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.

Centerland extension location, Beaver Island State Park, Grand Island, NY, c. 1943

Centerland extension location, Beaver Island State Park, Grand Island, NY, c. 1943. Photograph created by Frederic Marschall. Courtesy of Getelle Rein.

Agencies  /  Jewish Community Center  /
Camp Centerland

Centerland extension location, Beaver Island State Park, Grand Island, NY, c. 1943

Centerland extension location, Beaver Island State Park, Grand Island, NY, c. 1943. Photograph created by Frederic Marschall. Courtesy of Getelle Rein.

Overview

Camp Centerland began as an extended summer option for young children at the Jewish Community Center known as Centerland. This program expanded in the period following World War II from a patchwork of day programming at Beaver Island for older children and at Temple Emanu-El for younger aged children. The day camps featured “trips, games, entertainments and celebrations of Jewish themes.” In this form it ran as a multi-site program for several years, when the dissolution of the Western New York Orphan Asylum released funds that offered the possibility of a consolidated site. In 1954 part of this fund allowed the Centerland program to develop its own facility, purchased by the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies. Camp Centerland opened in the summer of 1955, at the former Sprucelands Day Camp, on a 78-acre property in rural Elma on Bullis Road. It added facilities over several decades including an archery range, a farm and an arts, crafts and pottery center. The camp also opened for free family use on Sundays and was rented by local congregations for High Holidays observances.

As part of a strategic consolidation of Jewish Center operations, the Elma site was sold in 2012. The new Camp Centerland re-opened adjacent to the Jewish Community Center Benderson Family Building in Getzville in 2013 as part of a broader consolidation of Jewish community agencies into the suburban hub. Through a $1 million gift in 2014 from the family of the late Irving Shuman, the site was renamed Camp Centerland at the Irving M. Shuman Campgrounds. An all new arts and crafts building was built in honor of Gretchen Gross, by Gordon Gross, past-president of the JCC in 2015. Named the Gretchen S. Gross Omanut Center, it houses pottery wheels and a kiln, and dedicated areas for jewelry making, painting and other crafts. Since 2013, the site has grown to include an archery range, arts-and-crafts pavilions, low-ropes courses, a climbing tower with double zip lines and high ropes course, a baseball diamond, soccer fields, a basketball and hockey court, as well as hiking and nature trails.

Camp Centerland Website

Locations over the years

Gallery

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