All over the country, dedicated people have been advancing the study of Jewish life in American small towns. Their work is spread across many institutions and initiatives. It is archival, historical, and sociological. The Small Town Jewish Studies Roundtable is a clearinghouse for these efforts, a place where people in the field can meet, share ideas, and advance our understanding together.
“In crucial respects what is shown here regarding the immigrants of the East Side of New York also holds for those in other large cities.
As for the relatively small number of Jews who settled in small towns... that is another story.”
— Irving Howe, World of Our Fathers
The Roundtable is a resource for scholars, researchers, archivists, and historians who focus on Jewish life in small-town America. The Roundtable welcomes researchers with all levels of experience. It is also a place where current and former members of small-town Jewish communities can access information about communities like theirs.
“The modest Jewish communities whose stories unfolded in America’s small towns have been doubly invisible.
During the first half of the twentieth century, they were largely ignored by those concerned about the changing nature of American society...
During the second half of the century they were overlooked by scholars exploring the American Jewish experience.”
— Lee Shai Weissbach, Jewish Life in Small-Town America
The Roundtable is a collaboration between the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Senator John Heinz History Center and Homestead Hebrews. Our years of work documenting the small town Jewish communities of Western Pennsylvania have encouraged us to broaden our network to deepen our scholarship.