feature story
Judaism Hangs on at Synagogue
in Rural Pennsylania
Congregation Sons of Israel
18 SEPTEMBER 1, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
school), you’d be considered a truant. Rosh Hashanah
and Yom Kippur were considered truancy,” Newman
said. “A group of merchants and our rabbi went to the
school district and got that changed. Th ey’re still not
offi cial, but you’re no longer truant. Th ose three days
mean you can’t have perfect attendance.”
Jews have never had a major presence in
Chambersburg but, for the most part, the community
has welcomed, embraced and supported Franklin
County’s only synagogue.

“When the Pittsburgh attack happened, I orga-
nized a memorial service, and 400 or 500 people
came. People left fl owers at the doors of our syna-
gogue and wrote letters,” Newman said, referencing
the antisemitic terrorist attack at the Tree of Life
synagogue in 2018.

Th e largest religious population in Chambersburg
is Christianity, and the majority of the town is
politically conservative. According to Pennsylvania
Department of State voter registration statistics,
Franklin County has about 61,000 registered
Republicans compared to 24,000 Democrats.

“Th is is an exceptionally conservative area. When
my parents moved to Chambersburg, my father,
who had been a lifelong Democrat, registered as a
Republican because in Chambersburg if you wanted
to do business you had to be Republican — it was just
that conservative of an area,” Newman said.

New arrivals seldom change Chambersburg,
according to Newman. Chambersburg changes them.

“Chambersburg as a whole is not bad; there are
antisemites here, as there are everywhere. Since
Trump, they’ve become more overt,” she said.

Th e most striking antisemitism Newman encoun-
tered in Chambersburg happened when she was in
ninth grade at the since-closed Central Junior High
School. Newman was in health class, raising her hand
and answering questions when her teacher scolded
her about the way she answered, despite all students
responding in the same manner.

“He said, ‘Th is is not one of your Jewish prayer
meetings,’” Newman recalled.

When Newman asked for an apology, she was
sent to the principal’s offi ce, where she explained
what happened to a relatively unconcerned admin-
istration. For the next three days, instead of going to
health class, she went to the offi ce, where she stayed
until the teacher apologized.

“Other than that, I’ve had no trouble at all, not
with anybody or anything. It struck me even as I was
married and grew up. Most people respected me as
Exterior photos by Heather M. Ross
I T STARTED IN CHAMBERSBURG in 1840
when a group of Jewish men established a burial
society — a small cemetery with a building to
prepare bodies for burials — and a house for a visit-
ing rabbi where they held services.

By 1919, Congregation Sons of Israel applied for
and received nonprofi t status as a religious organiza-
tion. And for the 103 years since, the synagogue has
served as the center of Jewish life in the small (popu-
lation of about 21,000), rural town of Chambersburg,
about 25 miles northeast of Gettysburg in south-cen-
tral Pennsylvania.

Th e closest synagogue has a part-time rabbi and is
nearly 25 miles away and across the Maryland state
line; the next closest is 35 miles away.

“My parents moved to Chambersburg when I was
4 years old. I was the second girl ever bat mitzvahed
at the synagogue,” said Lynne Newman, the religious
director and ritual chair.

While the congregation was larger in the past, the
synagogue remains an important symbol to local
Jews, and the congregation has undeniably shaped
Chambersburg, which got its start as a milling town
in 1730 and was burned by Confederate forces in 1864.

“When I was younger, if you missed three days (of
BY HEATHER M. ROSS | STAFF WRITER