Samuel Sherril Feldgoise

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1961 – 1964

Samuel S. Feldgoise served one term as President of Keneseth Israel from 1961 to 1964. At the beginning of his term, a lay committee began planning for the stained glass windows that were to be installed in the new building, Keneseth Israel began a museum to inventory, catalogue, and display the congregation’s artifacts, and in 1962 Rabbi Arnold Fink was hired as assistant rabbi.

Samuel Feldgoise was born on January 1, 1903 in Philadelphia. He worked as a lawyer and as chairman of the hosiery store chain Golden Dawn Shops. Throughout his life he was active in civic, charitable, and Jewish communal affairs. Feldgoise was president of the Jewish Exponent on three occasions, vice president of the Federation of Jewish Agencies, president of the Association for Jewish Children, and a member of the board of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds. He was also involved in United Way (formerly the United Fund), serving as vice president and on the board of trustees, as general vice chairman of Torah Drives for the United Fund, and as first board chairman of the United Health Services, a United Fund-supported agency for community health services, education, and research.

In civic life he served on Mayor James H. J. Tate’s Manpower Utilization Committee and the executive committee of the board of the National Committee for the Employment of Youth. Feldgoise was appointed by Governor William W. Scranton, Jr. to be chairman of the Comprehensive Mental Health and Mental Retardation Planning Committee for the Philadelphia area, helped found the Burn Center at St. Agnes Medical Center, served on the executive committee and board of the eastern division of the Pennsylvania Economy League, and was a member of the Committee of Seventy. In addition, he was a member of the Philmont Country Club and the Locust Club.

Feldgoise married Leona Polin Feldgoise, with whom he had a daughter and three grandchildren. They lived in Mount Airy. Samuel Feldgoise died on July 27, 1989, and is buried at Shalom Memorial Park.