substance. One honors a local Jewish leader; the second has become most noteworthy as the Americanism Award Dinner. Over the 40 years of its existence until 2005, the award was given to leading citizens of the community, including Governor William Scranton, a Scranton native. Even before the major Eastern European immigration started, Hungarian Jews began to find their way to Scranton as early as 1877. The first Orthodox synagogue was founded in 1886 by Hungarian Jews and was located in the "Flats," where the immigrant population of Jews, Irish, Italians, and Polish lived. The "Flats" became a major center of the Jewish community until the synagogues, butcher shops, and Hebrew schools were flooded out in 1956.   The second Orthodox synagogue formed was located in downtown Scranton and included Lithuanian and Russian Jews, who prayed differently than their Hungarian brethren. That synagogue was listed in the first volume of the American Jewish Yearbook as established in 1895. When the wealthier Reform Jews began to move to the Hill section, they built a new synagogue in that area and became "Temple Hesed." Their original building was sold to a new Orthodox group and was renamed the "Linden Street Synagogue." Several fascinating tales about the building are recorded in a book by A.B. Cohen. In 1907 a young, brilliant yeshivah graduate got a job in Scranton at the local Montefiore School. His name was Harry Wolfson and he became a legend in America Jewish academia. Within a few months he completed grammar school. By the time he graduated Central High School in Scranton in 1910, he had earned the right to be the valedictorian and had also been awarded a four-year scholarship to Harvard College. Once Wolfson entered Harvard he never left, ultimately being given the Littauer Chair, the first Judaica chair in an American university. Wolfson had a soft spot in his heart for Scranton, maintaining ties with people whom he had met during his three years in the community. The Jewish community of Scranton grew rapidly before World War I. One noted rabbi who served the "Linden Street Synagogue" was Wolf Gold. After moving to New York, Gold was very active in Mizrachi and became the head of America Mizrachi before making aliyah in the 1930s. When Israel became a state on May 14 1948, Gold was in Jerusalem because of the siege. He could not attend the signing of Israel's Declaration of Independence in Tel Aviv, but space was left for him and two others. He and Golda Meir are the only American signatories on that monumental document in Israel's history. Shortly after World War I, led by M.L. Goodman, a Scranton news baron, a Conservative synagogue, Temple Israel, was founded in 1921. The synagogue benefited from the great interest of the leadership in Jewish education. In 1923 Louis Wolf was hired to be a teacher. The following year Dr. Max Arzt became the rabbi of Temple Israel. Between the two, Temple Israel created one of the most outstanding afternoon Hebrew schools complemented by a Junior Congregation, which became a model for Conservative synagogues throughout the U.S. At Temple Israel Arzt produced an outstanding weekly bulletin, gave excellent sermons on the topics of the day rooted in traditional sources, and made it quite clear what a synagogue-center could accomplish. In the early 1930s, Scranton Jewry grew to 8,000 and then its numbers began to diminish. With clothing factories, needlework trade and other industrial plants, Scranton Jews made it possible for Scranton itself to have sufficient employment in 1935 for 135,000 people. Arzt left in 1939 to become the vice chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary. His students continue to remember him and his talented educator Louis Wolf. Following World War II, during which 1,200 Scranton Jews served, Temple Israel grew dramatically, with a Hebrew school of 375 at its peak. The rabbi, Simon Shoop, who served from 1949 to 1990, led the congregation to become the most traditional Conservative synagogue in North America. Shoop, who had a doctorate, was one of the first to teach courses on the Holocaust, which he initiated at the University of Scranton and Marywood University, both Catholic schools. Among Shoop's students was Professor Michael Brown, a Jewish historian at York University in Canada, and Professor Mark Harris of the USC film school, who won three Oscars for documentary films, including The Long Way Home and The Kindertransport. Another student of the Shoop era, Ralph Levy, has invented many toys including the talking "Furby." A most fascinating personality arrived in Scranton from Baltimore in 1955. His name was Harry Weinberg, and he had bought all the bonds of the Scranton Transit Company, which had been on strike for over 300 days. Weinberg, without any formal education, was an entrepreneur in the most exciting way. During his decade in Scranton, he bought almost a quarter of million dollars of real estate in the city. His love was for transit companies. He bought the Dallas Transit company and other companies in the West. He also bought the Fifth Avenue Bus Company, even though the mayor of New York said that he would not let Weinberg run it. Within a week in the early 1960s, Weinberg made over a million dollars when he had to sell. He was actually looking at Hawaii as a real center for financial growth. First, he purchased the Honolulu Transit Company. Once he saw the possibilities in that area, he moved to Hawaii. From 1966 until 1989, Harry Weinberg became the largest landholder in Hawaii. His fortune began to grow and his main interest was in creating a major foundation. By the time of his death in 1991 the Jeanette and Harry Weinberg Foundation was worth almost a billion dollars. Just before his death he promised the University of Scranton 6 million dollars for a new library building and for a Chair of Jewish Studies. The library was completed in 1992 and the Jesuits all call it the Weinberg library. Professor Marc Shapiro holds the Weinberg Judaica chair. Since 1980 there has been a definite change in Scranton, as Temple Hesed and Temple Israel have grown smaller. The Orthodox community is led by the Lakewood Yeshiva branch in Scranton. Rabbi Moshe Fine, a rabbi in the community for 27 years, has built the Orthodox community through his teaching, his determined leadership, and his pastoral skills. There were about 3,000 Jews in Scranton in 2005; almost half were Orthodox Jews. In 2002 Rabbi David Geffen of Temple Israel received agreement from Father McShane, president of the University of Scranton, for an exhibit on the history of the Jews of Scranton to be mounted at the university. The exhibit was held in the spring and summer of 2004, curated by Arnine Weiss, a noted educator. Scranton thus participated in the 350-year celebration of the Jews' arrival in New Amsterdam. (David Geffen (2nd ed.)