Single Synagogue Cities
“It is a lot farther from Baltimore to Cumberland than it is from Cumberland to Baltimore...”
This article has been excerpted from its original location at the Baltimore Jewish Times with permission from the publisher. Click here to view the original article in full.
March 27, 2019
“It is a lot farther from Baltimore to Cumberland than it is from Cumberland to Baltimore,” said Larry Brock, sitting around a table with fellow members of Cumberland’s B’er Chayim Congregation, the only synagogue in Allegany County, Md.
Brock, who has been a member of the congregation since 1956, said he and his wife regularly make trips to Baltimore to visit family. After all, “It’s only two hours away.”
But for many Baltimoreans, to travel farther west than Ellicott City is to step into uncharted territory. Many denizens wouldn’t dare hop on I-70 and wind through Maryland’s mountains without GPS guidance, a bag full of snacks and mental preparation for a taxing trip. But for Brock and others from Cumberland’s small Jewish community, making the same trip in reverse has always been a breeze.
“We all do it. Passover’s coming, we need some stuff for the community seder, so three of us will take a trip down to Seven Mile Market,” said Betsey Hurwitz-Schwab, past president and religious school principal at B’er Chayim. “But tell someone from Baltimore to make a trip to Cumberland, they say, ‘Oh my Gosh, it’s going to take four hours in the car!’”
B’er Chayim and the city of Cumberland have seen better days. At less than 20,000 residents, the city’s population has been in decline since the 1950s and is currently at its lowest population point since the early 1900s. Having an aging, affiliated Jewish population combined with a struggle to attract younger generations to become involved in Jewish life is far from a phenomena specific to Cumberland, but can being the only Jewish game in town work to a congregation’s advantage?
One of B’er Chayim’s closest Jewish neighbors is Congregation B’nai Abraham in Hagerstown, more than 60 miles east and more than an hour’s drive away. Like Cumberland, Hagerstown is a single-synagogue city, hours away from large Jewish communities like Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Pittsburgh.
The crucial difference between the secluded Western Maryland Jewish communities is their demographic trends. Hagerstown’s population has not been below 35,000 people since the 1980s; in 2017 the city recorded its highest population ever with more than 40,000 residents. Though its Jewish community is small and remote, B’nai Abraham’s Rabbi Ari Plost said the congregation is being replenished with younger members at the same rate it is losing older ones. But even with a steady stream of members, being the only Jewish place of worship in town can feel isolating.
“In Washington County,” Plost said, “you become aware very quickly that you are not in a community with many Jews.”
A Jewish town in the mountains
The continual loss of Cumberland’s general population is on the minds of B’er Chayim members. The congregants realize they are facing an uphill battle and don’t speak about lofty goals or master plans to bring the synagogue’s membership back to 100 families, like it had in its heyday. Still, to call them pessimists would be inaccurate. Grim as the population numbers sound, doom has not yet taken hold in Cumberland.
“Today, we do the best we can with what we have,” said Doug Schwab, a lifelong resident and B’er Chayim congregant who now serves as the congregation’s president. Four generations of Schwab’s family have been confirmed at the synagogue. “We’ve adapted to the population and the size of the congregation.”
Cumberland hit its peak population in the 1940s after World War II. Many members of its Jewish community were business owners. Among the businesses were Schwab’s family enterprise, S. Schwab Company, a manufacturer of high-end children’s clothing, Rosenbaum Brothers Department Store, Beneman’s Furniture, Kline’s Liquor Store and Market and Feldstein Iron and Metal.
“We don’t have that business community anymore, and there are a lot of retired members of our congregation,” said Schwab.
During boom times, B’er Chayim was not the only congregation in town. The Beth Jacob Hebrew Congregation was founded as an Orthodox shul in 1913, switching to Conservative worship in 1949. It eventually closed its doors in 1998.
Al Feldstein has also been a Cumberland resident all his life and was a member of Beth Jacob until the early 1990s. His grandfather was among the congregation’s founding members. Even in the days of multiple synagogues, Feldstein has always been aware that Jewish people are a distinct minority in Cumberland.
“When I graduated from the local high school there were three Jewish kids in my graduating class,” including himself, Feldstein said. “At the old Beth Jacob, I remember going down there with 10 old men — I’m now probably older than they were then — for minyans. We’d do that two to three times a week.”
For Feldstein, being a minority has always come with a sense of pride, or at the very least a duty to impress.
“When people look at you as a Jewish person here, they aren’t just looking at you as an individual,” said Feldstein. “They’re looking at you as a representative of the entire community.”
Feldstein’s family has represented the Jewish community well. In 2014 B’er Chayim completed a major renovation and restoration of its now 154-year-old synagogue with a major gift from Feldstein’s family, earning some superlatives along the way. It is one of the 12 oldest synagogues in the country, and although the Lloyd Street Synagogue in Downtown Baltimore is an older building, B’er Chayim is the oldest continuously operating synagogue in Maryland.
B’er Chayim is likely in its best physical condition since the days it was built, but some might wonder if future generations will be there to enjoy it.
Click here to read the rest of this article at its original location at the Baltimore Jewish Times.
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