Beth Israel Congregation
The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
Latrobe was incorporated as a borough in 1854 and as a city in 1999. The population grew rapidly through the end of the 19th century, as Latrobe became a transportation hub in Westmoreland County.
The first Jewish residents in Latrobe were peddlers and merchants who left before establishing communal institutions. The 1850 census includes Fanny Grabenheim, who had originally immigrated to Youngstown, Pa., from Aldingen, present-day Germany, in 1840 with her children, three brothers and brother-in-law, according to research by Dr. Stefan Rohrbacher. The family later moved to New Jersey. The brothers Henry and Marx Fellheimer immigrated to Latrobe from Ichenhausen, Bavaria, in present-day Germany, in 1864. Henry Fellheimer started a clothing store at the corner of Depot and Ligonier Streets and employed his younger brother. His wife Henrietta Geisenberg Fellheimer was a milliner. The local Democratic Party elected Henry Fellheimer as an assistant burgess.
Although other Jewish immigrants joined the Fellheimer family in the 1870s and 1880s, the Jewish community in Latrobe lacked institutions until the 1890s, when immigrants from Eastern Europe settled in the area. A small group gathered informally as early as 1898, according to a 1919 history of the community in the Jewish Criterion. They formally chartered Beth Israel Congregation in 1906, according to community memory.
In 1906 or 1907, the congregation built a synagogue on a small plot of land on Miller Street donated by scrap dealer Harry Tapolsky and his wife Lena. It was a square frame building, painted gray, with at least one stained glass window. All 21 charter members lived nearby in the First Ward of the city, which was colloquially known as “Jew Town.” There were also a few Jewish families at the time that lived “uptown,” in the Third Ward of the city. These included the Lowenstein family, which owned a department store.
The small Jewish community in Latrobe formed several organizations based out of the Miller Street synagogue. In 1914, Jewish high school students and recent graduates created the co-educational Young Hebrew Association, which was devoted primarily to discussing Jewish literature. It evolved into a more traditional Young Men’s Hebrew Association but soon disbanded. Miriam K. Arnold helped organize the National Council of Jewish Women-Latrobe Section in 1919 with Fannie Lowenstein as president. The following year, the group invited Miriam Schoenfield of the National Council of Jewish Women-Pittsburgh Section to form a religious school in Latrobe. The school eventually became associated with the emerging Southwestern District of Pennsylvania Jewish Religious Schools Program in 1923. Over the years, the Latrobe religious school served Jewish students from surrounding small towns, including Blairsville, Derry, and Ligonier.
Without a full-time rabbi, Beth Israel Congregation was led by congregants throughout the year and supplemented by rabbinic leadership from Greenberg and Jeannette—and sometimes even as far away as Johnstown and Charleroi—for special occasions such as weddings, funerals, confirmations, and holiday services. Latrobe never established an independent cemetery, although a section of the cemetery of B’nai Israel Congregation (later Congregation Emanuel Israel) was informally dedicated for Latrobe residents.
By the late 1930s, the local Jewish community in Latrobe was struggling. A fire in 1932 destroyed most of its records, and the synagogue was only used for holidays, according to report from the WPA Church Archives Survey. “At the present time there is no congregation,” the WPA surveyor reported in 1939, citing congregant Harry Tapolsky. “Church is only used on Holidays. The congregation has dwindled down to nothing.”
By the early 1950s, the members of Beth Israel Congregation wanted “a new, larger and more modern plant suitable for catering to both our religious and social needs,” as congregant Louis Goldman described it a community history from 1957. Beth Israel dedicated a new synagogue on Weldon Street in November 1954. The one-story building included a sanctuary with seating for 85, and a social hall and kitchen with service for at least 100. The dedication weekend included addresses from Rabbi Morris Herzlich of Charleroi, Rabbi Nathan Kollin of Johnstown, and Rabbi Joseph Levine of Greenburg.
As part of the decision to build a synagogue, Beth Israel Congregation also shifted its denominational status and officially joined the Conservative movement. The congregation also began holding confirmations services in Latrobe for the first time.
Even though the new synagogue included a rabbinic study, Beth Israel remained lay-led after the move. The congregation generally held Sabbath services every other week during the year and as needed to accommodate members who wanted to recite the kaddish prayer said on the anniversary of the death of a loved ones. For the High Holidays, the congregation hired student or travelling rabbis. Among these was Rabbi Jack Maza, who led High Holidays services in Latrobe in 1955 and 1956. He later changed his name to Jackie Mason and became a popular stand-up comedian. In 1958, the study was partially converted into a lending library, endowed by the Berkosky family.
Beth Israel maintained a Sisterhood and a Men’s Club within its walls. For participation in other communal organizations, the Jewish residents of Latrobe often joined with larger Jewish communities in nearby towns, particularly those in the county seat of Greensburg to the west. These included B’nai B’rith Warren Roy Laufe Lodge No. 903 and the Westmoreland Jewish Community Council. In the late 1960s, congregations in Greensburg, Mt. Pleasant, and Latrobe formed the Joint Conservative Sunday School.
Even with the declining membership throughout the late 20th century, Beth Israel Congregation continued to hold regular services. The congregation completed a major renovation of the synagogue in 1994. The congregation officially closed in 2015, donating its synagogue building to the Latrobe Area Historical Society.
| Type | Year | Population | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total population [Latrobe] | 1860 | 758 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Latrobe] | 1870 | 1,127 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Latrobe] | 1880 | 1,815 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Latrobe] | 1890 | 3,589 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Latrobe] | 1900 | 4,614 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Latrobe] | 1910 | 8,777 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Jewish population [Latrobe] | 1919 | 87 | American Jewish Yearbook, Vol. 21 [1919-1920] |
| Total population [Latrobe] | 1920 | 9,484 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Jewish population [Latrobe] | 1927 | 100 | American Jewish Yearbook, Vol. 30 [1928-1929] |
| Total population [Latrobe] | 1930 | 10,644 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Jewish population [Latrobe] | 1937 | 100 | American Jewish Yearbook, Vol. 42 [1940-1941] |
| Total population [Latrobe] | 1940 | 11,111 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Latrobe] | 1950 | 11,811 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Jewish population [Latrobe] | 1951 | 130 | American Jewish Yearbook, Vol. 52 [1951] |
| Beth Israel Congregation [Latrobe] membership | 1954 | 42 families | Beth Israel Congregation dedication program |
| Jewish population [Latrobe] | 1957 | 140 | Beth Israel Congregation "History Directory" |
| Beth Israel Congregation [Latrobe] membership | 1960 | 37 families | Samuel Berkosky presidential address |
| Total population [Latrobe] | 1960 | 11,932 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Jewish population [Latrobe] | 1962 | 113 | Beth Israel Congregation bulletin (Sept. 1962) |
| Total population [Latrobe] | 1970 | 11,749 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Latrobe] | 1980 | 10,799 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Latrobe] | 1990 | 9,265 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Latrobe] | 2000 | 8,944 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Latrobe] | 2010 | 8,338 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| Total population [Latrobe] | 2020 | 8,060 | U.S. Census via Wikipedia |
| TYPE | TITLE | YEARS |
|---|---|---|
| Greater Latrobe School District | "The Latrobean" [Latrobe High School yearbook] | 1924-2023 |
| Greater Latrobe School District | Latrobe High School reunion materials | classes of 1922, 1929, 1930, 1943, 1944 |
| Greater Latrobe School District | Rhoda Muman scrapbook | |
| Greater Latrobe School District | Latrobe Borough School District minutes | 1894-1921 |
| Latrobe City Directories | Latrobe city directories | 1890, 1905, 1907, 1909, 1911, 1913, 1915, 1915-1916, 1917, 1919, 1920-1921, 1923-1924, 1929-1930, 1937, 1940, 1942, 1949, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1968, 1970, 1973, 1976, 2021 |
| Collections | Latrobe midwife books | 1907-1945 |
| Collections | Belle Glenn Buchman oral history | August 5, 1991 |
