Description
Jewish settlers arrived in Northampton one hundred and fifty years ago. Their small numbers throughout the nineteenth century slowly expanded as some twenty families arrived at the turn of the twentieth century.
This brave band of early settlers soon established a synagogue of their own. Congregation B’nai Israel became a symbol of the growth of the Jewish community and their commitment to Northampton.
By the 1930s Jews owned clothing and shoe stores, and were operating hardware stores, groceries, and butcher shops. Over the course of the next decades, these families, augmented by those in the professions and the arts, succeeded in building a thriving life in Northampton.
By the beginning of the 21st century, new and distinctive institutions emerged—most notably the National Yiddish Book Center, Jewish studies at Smith College, Beit Ahavah synagogue, and the Solomon Schechter Day School. Like the generations before them, the builders of these new organizations have drawn on the Valley’s long heritage of reform to create new and imaginative centers of Jewish life that combine Innovation and experimentation with a rich tradition.
