Echoes from a Ghost Minyan: The Jews of South Philadelphia (1998)
DVD | Color 47 min | Full Screen. Directed by Jo Van Blunk, Gustave Rosario Produced by Jo Van Blunk, Gustave Rosario Written by Joseph Van Blunk Narrated by Joseph Van Blunk
ISBN 978-0-8026-0151-3
Price:$26.95*Home Video includes Public Library Circulation rights.
ISBN 978-0-8026-0152-0
Price:$249.95**Academic and Institutional price including Public Performance rights for non-paying audiences.
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"A Piece of History"
-Philadelphia Inquirer
SummaryOn February 2, 1882 the S.S. Illinois docked on the foot of Federal Street on the Delaware River in South Philadelphia. Among the passengers on board were 225 Russian Jewish refugees.
By the close of World War I almost 40 years later, this trickle of refugees had soared to over 100,000 Jewish immigrants, making South Philadelphia at one time the second largest inner city Jewish neighborhood in North America. This important, flourishing and under-documented Jewish community was preceded in size only by New York's Lower East Side.
After World War II the Jews began leaving South Philadelphia for other parts of the city and surrounding suburbs.
At the close of the 20th century, the original Jewish immigrant community of South Philadelphia had dwindled to less than 500 people.
Using interviews, archival photographs, home movies and present day footage of the remaining community, Echoes from a Ghost Minyan documents this once thriving Jewish neighborhood and illuminates the lives of those who once lived, worked and worshiped there.
