The annual Northwest Jewish Festival.

A stone colonial house with a sukkah.

Northwest Philadelphia is home to a vibrant Jewish community which is both religiously and culturally diverse. These pages introduce you to this wide spectrum and to our entire community. Philadelphia’s historic Northwest includes Mt. Airy at its center, as well as Chestnut Hill, Germantown, Roxborough, East Falls, and Manayunk The greatest concentration of Jewish households in the Northwest is in Mt. Airy. Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Jewish Renewal and Secular Jews live in Mt. Airy, and the area is known widely as a center of progressive Jewish life.

The area boasts a wide range of housing, from apartments to mansions. In the spring, the exuberance of blossoming dogwoods, cherry trees, azaleas and rhododendrons is truly breathtaking. Nearby Valley Green offers beautiful scenery, walking and bicycling paths, and solitude, moments from the hustle and bustle. Convenient transportation by bus, commuter rail or automobile -- a 25-minute ride -- takes you to the cultural center of the nation’s fifth largest city.

Community is a way of life here. While people throughout the country seem to be increasingly isolated from each other, in Mt. Airy neighbors exchange keys, share garden produce and help each other in times of need. Our 50-year old baby-sitting co-op and more than 25-year old Weaver’s Way Food Co-op are Mt. Airy institutions. A “senior” support group helps older residents remain a vibrant part of the community while supporting each other in case of need. Annual block parties and Town Watch organizations help to introduce newcomers and cement friendships.

Mt. Airy Day

Every May, thousands gather to celebrate the neigborhood at Mt. Airy Day. Formal structures, such as the Chestnut Hill Community Association, East and West Mt. Airy Neighbors, and the Northwest Interfaith Movement publish local newspapers, hold open forums, sponsor art festivals, concerts and historical remembrances, and tend to traffic, zoning and quality of life issues. The interests of the business community are addressed through the Mt. Airy Business Association and the community development organization, Mt. Airy, USA, both of which work cooperatively with the community.

This web site is presented by the Northwest Neighborhood Division of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Philadelphia (JCRC)
and sponsored partly through a grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.

The site was designed by Michael Kleiner Public Relations Consulting and Web Design.
The graphic in the banner is a Tree of Life and was painted by Betsy Teutsch.
Photos in the site courtesy of Michael Kleiner, Betsy Teutsch, Jonna Naylor of Mt. Airy Learning Tree, Eve Gottesman,
Rachel Gross, Germantown Jewish Centre, National Havurah Committee, JCRC, Cliveden of the National Trust, Valley Green Inn,
Trolley Car Diner (Lien-Nibauer Photography), Bill Dikeman of Mt. Airy Business Association, and Melvin Chappell (Morris Arboretum).
Clip art from Bitsela Artz.
© Copyright JCRC-NW Philadelphia 2000

We link to Jewish Link, a resource with links to Jewish web sites around the world, and Jewish Path, a cyberspace highway to Jewish Learning.