This is the old bimah in the previous sanctuary of the Pelham Jewish Center.

The Pelham Jewish Center was founded in 1953, and grew out of the Pelham Community League, a community center, not a synagogue.  It was created to meet the social and educational needs of Pelham’s Jews.  For one year, the PJC rented space in Pelham’s Community Church, then moved to the second floor of a commercial building at the corner of Pelhamdale and Boston Post Road.  Eventually, the Pelham Jewish Center decided to become a religious organization and incorporated as a Conservative synagogue.  To serve as rabbis, the synagogue hired students from the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan. 

By 1956, the small group of families that constituted the PJC, raised $40,000 to purchase a house in an upscale residential section of Pelham.  It established the PJC in that house where it remains today.

Over the past 50 years, almost everything else has changed. For one thing, the PJC has grown. No longer a strictly local institution, it now attracts members from Larchmont, New Rochelle, Mount Vernon, the Bronx, Bronxville, Parkchester, Eastchester, New York City and the borough of Queens. The Pelham Jewish Center is an integral part of the Pelham community.  Rabbi Schuck actively serves on the Pelham Interfaith Committee, as a member of the Board of Directors of the Pelham Guidance Council, and as a chaplain for the Pelham Fire House.  Our synagogue sponsors many programs with local churches and social action organizations.

Having raised $1.5 million, by 2005 the PJC undertook its first expansion and renovation.  During this time, while it's members were "homeless," two local churches, St. Catharine’s and the Parish of Christ the Redeemer, opened their doors to offer us space for services, a Hebrew school, an administrative office, and programs.  These remarkable acts of kindness and generosity enabled the synagogue to devote its limited resources entirely to expanding, updating and refurbishing its home.

There is only one of the founding members (at age 101) still alive.  The Pelham Jewish Center is blessed that this member is still attending services and coming to adult ed classes.  We are deeply grateful to all the founding members for the work they did to bequeath us this sacred space where we worship, learn, and grow as Jews.