South Philly Review

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Though 87, Aaron Gelman speaks with vivid clarity when recalling his past. He not only reels off exact dates and names, but has an interesting story for each.

The numerous mom-and-pop establishments (Gelman can name a bunch) nestled inside his once-predominantly Jewish community have vanished, including his own repair shop named Gelman's TV that opened in 1945. However, there is one building across the street from his home that has withstood the test of time for nearly 80 years.

Along with a neighborhood transition surrounding Sixth and Porter streets, the JCCs Stiffel Senior Center also has gone through a few name and identity changes. In the '20s, Gelman attended Hebrew school and had his bar mitzvah there. Today, he comes for the activities and hot lunches, but stays for the company.

"I'm here every day," Gelman, who teaches chess at the center, said. "I talk to everybody. They all know me here."

Preserving the building's rich history is now the goal of an oral-history project that will commence next month. Organizers are currently searching for people like Gelman whose site-usage has defined its existence.

"It's like looking back at your family tree, more or less," Gelman said of the endeavor.

Resident accounts also are intended to highlight a community once home to a predominantly Jewish population. Scholars have noted about 100,000 Jews lived in South Philly during the '20s. Today, it is estimated that roughly 500 to 1,000 Jews reside south of Washington Avenue.

The project "is really documenting not just the building, but as much as we can about the history of the South Philly Jewish community," volunteer coordinator Mona Sutnick said.

Gelman paints a vivid picture of rows of stores -- particularly on Seventh Street -- where shoppers could pick up a corned beef sandwich, dresses, suits or shoes (particularly at Eagle's Shoes Store or Father and Son) without venturing out of their neighborhood. "You didn't have to go into town. Every street was gorgeous," he said of his "99 percent Jewish" area. "It was a nice environment. When you got up, you know you had the zest for living."

Since friends and loved ones have moved away or died, Gelman's look to the past is bittersweet.

"As I drive through the streets, as happy as I am ... there is a sense of loneliness of some sorts," he said.

However, the resident, now in the religious minority in his community, seems committed to the area. Family and friends have tried to lure him to Northeast Philly, where a strong Jewish population resides, but Gelman refuses to leave.

"The people are nice," he said. "Even today, with the element you got here, I still like them."

At the cornerstone of this neighborhood has been the Sixth-and-Porter building, initially named the Jewish Educational Center No. 2. Children congregated here to learn the Hebrew language and prayers.

Younger families moved out of the area in the '50s, and the building was transformed into a community center that included a nursery school, clubs, classes, summer camps, dances and holiday celebrations.

After merging with the Young Men and Women's Hebrew Association in '66, the center became part of the Jewish Y's and Centers of Greater Philadelphia a year later (now the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Philadelphia).

Not even a fire in '85 could destroy the building's foundation. Monetary support from the Federation of Jewish Agencies of Greater Philadelphia and the Stiffel family helped restore the site.

The oral-history project, enacted partly by Rakmiel Peltz, director of Judaic studies at Drexel University, hopes to bring personal accounts to light. "What we're really looking to do is to document as much as we can and as many people's memories as we can on how the building was used, their experiences, their memories of the building," Sutnick said.

The intent is to place the information into a book. If not feasible, the accounts will be transcribed and stored at the Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Sutnick added.