Kesher Israel Congregation (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania)

Kesher Israel Congregation occupies a building at 2500 North Third Street in Harrisburg's Uptown neighborhood.[1]

A 1994 community study identified the congregation as Orthodox and listed its ZIP code as 17110.[3] The study counted Kesher Israel among three Orthodox synagogues then operating in the Greater Harrisburg area.[3]

Approved historical sources give several dates for the congregation's organization. A Hebrew Union College rabbinical chronology states that Congregation Kesher Israel was organized in Harrisburg in 1862.[4] A 1907 directory, using the name "Keener Israel," lists the congregation at 4th and State, gives an organization date of August 15, 1902, records 150 members, and names Rabbi Harris Goldstein.[5] The Jewish Virtual Library likewise states that the congregation was formed in 1902.[2] By contrast, a 1994 community study reports that Kesher Israel began in 1919 and had occupied its location for 47 years.[3] These dates may represent reorganizations or different definitions of the congregation's founding, but the available sources do not resolve the discrepancy.[5][3]

On January 24, 1971, Kesher Israel adopted a resolution issued under Rabbi David Silver's name calling on each member to contribute as generously as possible to the Harrisburg United Jewish Appeal.[6] The resolution characterized support for Israel and world Jewry as a religious responsibility and said synagogue membership carried heightened obligations toward the Jewish community, Israel, and the Jewish people.[6] An April 23, 1971, United Jewish Appeal memorandum listed Kesher Israel, Rabbi Silver, and Harrisburg among the congregations and communities that had adopted such resolutions.[6]

The 1994 community study recorded Kesher Israel's membership as 200 in 1985, 222 in 1993, and 219 in 1994. It reported three membership dropouts and no new joins between 1993 and 1994.[3]

The same synagogue survey listed dues of $400 for family membership and $290 for single membership. It also recorded 90 family members, 94 single members, and 35 members in another category whose heading is not clear in the extracted table.[3]

Rabbi Eliezer Silver served Kesher Israel from 1907 to 1925. He immigrated to the United States with his wife in 1907 and soon accepted the Harrisburg position, leaving Pennsylvania in 1925 for Springfield, Massachusetts.[2][7] During his tenure, he founded community institutions including the Harrisburg Hebrew School, a talmud torah; the Hebrew Free Loan Society; and the Transient Home.[2]

Rabbi David Silver led the congregation from 1932 to 1983 and, together with Horace Goldberger, was identified as a driving force behind the Jewish Home in Harrisburg.[2] Yeshiva Academy, which provided secular and Jewish education from preschool through eighth grade, was established and named in part for Rabbi David L. Silver and Aaron S. Feinerman. It was described as one of the first Jewish day schools in the United States outside a major metropolitan area.[2]

Rabbi Akiva Males, who served the congregation in the 2000s, was invited on April 23, 2008, to offer the opening prayer as guest Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives.[8]

Rabbi Elisha Friedman, ordained at Yeshiva University, subsequently served as rabbi of the congregation.[9]

The congregation's principal site is its synagogue building at 2500 North Third Street in Harrisburg's Uptown neighborhood.[1]

Kesher Israel maintains an Orthodox cemetery on 34th Street next to the Chisuk Emuna cemetery, with another entrance off Route 22.[10] It also maintains an Orthodox burial ground on Old Orchard Lane off Progress Avenue. That site covers approximately 1,200 square feet and contains more than twenty gravestones, including about thirteen graves dating to the early 1900s.[10]

A 1907 directory stated that cemeteries owned by each of Harrisburg's three Jewish congregations were located at Progress.[5]

Kesher Israel has been targeted by antisemitic vandalism on more than one recorded occasion. In a February 8, 1990, Senate speech supporting the Hate Crime Statistics Act, Pennsylvania Senator Heinz stated that two years earlier, worshippers arriving at Kesher Israel for the Jewish Sabbath found the synagogue desecrated with swastikas and the slogan "Death to the Jews."[11] The speech did not identify perpetrators or give a specific calendar date for the incident.[11]

In August 2020, vandals spray-painted two swastikas on the synagogue using stencils sometime on a Monday morning.[1] Pennsylvania State Police and federal authorities participated in the investigation.[1] The ADL Philadelphia Region described the vandalism as the third attack on a Pennsylvania synagogue in less than one month. It also reported 109 attacks targeting Jewish communities in Pennsylvania during 2019, compared with a historic state average of 64 attacks per year.[1]

Across eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and Delaware, twenty Jewish institutions were targeted during 2020 with swastikas, antisemitic phrases including "long live Hitler," and other hateful abuse. Three synagogues were targeted within seventeen days during the summer, and the Kesher Israel vandalism was identified as one of the regional incidents.[12]

ADL Regional Director Shira Goodman called on investigators to treat the vandalism as a hate crime. She stated, "The swastika is one of the most painful hate symbols for Jews. Its meaning is clear. The perpetrators intended to terrorize their targets, but the Jewish community of Harrisburg will not be cowed."[1]

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse condemned the vandalism in the strongest terms, and the Mayor's Interfaith Advisory Council organized a vigil outside the congregation.[1] Dauphin County Commissioners Jeff Haste, Mike Pries, and George Hartwick called the desecration shameful and said it did not represent the community.[1] The Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg collected statements of support from Temple Ohev Sholom, Harrisburg Friends Meeting, the Pennsylvania Council of Churches, the Hindu American Religious Institute, and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.[1]