Pennsylvania, one of the original thirteen states of the American Union was named after William Penn's father, whose son received a grant of the territory from King Charles II in 1681.
When Peter Stuyvesant, in 1655, conquered the Swedish colonies on the Delaware River, three Jews, Abraham de Lucena, Salvator Dandrade, and Jacob Coen, requested permission to trade along the Delaware River (November 29, 1655), claiming that under the act of February 15, 1655, they had received the consent of the directors of the West India Company to travel, reside, trade and enjoy the same privileges as other inhabitants.
This petition was refused "for weighty reasons", but they were permitted to send two persons to the South River (subsequently named the Delaware) in order to terminate a trading expedition already entered upon.
On June 14, 1656, the directors of the West India Company wrote to Stuyvesant asking that the Jews be permitted to trade along the South River and "carry on their business as beforesaid".
In 1657, Isaiah Mesa (also spelled "Masa" and "Mara"), "a Jew", is mentioned in the annals of Jacquet's administration as a participant in several lawsuits.
In 1662, a community of Mennonites or Anabaptists proposed to settle at Horekill, in Delaware County, and in their articles of association they determined to exclude all "usurious Jews".
When Sir Robert Carr, in 1664, assumed command of the Delaware in the name of the English crown, he received instructions from his government that "all people should enjoy the liberty of their conscience".
In 1681, when William Penn gained possession of the land that bears his name, there must have been several Jewish settlers in the southeastern portion.
In 1723, James Logan, secretary of the province, refers to him as an "apostate Jew or fashionable Christian proselyte," who had gone into the interior of the colony to transact some official business.
Ten years later, there were several Jewish families in the town; on February 3, 1747, there was recorded a deed to Isaac Nunus Ricus (Henriques) and Joseph Simon, conveying half an acre of land "in trust for the society of Jews settled in and about Lancaster", to be used as a place of burial.
In 1866, the synagogue on Linden street was built, it was the first building reared exclusively as a Jewish place of worship in Lackawanna County.
This edifice, after having been twice rebuilt, was sold to the first Polish congregation in 1902, when the present temple, situated on Madison Avenue near Vine Street, was dedicated.
The other school which had higher attendance, possessed its own house in the South Side of the city, and was supported entirely by the large Hungarian community.
In 1864, a cemetery plot was acquired in the southern part of the city, and in the same year Congregation Oheb Sholom was founded with about fifteen charter members, most of them South-Germans.
[citation needed] In 1898 the congregation bought another cemetery at Shillington, three miles (5 km) from the city, the old one being vacated, and about sixty bodies were removed to the new burial-ground.
[3][4][5] Today the Reform Congregation Oheb Sholom and the Conservative synagogue Kesher Zion share a Temple in Wyomissing Hills, PA.
The Orthodox Jewish element, consisting entirely of Russian and Polish immigrants or their descendants, combined in 1887 and formed Congregation Shomrei Habrith.
Today, Shomrei Habrith has moved to a newer, and better location better to serve the communities needs, with its rabbi, Yosef Lipsker, ho also represents the local Chabad Lubavitch movement.
There was also a pastor of Hebrew-Spanish (Sephardic) ancestry, a non-Mennonite, in the city of Reading with the Atlantic Coast Conference of the Mennonite Church USA.
Beginning as a post village situated in Haines Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania, founded by Aaron Levy in 1786, and named for him.
A plot of ground known as Aaron's Square was reserved by the founder for public uses, and one of the streets was named Rachel's Way in honor of his wife.
The rise of the younger generation gave a decided impetus to the growing tendency toward Reform, which resulted in the adoption of the Einhorn ritual.
The organization, little more than a minyan, became the parent of the congregations B'nai Jacob and Holche Yosher, which were formed in 1881, although their synagogues were not built until 1886 and 1887, respectively.
[11] With this equipment, the community became an important center of Jewish activity in northeastern Pennsylvania, reaching out to Hazleton, Plymouth, Pittston and the smaller towns in the vicinity.
On December 23, 1783, Rabbi Gershom Mendes Seixas, Simon Nathan ("parnas"), Asher Myers, Barnard Gratz, and Haym Solomon, the "Mahamad" of the Congregation Mickvé Israel, Philadelphia, petitioned the Council of Censors that there be removed from the Constitution the declaration requiring each member of the Assembly to affirm his belief in the divine inspiration of the New Testament.
Yet the early Jewish pioneers, those that had settled in Philadelphia, Lancaster, and Easton long before the Revolution, had come from Germany and Holland, while the first settlers of New York; Newport, Rhode Island; and Savannah, Georgia, had been mostly of Spanish descent.
About 1825 there was a fresh exodus from Germany, and many Jews settled in Philadelphia and became important factors in the community, while others traveled westward and helped in the development of many towns.
In addition, the following towns contain enough Jewish families to support at least one synagogue: Allentown, Altoona, Beaver Falls, Braddock, Bradford, Butler, Carbondale, Chambersburg, Chester, Connellsville, Danville, DuBois, Dunmore, Duquesne, Erie, Greensburg, Hazleton, Homestead, Honesdale, Indiana,[12] Johnstown, McKeesport, Newcastle, Oil City, Phænixville, Pottsville, Shamokin, Sharon, Shenandoah, South Bethlehem, South Sharon, Titusville, Uniontown, Washington, Williamsport, and York.
In two cities there were branches of the Alliance Israélite Universelle; in four, sections of the Council of Jewish Women; in five, 9 Zionist societies; and in seventeen, 60 lodges.