Here to Stay
The Founding of the Jewish Community in the Shenandoah Valley
Third Thursday Talk, April 16, 2026, 7 pm (hybrid event)
The arrival of the earliest Jews in the Shenandoah Valley is closely connected to the arrival of the railroad. By 1836, the railroad from Baltimore had reached Winchester. That made it possible for retail merchants in Baltimore to send peddlers into the Valley. Most them were young Jewish men, newly arrived from Europe. By 1854, a rail line from Alexandria reached Strasburg, and as it extended up the Valley to Woodstock and Mt Jackson, the peddlers were able to travel further into Rockingham and Augusta County before the Civil War.
After the war, the railroads were restored, and it was not long until another major surge of Jewish merchants came to establish more permanent businesses in the larger towns of Winchester, Harrisonburg and Staunton. The growing Jewish community needed permanent places for worship and education.
Daniel Bly’s book, Here to Stay, is a history of the earliest Jewish settlers (1840-1890), their reasons for coming, and the growth of the Jewish community in the sections of the Valley in the last half of the nineteenth century, and the community’s ties to the economic history of the Shenandoah Valley.
Daniel W. Bly brings a lifetime of scholarship and local insight to the history of the Shenandoah Valley. Raised on land that is now the Fisher’s Hill Battlefield, he experienced firsthand the rhythms of rural and farm life that shaped the region’s past.
A graduate of Bridgewater College with a master’s degree in history from Temple University, Bly spent nearly four decades teaching in the Bridgewater College History Department, inspiring generations of students before retiring as Assistant Professor in 2003. He has also continued sharing his expertise through lifelong learning programs, including courses on the Germans of the Shenandoah Valley at James Madison University.
Bly is a respected author and researcher, with numerous publications exploring family histories, early settlement, and regional culture. His three-volume series From the Rhine to the Shenandoah and his work on local communities, including Here to Stay: The Founding of a Jewish Community in the Shenandoah Valley, reflect his deep commitment to uncovering and preserving the stories that define our area.
Now a resident of Harrisonburg, Bly continues to connect audiences with the rich and complex history of the Valley he has spent a lifetime studying.