Temple Beth Shalom Sisterhood
The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
Clearfield, Pa. was settled in the early 19th century and incorporated as a borough in 1840, when it was named the county seat of Clearfield County. The region became a center of lumber and coal activity as industrial operations began moving materials along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River.
A few Jewish families in Clearfield organized B’nai Levi-House of Jacob Congregation in 1917, according to a directory listing in the 1919-1920 edition of the American Jewish Yearbook. The Jewish populationof the borough grew in the decade after the congregation was founded. The American Jewish Yearbook listed a population of 68 in its 1918-1919 edition and a population of 150 in its 1928-1929 edition. By the 1940-1941 edition of the yearbook, the Jewish population of Clearfield had fallen to 50. The original B’nai Levi-House of Jacob Congregation appears to have been dissolved at some point after 1937. A new group organized the Clearfield Jewish Council as early as 1946. The congregation acquired and renovated an old Pennsylvania Telephone Company building at 110 East Locust St. in 1949 and obtained a charter in 1950. The group changed its name to Temple Beth Shalom in 1965. The congregation established a cemetery within the Crown Crest Memorial Park between Curwensville, Pa. and Hyde, Pa. The earliest burial date in the cemetery appears to be 1966. Temple Beth Shalom closed around 2010, sold its synagogue building to Clearfield Arts Studio Theatre, Inc. and merged with Congregation Brit Shalom in State College, Pa.
