"To Dedicate New Synagogue"
The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
Kehilath Jeshurun Congregation was located in the upper Hill District of Pittsburgh, a neighborhood sometimes called Sugartop, Herron Hill, or Schenley Heights.
Kehilath Jeshurun (also spelled Koyhalet Yishurin) began sometime in the late 1920s. It appears to have briefly occupied a building at 716 Anaheim St. It purchased and renovated the former Temple Lutheran Church at 815 Anaheim St. in March 1930.
Kehilath Jeshurun described itself as “modern Orthodox” and promoted services for Jewish youth in the area. Shortly after opening its new synagogue, the congregation hired Rabbi Jacob Joseph Hurvitz of Torath Chaim Congregation to launch Yeshivath Rabbi Jacob Joseph, described as a “rabbinical college” for Talmud study. The school closed after a few months. In 1938, Kehilath Jeshurun organized a religious school under the auspices of the Southwestern District of Pennsylvania Jewish Religious Schools Program.
The Kehilath Jeshurun synagogue building was marketed in a sheriff’s sale in 1937 but the listing appears to have been withdrawn before a sale occurred.[1]Kehilath Jeshurun sale notice, Pittsburgh Press, Jan. 9, 1937 (online—Newspapers.com). The congregation was still active in 1940 when the Works Progress Administration conducted its Church Archives Survey.[2]Kehilath Jeshurun, WPA Church Archives Survey (see Ancestry.com). The congregation applied for a permit in 1947 to conduct interior renovations at its synagogue but discontinued operations over the next few years.[3]Kehilath Jeshurun permit notice, Pittsburgh Press, Mar. 26, 1947 (online—Newspapers.com).
