File:1928 - Opening of Jewish Community Center 6th and Chew Streets.jpg

English: Opening of Jewish Community Center 6th and Chew Streets

Us origins date to 1918 when a few of Allentown's leading Jewish citizens began to organize a Community Center "for the establishment of the lives of their neighbors and co-religionists".

At that time the property was dominated by a large 3-story Victorian town home, an orchard, and a greenhouse. It was the home of the late Peter Seibert who had made a small fortune selling rugs, coverlets and yarn by shipping them around Cape Horn to California during the 1848 Gold Rush. He carefully invested his earnings in Allentown real estate. A devout Lutheran until his death around 1914, Siebert had been very active in the city's St. John's Lutheran Church.

Siebert's only child, his daughter Sabina and her husband, Rev. John Amos Scheffer, were Lutheran missionaries who due ill health had been forced to return to Allentown. They wanted to sell the property which they felt was too big for them. But they also wanted also to make a contribution to the community.

On an unknown date in 1919 two visitors interested in buying the Siebert property came to the Scheffer's door. Both men were prominent members of Allentown's Jewish community. One was Samuel Perkin, a jeweler and watchmaker. An immigrant from Russia he had escaped the land of pogroms as a teenager. The other was Dr. David Parmet, a doctor who was part of the first staff of Sacred Heart Hospital. They were not acting on their own but as representatives of the leading Jewish businessmen in the city, led by Max Hess Sr. whose flourishing store at 9th and Hamilton had made him a wealthy man.

Parmet and Perkin explained to the Scheffers that there was a great deal of concern in the Jewish community of Allentown about the younger generation. Not all of them were lucky enough to have well-to-do parents. They were immigrants and the children of immigrants. If they were going to be able to take advantage of the opportunities America offered them, and still be true to their faith, they would need help.

Perkin's and Parmet's words fell on fertile soil. Here was just the sort of project the Scheffers had been hoping for. After a brief talk with his wife, Rev. Scheffer announced they would sell the property and take $6000 off of the original price they had been asking. With that, a deal was struck.

At first the Scheffer's home fulfilled the needs of the founders of the Jewish Community Center. But as early as 1922 it was clear that a Victorian mansion was not always a suitable place for young men who wanted a place to play basketball. The Siebert home, which dated to the 1850s, was torn down in the summer of 1925

The sudden death of Max Hess Sr. that year at age 58 caused the idea of a new center to be put on the shelf. But by 1926, with the nation's economy booming after the post-World War I recession, a fundraising program for a new building was planned. Merchant Charles Kline, supporter of many local Jewish causes, took over its leadership.

On October 31, 1926, a special ceremony was held at the Lyric Theater, now Symphony Hall, to dedicate the cornerstone. The ceremony was moved inside due to the weather, but rain could not dampen the spirits of those who gathered there. David Levy, Allentown's first Jewish architect announced that he was donating his services to design the building. Items placed into the corner stone included an American flag a, prayer shawl and a copy of the Jewish Daily Bulletin.

The building went up rapidly. On May 28, 1928, the dedication ceremony was held. On hand to give the featured address of the day was Rabbi William H. Fineshriber of Philadelphia, one of the best known Jewish clergymen of the time. "It was planned and built in the spirit of the house of God," he said of the center, "so that when our boys and girls come here, they can breathe an atmosphere of Americanism, Judaism and good citizenship."