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.”
Not Exactly Strangers
The Steins have spent much of the past year travelling to Altoona to run programs. On Chanukah, they brought in an olive oil press to show how to extract the oil used in menorahs. For Purim, Chanale Stein and a group of women prepared traditional gift baskets for Israeli soldiers. Before Passover, they set up a model matzah bakery. On Lag B’Omer, they hosted a picnic featuring the traditional activity of archery.
“[The picnic] is something we’ve never done in the community before,” said Bill Wallen, director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Altoona. “They had archery and soccer and good family fun. For families and kids, it adds opportunities they didn’t have before.”
Now that the family has officially moved to town, they plan to expand activities with monthly Friday night services followed by a buffet, Shabbat meals, holiday programs, general adult education and a year-round program called Jewish Women Unite.
“In addition to the official programs we do, we like the idea of getting to know people one-on-one by inviting a few people at a time for a Shabbat meal,” said Chanale Stein, who will also work at the Federation-run Sunday school and teach monthly preschool classes.
Wallen stressed the importance of education.
“It’s hard for [kids] to have any kind of immersion experiences in Judaism,” he explained. “We can’t provide that much, so Chabad coming brings an opportunity for more programs. Activities are particularly needed for younger families.”
The Steins are working with the established Jewish community, but they also plan to reach out to the city’s unaffiliated Jews.
“Like a lot of other cities, as Jews became more assimilated, the center of their lives was no longer the congregation and Jewish community center,” said Wallen.
The Steins host activities at outside locations and at their home, which houses a synagogue and Torah scroll Yossi Stein acquired from a prison psychiatrist he met during his rounds. The doctor received the Torah decades ago in Titusville, Pa., after his family’s synagogue closed down. He kept it for years and even thought of selling it at one point, but decided it would be more meaningful to donate it. He gave it to Stein, who had a ritual scribe check the scroll.
“It’s something that was always precious to him, and he was very happy it found a new home,” said Stein. “Also, his father grew up in Altoona, so it was like it was going full circle.”
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