People

The Buffalo region has been home to a wide range of individuals associated with local Jewish communities and Jewish networks from the 1820s through to the contemporary period as immigrants, citizens, residents and locals.

Institutions

Buffalo Jews have a rich history of forming both formal and informal institutions for religious, educational, political and social needs. From synagogues to organizations, and from coordinating agencies to groups and clubs, Jewish Buffalonians have seen a changing range of institutions supported by group endeavors and community philanthropy.

Neighborhoods

In living memory, the East Side and North Buffalo stand out as physically connected and interwoven religious and commercial centers of Jewish living. In contrast to these specific areas are the mini hubs identified with Jewish living and connected to a more dispersed idea of neighborhood. Separately, suburbia with its significant geographic spread, has redefined how a series of Jewish spaces come together with a mix of hubs, focal points and networks.

Themes

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Exhibitions

Special exhibitions, through a focus on particular individuals and subjects, delves into the personal stories that have animated Jewish lives. Each digital exploration reflects on the interplay between place, identities and changing times and the way in which American, Jewish and Buffalo historical experiences are deeply interwoven.

Resources

Materials that document Jewish Buffalo in all its diversity are found in books, articles, archives and museums, many of which are available locally or online. This section highlights some of these sources and will be updated regularly.

Celebrating our culture.
Sharing our stories.

A look into the history of Jewish Buffalo

Groundbreaking for Temple Shaarey Zedek in Getzville, 1968. Photograph created by Frederic Marshall, Buffalo, NY. Courtesy of Temple Beth Tzedek, Williamsville, NY.

Temple Beth David confirmation class, c. 1940s. Courtesy of Arlene Kahn Kissin.

Young Women’s Hebrew Association, Purim Party at the Jewish Community Building, c.1920s. Courtesy of Getelle Rein.

Welcome to the Jewish Buffalo History Center, a community portal for sources and stories of Jewish Buffalo history! This is an evolving and collaborative space for the exploration of this region’s diverse Jewish histories and heritages.

Do you have a question? Click to review our FAQs or contact us!

NEW!

Sokolivka: Once Home

Sokolivka, Sokliefka, Sokolifke … So many names for such a small place on earth, but no matter how families spelled it, it always meant one thing: Once Home. A small village first in the Russian Empire, then in the USSR, now in modern day Ukraine—a shtetl, located on one side of a large pond, and then moved across the bridge to the other side.

 

This exhibition made possible through the generosity of the Kramer and Shuman Families—In loving memory of Leslie Kramer Shuman.

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Community Feature

Poland Jewish Cemeteries Restoration Project (PJCRP)

Poland Jewish Cemeteries Restoration Project (PJCRP)

In the years preceding the formation of the Poland Jewish Cemeteries Restoration Project (PJCRP), Norman and Hannah (nee Cohen) Weinberg had diligently worked on their family genealogies. Like many Jewish families in North America, their family roots lay in Eastern Europe where Jewish communities had suffered centuries of antisemitic policies and violence from pogroms to genocide, culminating in the Holocaust.

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B’nai B’rith Girls

B’nai B’rith Girls

B’nai B’rith Girls formed as a girls youth wing of the local B’nai B’rith parent organization, supported by B’nai B’rith Women. It provided a whole range of social, educational, religious and service opportunities for Jewish girls in Greater Buffalo.

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Latest Additions

Goldberg, Rabbi Dr. Martin L.

Goldberg, Rabbi Dr. Martin L.

Dr. Martin L. Goldberg blended attentive pastoral care and religious leadership in his rabbinic career of more than 40 years as Rabbi, Senior Rabbi and Rabbi Emeritus at Temple Beth Zion. Over many decades, Dr. Goldberg built a reputation as a devoted pulpit rabbi, chaplain and inter-faith leader in Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Western New York.

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Buffalo Jewish Community Honor Roll

Published in September 1945, just a few months after the conclusion of the war, this Honor Roll of Buffalo Jewish men and women who served during WWII is the most comprehensive compilation of Jewish WWII service record.

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A community of communities

Jewish Buffalo stories are local, national and international and part of the breadth of Jewish life in America over the last two centuries. Jewish Buffalonians have created a diverse array of local institutions and organizations, businesses, and initiatives. As part of an ever-evolving Buffalo metropolitan area, Jews have worked to maintain traditions and fashion new ones, with a vital mix of communities old and new, settled and fluid, and ethnically and religiously diverse. Through connection within families, organizations, and their neighbors, Jewish Buffalonians have shaped events, responded to challenges, and catalyzed social and cultural change. Dynamic and evolving, Jewish Buffalo stories are a part of a community of communities in the Buffalo region.

Ahavas Sholem

Ahavas Sholem, in Oscar Israelowitz, ed. Synagogues of the United States: A Photographic and Architectural Survey, Israelowitz Publishing, NY, 1992, p. 69. Reproduced with the permission of the editor.

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