Jewish Maryland: Park Heights, Pikesville and Montgomery County

Maryland holds roughly 239,000 Jews, split between two centres that have little to do with one another: Baltimore in the north and the Washington suburbs of Montgomery County in the south.

Baltimore

Jews have lived in Maryland since 1729. The first settlement was in East Baltimore, in a district called Jonestown.

Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, founded in 1830 as Nidchei Yisrael, was the city's first synagogue. It began Orthodox and is Reform today. Its first rabbi, Abraham Rice, came from Germany and was the first rabbi with semicha to serve in the United States. The congregation's buildings trace the community's movement: Lloyd Street in 1845, Madison Avenue in 1891, Park Heights Avenue in 1951.

Park Heights

The Park Circle district, built between 1900 and 1930, was the first Jewish suburb: brick porch-front duplexes and rowhouses where the children of Eastern European immigrants moved out from East Baltimore. Through the 1960s this was the city's largest Jewish neighbourhood.

One number captures it: Upper Park Heights was 83 percent Jewish in 1968.

It did not last. Blockbusting emptied the neighbourhood over the following decade, and the supermarkets, shuls and businesses moved a few miles northwest to Pikesville and Randallstown. Baltimore's Jewish neighbourhoods were also among the few that admitted Black families, which made them the target.

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Pikesville Today

The 2020 Baltimore community study, run by Brandeis, found the community strongest in Pikesville, Owings Mills, and the Park Heights and Cheswolde neighbourhoods of the city, where most central institutions sit.

Two findings cut against expectation. Jewish young adults aged 18 to 34 disproportionately live in the city itself, not the suburbs — the opposite of the usual American pattern. And the community is less uniformly comfortable than its reputation suggests: 4 percent describe their standard of living as prosperous and 31 percent as living very comfortably, but 13 percent say they are just getting along, with a further 3 percent nearly poor or poor.

Downtown now counts roughly 3,700 Jewish households, enough to revive B'nai Israel and open a community centre.

Montgomery County

Maryland's largest Jewish population is in the Washington suburbs: roughly 116,700 people as of 2017. The centre is the Rockville and Potomac area, with substantial communities in Bethesda and Chevy Chase and in the Kemp Mill neighbourhood of Silver Spring.

This is a different community from Baltimore's: younger as a settlement, more professional, tied to Washington rather than to a century of local institutions.

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Common Questions

How many Jews live in Maryland?

Roughly 239,000. Baltimore and Baltimore County hold around 100,000; the Washington suburbs of Montgomery and Prince George's Counties about 116,700.

What happened to Park Heights?

Upper Park Heights was 83 percent Jewish in 1968. Blockbusting emptied it over the following decade and the community moved northwest to Pikesville and Randallstown.

Where do Jews live in Baltimore now?

Pikesville and Owings Mills in the suburbs, plus the Park Heights and Cheswolde neighbourhoods inside the city, where most institutions remain.

Is the Baltimore Jewish community wealthy?

Less uniformly than assumed. The 2020 community study found 13 percent of households just getting along and a further 3 percent nearly poor or poor.

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