Overbrook Park is a

neighborhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...

in the

West Philadelphia West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Although there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the n ...

section of

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, United States. It was founded in the 1940s on the site of a former farm known as Supio's farm, offering new housing for returning GIs and their families. Overbrook Park is a largely

middle-class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Commo ...

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

and historically

Jewish-American American Jews (; ) or Jewish Americans are Americans, American citizens who are Jews, Jewish, whether by Jewish culture, culture, ethnicity, or Judaism, religion. According to a 2020 poll conducted by Pew Research, approximately two thirds of Am ...

neighborhood.

Boundaries

Overbrook Park is bounded by Overbrook to the east, Penn Wynne to the north,

Upper Darby Upper Darby Township, often shortened to Upper Darby, is a home rule township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, the township had a total population of 85,681, making it the state's sixth-most populated mun ...

to the south and west, and Havertown to the west. The main artery is Haverford Avenue which goes into Penn Wynne across City Avenue where it becomes Haverford Road. Haverford Avenue and 75th Street connect it to Lansdowne Avenue on the Overbrook side, which continues south through Upper Darby where it becomes State Road. Haverford Avenue, 76th Street, and 77th Street connect it to City Avenue on the Penn Wynne side. The neighborhood spans for approximately four city blocks west to east along City Avenue, and approximately ten smaller blocks north to south on either side of 76th Street. Overbrook Park has a public school named after Robert Eneas Lamberton, a former Republican mayor of Philadelphia. It was once a K–12 school and the only one of its kind in Philadelphia. Today it is a K-8 school. Lamberton School is located at 75th Street and Woodbine Avenue.

History

Overbrook Park used to have a large Jewish population. There was an Orthodox and a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

. Most of the Jewish people have moved across

City Avenue U.S. Route 1 (US 1) is a major north–south U.S. Route, extending from Key West, Florida, in the south to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canada–United States border in the north. In the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, US 1 runs for ...

( U.S. 1) into neighboring Penn Wynne in Lower Merion Township. The Jewish community of both sides of the border are considered to be one unit and are connected by an

eruv An ''eruv'' (; , , also transliterated as ''eiruv'' or ''erub'', plural: ''eruvin'' or ''eruvim'') is a ritual ''halakhic'' enclosure made for the purpose of allowing activities which are normally Activities prohibited on Shabbat, prohibited ...

, a wire attached to the telephone and electric poles which allows religious Jews to carry things on

Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; , , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the seven-day week, week—i.e., Friday prayer, Friday–Saturday. On this day, religious Jews ...

. The Orthodox Congregation Beth Hamedrosh was founded in the late 1950s as a branch of Beth Hamedrosh HaGadol in West Philadelphia. The congregation moved to Penn Wynne in May 2007, after having purchased the site in 2000. The Building that housed Beth Hamedrosh is now Temple Kefarym, a Black Hebrew congregation which is now boarded up following a fire. The Conservative Congregation Beth T'fillah, originally called Overbrook Park Congregation founded in 1948, closed down in the fall of 2006 and merged with Temple Adath Israel in Merion, Lower Merion Township due to a lack of sufficient membership. The building that housed Beth T'fillah is now Overbrook Park Church of Christ. In 1990, Overbrook Park had some 7,200 residents, mostly of Jewish, Italian and Irish origins. During the mid-1990s, the neighborhood started to become majority African American. By 2000, the neighborhood's population had become nearly 60% African American. Today it is approximately 81% African American Despite the demographic change, there are still several

kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, ), from the Ashke ...

establishments in Overbrook Park. In 2017,

Chabad Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (; ; ), is a dynasty in Hasidic Judaism. Belonging to the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) branch of Orthodox Judaism, it is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, as well as one of ...

of Penn Wynne and Congregation Beth Hamedrosh, formerly of Overbrook Park, were awarded a grant by The Kohelet Foundation to assist with promoting Overbrook Park as an affordable neighborhood for young Jewish families. Starting with

Rosh Hashana Rosh Hashanah (, , ) is the New Year in Judaism. The biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah (, , ). It is the first of the High Holy Days (, , 'Days of Awe"), as specified by Leviticus 23:23–25, that occur in the late summer/early autu ...

in September 2020, Chabad of Penn Wynne is now located in Overbrook Park in the same shopping center that is home to New York Bagels. It was previously located at the Kaiserman JCC across City Line Avenue but had to relocate due to the coronavirus pandemic. After 13 years with no synagogue, Overbrook Park again has a synagogue. Overbrook Park is the birthplace of actor

Seth Green Seth Benjamin Green ( ''né'' Gesshel-Green; born February 8, 1974) is an American actor. His film debut was '' The Hotel New Hampshire'' (1984), and he went on to have supporting roles in comedy films in the 1980s, including '' Radio Days'' ( ...

References

External links

* * Facebook page :https://www.facebook.com/OverbrookParkCivicAssociation {{West Philadelphia Jews and Judaism in Philadelphia Irish-American neighborhoods Overbrook, Philadelphia