The Hebrew Section of Greenlawn Cemetery in Portsmouth, Ohio, was established in the early 1850s by members of the Portsmouth Hebrew Benevolent Society and its grounds have served as the final resting place for members of Southern Ohio’s Jewish…

By 1974, Portsmouth’s Jewish community numbered no more than 120 people. The existing syngaogue at Eighth and Gay grew increasingly expensive to maintain and its size no longer fit the needs of the congregation. In 1973, Beneh Abraham’s leadership…

During the 1910s and 1920s Portsmouth’s Jewish community experienced a period of growth. In 1919, an estimated 150 people attended Rosh Hashanah services at Beneh Abraham. This same year, a new Jewish organization, B’nai B’rith, was created in…

Portsmouth is home to Ohio’s third-oldest organized Jewish community. This community, known as Beneh Abraham, or Children of Abraham, also has the distinction of being the oldest Jewish community in the state of Ohio outside of Cleveland and…