An elusive part of Brownsville’s Jewish history identified for future generations
Dave Zuchowski
A cluster of graves in the Jewish cemetery
Dave Zuchowski
The newly installed sign identifying the Jewish cemetery
Dave Zuchowski
The entrance to the former Temple Ohave Israel
By Dave Zuchowski
While Brownsville had a sizable Jewish population, particularly during the interwar period, its Jewish cemetery is surprisingly tiny. Over the years, it had been largely forgotten as Brownsville’s Jewish population moved elsewhere.
A student involved in a research project at California University of Pennsylvania that explored the community’s Jewish history states that “it took three days of searching the hilly streets of Brownsville to finally locate the cemetery, even with the help of locals.”
“Most people had no idea there was a cemetery, and, more surprisingly, that it turned out to be located in the Catholic cemetery,” wrote Don Alan Evosirch in a paper for the local history workshop conducted under the supervision of Dr. Laura Tuennerman-Kaplan.
The cemetery is located at the southern end of St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery at the corner of Broad and York Streets. Though the Jewish community in Brownsville was sizable, the cemetery holds only eight graves, five of which are clustered in one area, the three others scattered feet, even yards away. The earliest grave is dated 1917 and holds the remains of Eleanor Schwartz, who died at the early age of eight months. The most recent grave dates back to 1932.
Schwartz’s niece, Debbie Schwartz Pechersky of Monroeville, was born and raised in Brownsville and regularly attended services at Temple Ohave Israel, 210 Second St. in Brownsville. Pechersky said her father, Theodore Schwartz, was one of the congregation’s last leaders, which included Max Greenfield. She also has a box full of papers, news clips and other information about the assembly.
This includes photos of the last service held at the synagogue in 1978.
The Jewish Burial and Cemetery Association of Greater Pittsburgh claims that the Brownsville Jewish cemetery is the smallest in Western Pennsylvania. It also claims that most of the Brownsville congregation are buried in the orthodox Gemilas Chesed Cemetery in White Oak because it had close ties and connections with the cemetery that lies just outside McKeesport.
To preserve this integral part of Brownsville Jewish history, Raymond Klein, Brownsville native and current resident of Portola Valley, California, financed the placement of markers outlining the periphery of the cemetery and the erection of a historical marker in September of this year. Klein has also commissioned Ron Barry, a life-long resident of Brownsville, to write the story of the Jewish experience in Brownsville.
“The story, tentatively titled ‘Faith, Family and Fortitude,’ will be written as a retrospective told by a Jewish character who reminisces about his life as a Brownsville merchant,” Barry said. “In my researches, I found that life-long Brownsville resident, Ray Christner, 91, is a trove of information. He had a heating and air conditioning business in town that served the merchants. As a result, he gave me a list of over 70 Jewish families that he recalls.”
Klein became aware of Barry, a vocational teacher at the Connellsville Area Career and Technology Center, when he read “Finding Frank Lehey,” a former head football coach at Notre Dame. In his narrative, Barry set his tale’s date as September 30, 1948, when Notre Dame played at Pitt. Due to a weather disaster, the Notre Dame team’s train detoured to Brownsville on its way back to South Bend. Barry included a lot of references to the town’s stores, people and businesses in his fictional story. The football game and date mentioned in the story, however, are non-fictional
“When Mr. Klein read the work, he called the next day and commissioned me to write about Brownsville’s Jewish history.”
As to the congregation’s beginnings, a group of Jewish residents in Brownsville applied for a charter to form Ohave Israel on October 29, 1907. According to Brownsville historian Glenn Tunney, the site for synagogue, the first religious building erected for Brownsville’s Jewish population, was excavated on September 8, 1915. After 20 years of planning, Temple Ohave Israel opened its doors in the spring of 1916 and was dedicated on September 10 that same year.
Through the years, the congregation dwindled, and the synagogue closed its doors in the late 1970s. In 1979, the United Citizens Group of Southwestern Pennsylvania bought the synagogue for $27,000. One of the temple’s scrolls went to Gemilas Chesed in White Oak, and another went to Beth El Congregation in the South Hills, where it is used in the weekday chapel. Other Temple Israel items also went to the Beth El Congregation.
On Thanksgiving weekend 1999, Elmos, a computer service enterprise, moved into the building and began a three-year renovation. This included repointing all masonry, adding brand new bathrooms, new plumbing, electrical and heating/air conditioning infrastructure and a brand new modern kitchen. Owners Innocence and Dana Polacek also removed all the stained glass windows and shipped them to Peters Township for reconditioning by The Glassworks Studios at the cost of $40,000.
In 2016, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is considered to be in mint condition.
According to Danny Greenfield, a former Brownsville resident, an agreement was made between the congregation and St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Brownsville that the latter would take care of the burial grounds of the Jewish cemetery. However, there is no written document to verify the agreement.
When St. Mary’s closed and was subsequently demolished in 2005, care of the cemetery went to St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Brownsville. Rev. Timothy Krupthaut, the current pastor, said that the church maintains the Jewish Cemetery because St. Peter’s “has the manpower and resources to care for it.”
Sometime next spring, plans are underway to hold a memorial event at the cemetery, according to Greenfield.