Jewtown: Port Richmond’s Little Known Pocket Community, 19134

Jessica Kourkounis (Story & Photos)

August 26, 2016

Diane Precht as a child in front of their home on East Williams Street in Jewtown. (Courtesy of Diane Precht)

Port Richmond is a huge neighborhood. Many Philadelphians know it for its Polish delis and restaurants, but many other groups have called ZIP code 19134 home throughout its history.

This is the story of one of those groups; a little known pocket community that’s been nestled near Aramingo and Lehigh Avenues for more than a generation.

Early Jewtown

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Historian and author Allen Meyers stands outside what was originally one of two synagogues located in Jewtown. There is still a cornerstone visible with Hebrew writing in what is now Disney ABA church at the corner of Tulip and Auburn Streets. Meyers co-authored the book The Jewish Community Under the Frankford El, which included a history of Jewtown and a collection of archival photographs. (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis)
The synagogue served the early Jewtowners. The two story building was the gathering place for Jews who arrived in Newtown after fleeing from Russia in the late 1800s. An entrance to a small courtyard led to the basement and the social hall, which had a small chapel, heated by a potbelly stove, where the men prayed in winter. (Courtesy of Carl Nathans)
Asher Silverman, pictured here, was one of the five founding members of Jewtown in 1870. The other four members of the first Russian-Jewish colony in Philadelphia included Ezekiel Burstine, Pinchas Levy, Samuel Natan and Morris Gorman. The five men organized the synagogue B'nai Israel, which attracted more friends of the original five men and developed into a full community during the late 19th century.
Rabbi Benjamin Block poses with his wife, who came from Kovna Gurbernia in Lithuania during the 1880's along with 40,000 other Jews who arrived in Philadelphia. (Courtesy of Rea Abrams)
Rabbi Nahum Brenner had a large extended family with relatives in Newtown and South Philadelphia. In 1924 the family can been seen here sitting down to a Passover Seder. (Courtesy of Lou Brenner)
Family portraits were taken in front of homes throughout Jewtown on a regular basis. The wife of Rabbi Brenner, left, commanded the respect of the entire community, without people uttering her first name. She was affectionately addressed as rebbetzen, Yidish for "the wife of the rabbi." (Courtesy of Louis Brenner)
Williams Street at Tulip Street, the heart of Newtown, contained shops and residences only one block away from the two synagogues. (Courtesy of Izzy Yanus)
Esther Wolf and her sister Jenny were inseparable as a pair well into their old age. Both were born in Newtown, traveled all around the city, and lived into their 90s. (Courtesy of Carl Nathans)
Isidore Gordon, the son of a kosher butcher, grew up in Newtown. One of his favorite hucksters in Newtown was a photographer who brought around a pony on which the children posed outside their homes. The children then asked their mother for a quarter to pay for the photograph. (Courtesy of Dr. Isadore Gordon)
Mr. Gordon, along with partner Mr. Ressler, took over the kosher meat shop from the Satinskys and served the community well into the 1940s. (Courtesy of Dr. Isadore Gordon)
With the passage of time and changing neighborhoods, even once-thriving businesses leave their best days behind them. The neighborhood become unproductive for business as industry wained in America. (Courtesy of Allen Meyers)
The last relics of a bygone era can be found in Newtown near Williams and Tulip Street, where Jewish life once abounded. People flocked to Friedman Shoes inside a private residence converted by a storefront facade. (Courtesy of Carl Nathans)

The first time I met Diane Precht I did a double take when she told me where she grew up in Philadelphia.

“I’m from Port Richmond,” she told me, “a little tiny pocket, and it’s called Jewtown and it was all black folks.”

As it turns out, Philly gentiles began calling the area Jewtown in the late 1800’s – some feel out of resentment to the influx of Jewish immigrants. But, Allen Meyers, a historian and author of several books on Jewish communities here in Philadelphia, says the Jewish people themselves began identifying with the name.

The history of the neighborhood is unknown to many current residents. Even though some may find it offensive, the name Jewtown has stuck, similar to other Philly areas like Germantown.

“I enjoyed researching this community and finding that there were two synagogues that served the Lithuanian community that came to Philadelphia in the 1870s because of persecution in their home country,” says Alan Meyers, “They refused to be influenced by the German-Jewish community which was the majority community here in Philadelphia, and they remained isolated as a pocket community for those 90 years.”

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This Jewish community settled in, built businesses and factories, and these businesses later attracted black workers.

Then and Now

Diane Precht, right, and her mother Daisy Baptiste, right, in front of their former home on Williams Street in Jewtown. (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis)
Diane Precht as a child in front of their home on East Williams Street in Jewtown. (Courtesy of Diane Precht)
A family photo in front of their home on East Williams Street in Jewtown. (Courtesy of Diane Precht)
Neighborhood children play on East Williams Street in Jewtown. (Courtesy of Diane Precht)
Past and present members of Jewtown gather for a community reunion in 19?? Although many residents have moved on to other neighborhoods, a tight bond remains amongst the families that lived here during the late 1950s through to the 1990s. (Courtesy of Bill Chaney)
Neighborhood kids do arts and crafts at a makeshift community center in the basement of Disney Church in Jewtown. The parents of the community worked tirelessly to keep their children busy, productive and safe despite having little money. (Courtesy of Diane Precht)
Another example of the activities the adults of Jewtown provided for the kids was teaching them how to maintain a neighborhood garden. Urban farms are more common today but at the time this was an unusual and exciting thing to have in your neighborhood. (Courtesy of Diane Precht)
Diane Precht sits in class with her peers dressed in Halloween costumes. (Courtesy of Diane Precht)
Diane Precht, right, poses with a group of friends in Jewtown. (Courtesy of Diane Precht)
Diane Precht and her mom Daisy take a walk through their old neighborhood recently. (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis)
Bill Chaney, left, snaps a photo on his phone of Diane Precht, right, and her mother Daisy, center, in front of their former home on East Williams Street in Jewtown. (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis)
Bill Chaney stands in front of his childhood home in Jewtown recently. (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis)
Bill Chaney, right, and his high school sweetheart Sharon Oliphant, left, pose for a photograph in Jewtown. (Courtesy of Bill Chaney)

By the third generation, industry began shifting overseas and Jewish families started to leave the neighborhood.

“The end of the industrial revolution came through this community with factories opening and closing,” says Alan Meyers, “Most of them closing in the late 1970s early 1980s and there was no more reason to live here.”

As the Jews moved out, the black workers moved in.

Bill Chaney arrived in the neighborhood with his family in 1957.

“When I moved here I was seven years old and it was culture shock for me,” he says, “to move from the heart of North Philly – 21st and Diamond – which I looked at as being like Africa and then moving here in Jewtown, which was like South Africa.”

“There were no people living in North Philadelphia where I was that were white. The only time I saw Caucasians was when I saw them on TV and when I went down in the Italian Market with my grandmother.”

Diane Precht and Chaney were neighbors and childhood friends.

Diane describes their neighborhood growing up as, “just a small black community.”

“I thought it was like four blocks, but in reality I think it was more like three blocks. It was a lot of close knit families.”

Jewtown Today

Pete, 23, left, says "I've lived in this neighborhood for 13 years. It's pretty cool, I like my neighborhood. I do construction but right now I'm laid off. It's safe but not safe. There's a lot of stuff going on around, drugs and violence, but to me its safe. I keep my little brothers and sisters off the streets though." He is seen here with a younger brother. (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis)
Vacant buildings and lots pepper the landscape of Jewtown today. (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis)
Jason Peterson says he is "an active member and resident of a place called Jewtown. I'm 34 now and I've lived here all my life. The neighborhood is pretty rough, I want to say underworld violence, underworld drugs, underworld prostitution. I'm a real estate investor, a father and a proud member of society. Its destined to change here but I invest elsewhere. I stay because I was born and raised here. You get accustomed and adapted to your environment, its hard to move on when you're so comfortable with the people you're around. I see myself moving in the next year or two." (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis)
A bench and a bit of landscaping can be found in a lot that was once used as a community garden. (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis)
Remnants of a make shift playground still sit in an empty lot in Jewtown. (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis)
Neighborhood kids play basketball at Jewtown Park. Across from the park is a new development of low income housing. The development is receiving mixed views from residents both past and present. The kids say they do not like the neighborhood because there are a lot of drugs and violence. (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis)
Neighborhood kids play basketball at Jewtown Park. The kids say they do not like the neighborhood because there are a lot of drugs and violence. (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis)
A handful of factory buildings remain in Jewtown. (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis)
Neighborhood kids play on East Williams Street near Tulip Street in Jewtown. The white house is the former home of Diane Precht and her family. (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis)
Graffiti on a house reads D-Block Killadelphia and Jew Town. (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis)
A handful of factory buildings remain in Jewtown. (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis)
Vacant buildings and lots pepper the landscape of Jewtown today. (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis)

Chaney’s and Precht’s families had spent time in North Philly where they had seen gang violence and other crime. Jewtown was considered safer, but the black parents kept their kids close.

“We really stayed inside our community,” says Precht, “because it was safer at the time. As a kid we didn’t realize that’s why we had to stay, we were just like ok whatever, and then as you got older you realized okay we stay because it is safer.”

Although under a tight watch, the kids lived a free-range lifestyle within those four blocks.

“This was our world,” describes Chaney, “It was just kind of crazy the type of recreation we would have to entertain ourselves with.”

“We would also sometimes, believe it or not, go down to the slaughterhouse and sneak in there and ride pigs. There was no way in the world you could go into your house and your parent didn’t know where you were. Matter of fact, when you opened up the door they knew right away by the aroma.”

Today, vacant buildings and empty lots pepper the landscape. Precht says everything changed when drugs became a problem, but both she and Chaney say their success later in life is because they grew up here. Chaney worked as a social worker and drug councilor; Precht owns her own hair salon.

Precht looks back fondly at her childhood in Jewtown.

“I’m thinking about all the people I grew up with and it was like amazing. We didn’t have a lot, but we had each other.”

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