Call Number:

SCRC 445

Repository:

Temple University Libraries: Special Collections Research Center

Extent:

1.7 linear feet (4 boxes)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], West Oak Lane Jewish Community Center records, MSS 64, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Date:

1951-1976 (inclusive)

Form:

Bylaws (administrative records), Clippings, Administrative records, Correspondence, Minutes (administrative records), Newsletters, Photographs, and Scrapbooks

Abstract:

The West Oak Lane Jewish Community Center (WOLJCC) was founded in 1950 to respond to the growing needs of Jewish families who moved into the West Oak Lane neighborhood in Philadelphia after World War II. The WOLJCC initially operated out of a storefront at 3226 W. Cheltenham Avenue. During its first year, approximately 900 families enrolled as members of the center. As the membership grew, the WOLJCC utilized space at the Franklin S. Edmonds Elementary School on Thouron St. to host programs including athletics, forums, films, and concerts. In 1953, the West Oak Lane Jewish Community Center broke ground a block from the Edmonds School at Sedgwick and Thouron Streets on a 25, 000 square foot plot to construct a building of its own. By the time construction began, the membership had grown to approximately 1350 families, and the WOLJCC functioned as both as a religious school and a program center. Rabbi Alex J. Goldman, former director of the Hillel Foundation at Temple University, oversaw religious services from 1954 until 1966. Subsequent congregational leaders included Rabbi Seymour L. Schorr, from 1967 to 1971 and Rabbi Fredric Kazan from 1971 until the center closed in 1978. Declining membership in the 1970s, the result of Jewish residents migrating out of the West Oak Lane neighborhood to other parts of the city forced the WOLJCC to sell its building on Thouron St. For a short time thereafter, the WOLJCC operated services out of the George Washington Consistory, Scottish Rite Temple on West Avenue in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. In July 1978, the diminished membership of the West Oak Lane Jewish Community Center merged with Congregation Beth Sholom of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.

The West Oak Lane Jewish Community Center records, 1951-1976, provide an overview of the activities, programs and services, both religious and social, the WOLJCC organized for the Jewish community in the West Oak Lane neighborhood in Philadelphia. The records include annual donor programs, brochures, club constitutions, meeting minutes, newsletters, scrapbooks and printed ephemera. Although there are governing documents such as bylaws and an organizational constitution, there is only a modest amount of administrative records included in the collection. The limited financial documentation and the annual meeting minutes represent only a portion of the years WOLJCC was in operation. The correspondence is also sparse and is primarily communications to and from David J. Salaman who was acting Corresponding Secretary in 1957 and WOLJCC's Librarian.

The records are arranged in four series, one of which has been further arranged in subseries. The series and subseries arrangement is as follows:

• Series 1: Board of Directors, 1956-1972, undated
• Series 2: Publications and Notices, 1958-1975, undated
• Series 3: Programs and Services, 1957-1976, undated
• Subseries 3.1: General, 1957-1966, undated
• Subseries 3.2: Men's club, 1960-1969, undated
• Subseries 3.3: Sisterhood, 1962-1976, undated
• Subseries 3.4: Donor dinner dance, 1951-1974
• Series 4: Photographs, 1956-1970, undated