Local Focus: The Aaronsburg Story; Big Valley Project
The Aaronsburg Story
In the late eighteenth century, Aaron Levi, a wealthy Orthodox Jew, did an extraordinary thing that has inspired several celebrations in our century. He deeded the town that he had founded to the tiny frontier population of German Protestants and donated a pewter communion service to the Christian church to serve their spiritual needs.
By any standard
of measurement, the Aaronsburg "gift" marks a milestone in the quest for
tolerance between Christians and Jews. In 1949, the citizens of Aaronsburg
recognized the need for this tolerance so soon after the conclusion of
World War II, and they staged The
Aaronsburg Story to honor Jewish-Christian amity, and indeed to
honor the spirit of America that made such tolerance a
cornerstone of its democratic philosophy.
The program included a worship service, a public meeting dedicated to religious
and racial understanding, lectures and symposium, and an open air pageant,
The
Issue of an Ideal.
Doris Mamolen took part in the 1949
celebration, and in 1999, fifty years later, she has generously
offered the following photos
and the program for the events of that celebration to commemorate Aaron
Levi and to recall the spirit that enabled him and his Christian neighbors
to live in peace and
tolerance.
Big Valley Oral History Project
Principle Co-Investigators:Dr. B. Richard Page, Associate Professor of German & Linguistics
Dr. Julia Kasdorf, Associate Professor of English & Women's Studies
Assistants:
Betty Hartzler, Mifflin County Mennonite Historical Society
Willard Martin, Lecturer of German
Graduate Assistant:
Purpose: In the 1790s,
three Amish families settled the Kishacoquillas (Big) Valley in Pennsylvania.
From those first families descended a variety of Anabaptist posterity,
which today spans the entirety of the Anabaptist continuum (ranging from
progressive Mennonites to the most conservative Amish group in North America).
Major lifestyle changes in the Valley to language, culture, literacy, education,
etc. have occurred in the twentieth century and it is the goal of this
project to elicit information about these changes in the Valley.
This project is partially funded by the Max Kade Institute for German-American
Studies at Penn State.
