Aaron Aronheimer
(2)
1848-1850
Aaron Aronheimer was a charter member of Keneseth Israel and became its second President in 1848. He served one brief term, until 1850. During his tenure, Keneseth Israel founded its religious school, which opened in 1849. Initially the school met on weekday afternoons, but it quickly grew to include Saturday and Sunday sessions as well. Both boys and girls attended the religious school and were taught Hebrew as well as German, the official language of the congregation at the time. The congregation also enjoyed an influx of new members during his term and moved from its first home to a larger rented hall near Fifth and Wood Streets.
Aronheimer was born on July 14, 1814 and lived in Obernbreit, a town in the Franconia region of Germany. Many of the men on his mother’s side of the family worked as glaziers. Aronheimer was the first of his family to arrive in the United States, docking in New York on September 18, 1839. The following year, his brother, Louis, sister, Hannah, and father, Jacob, joined him in the United States. His mother, Gehla, did not survive the journey. Aronheimer worked as a hoop skirt manufacturer. He died on January 26, 1881 and is buried in Mt. Sinai Cemetery in Philadelphia.