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HISTORY
The Old Jewish Cemetery of Chambersburg is believed to be the earliest
burial ground of the Jewish minority west of the Susquehanna. The
oldest
headstone refers to a burial in July 1840. At that time only a handful
of Jewish families, mostly recent
immigrants from Germany, lived in the small towns and villages of
southern Pennsylvania and northern Maryland.
As there was no organized
Jewish community life anywhere in the area until late in the 19th
century, the Benevolent
Society, which administered the cemetery, was the central
organizational
structure of the Jewish minority in southern Pennsylvania and northern
Maryland.
In later years most
of the original members' families left the area, but many continued to
take an active interest in the Society. Entries in the minutes book
from the 1870's and 1880's refer to members in Philadelphia,
Wilmington, De., Oskaloosa, Ia., Charles City, Ia., and Helena, Ar.
Around 1900 the Benevolent Society dissolved. For many decades members
of the Stine family of Chambersburg continued to look after the
cemetery but could not prevent it from falling into disrepair and
dilapidation. The sole witness of Chambersburg's Jewish past, and a
unique monument of American Jewish history, it had sunk into oblivion
until members of Congregation Sons of Israel and other citizens of
Chambersburg undertook to restore it in 1988, and again in 2000.
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