New Altoona Jewish Center Opens in Central PA

Rabbi Yossi and Chanale Stein always knew they wanted to run their own Jewish center one day; they just weren’t sure where. That is, until Yossi Stein’s job as a Pennsylvania prison chaplain turned the couple’s attention to the mountainous city of Altoona.

Once home to a bustling Jewish community centered on a thriving railroad industry 98 miles east of Pittsburgh, Altoona enjoyed its modern heyday in the 1950s. Back then, the Central Pennsylvania municipality was bustling. But when the railroad took a back seat to other modes of transportation and manufacturers moved elsewhere, the city’s population nosedived. Today, Altoona is home to 50,000 people, roughly one percent of them Jewish.

Still, to the Steins, who last month opened the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Center of Greater Altoona, the location presents a unique opportunity to serve a community dealing with the effects of decades of assimilation. They hope to help the Jewish population grow as well.

“Right in the beginning, before moving here, we started some programs to get to know the community and see if there was something to work with,” said Yossi Stein. “It turned out there was a larger community than we expected.”

The Steins are far from strangers to this part of Pennsylvania. For four years before their move, they lived in Pittsburgh, where she taught at a girls’ high school and his job as a chaplain took him to upwards of 13 prisons throughout Pennsylvania and West Virginia, half of them in and around Altoona.

“I was driving by on regular basis,” he said. “One day, I stopped by a local synagogue, and it sort of took off.

“The warmth we got from the [community] helped us make our decision,” he continued. “They told us to move here even before we thought of it.”

Joel and Barbara Hollander have been active in one of Altoona’s two synagogues for more than 30 years.

“I think it will strengthen our bonds to Judaism because they’re bringing not only fun into Judaism, but an educational component as well,” said Barbara Hollander. “We need to do more programming because people get caught up in their own lives. You run around and forget what’s most important and I think they are bringing that back.”

“It’s really like a joyous occasion to be with them and their family,” said Joel Hollander, his synagogue’s past president and current chairman. “It’s a wonderful benefit to our community.”

Article Continued (chabad.org)