New life for Northern Cambria synagogue?

Randy Griffith, The Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown, Pa.
·3 min read

Mar. 7—NORTHERN CAMBRIA, Pa. — One hundred years ago, a few dozen Jewish residents of the former Borough of Barnesboro were working on plans for the B'nai Israel Congregation Synagogue.

Today, a Miami couple with ties to the Northern Cambria community is looking at plans to restore the former house of worship into a private residence and possible vacation rental property.

Northern Cambria Borough Council has accepted the $25,101 offer by Ronald S. Shimko and his wife, Lisette, to purchase the synagogue building at the corner of Maple Avenue and Dogwood Street.

"It looks like it's going to be ours sometime soon here," Shimko said in a telephone interview.

"We'd like to turn it into a residence. I still have relatives in town. When we come to visit, we'd like to stay there. In the meantime, possibly renting it out as an Airbnb."

Shimko is a longtime member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He was a fan of the television program "You Live Where?" which the Internet Movie Database website describes as "a show on HGTV showcasing unsuspecting homes built and renovated from very nontraditional structures, from old water towers to Soviet-era fish farms."

"I thought the synagogue would be a good candidate," Shimko said.

A Youngstown, Ohio, native, Shimko became familiar with the synagogue building from his youth, visiting grandparents in Barnesboro and walking into the business district to "look around."

He doesn't expect to get rich from the synagogue project.

"When you have something nice that comes into your neighborhood, I think it's a source of pride for the people who live there," he said. "That would be my focus."

According to an article from The Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania, Jewish families came to the northern Cambria County region in the early 20th century as the coal mining industry flourished. Most were merchants who opened shops in the area's villages, beginning with Louis Luxenburg, who opened a jewelry store in 1903 on Philadelphia Street in Barnesboro.

The B'nai Israel Congregation Synagogue opened in 1925 and went on to serve as a hub for as many as 200 Jewish people in Barnesboro and surrounding communities, the article notes, citing an unpublished 1988 memoir by former resident Florence Karp.

"Barnesboro was like the hub of a wheel whose spokes reached out to Nanty Glo, Clymer, Alverda, Cherry Tree, Spangler, Emeigh and other mining villages," Karp wrote. "There was a Jewish family or two in many of these little towns and they came together in Barnesboro on the High Holidays for Orthodox services. Some of them stayed as house guests with Barnesboro residents for those days."

As the mining industry declined, Jewish families migrated out of the region. There was only one Jewish family living in Barnesboro when the synagogue closed in 1968, the article notes.

It was turned over to the now-defunct Barnesboro Business Development Association. The borough later took ownership.

Northern Cambria Borough Councilman Shawn Veneskey said the borough has been using the building for storage.

"All of that will be relocated to another storage building," Veneskey said.

Randy Griffith is a reporter for The Tribune- Democrat. Follow him on Twitter @PhotoGriffer57.