This story originally appeared in The Centre County Gazette.
“The Aaronsburg Story” was a historic event that gripped an audience of more than 40,000 people on Oct. 23, 1949, and local residents will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of the occasion at Salem Lutheran Church at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 26.
The Penns Valley Historical Society and Salem Lutheran Church with Bellefonte resident Julia Spicher Kasdorf, an essayist, poet and liberal arts professor of English at Penn State, are sponsoring the event.
“Rural life was at the center of ‘The Aaronsburg Story.’ Sponsored by the office of Pennsylvania Governor Duff, with substantial help from Penn State, the day trained a spotlight on the racial and religious tolerance that does exist in rural communities, despite conventional wisdom to the contrary,” a statement from the anniversary celebration highlighted.
Organizers for the event noted that its goal is to honor the historical events that took place at the event in 1949 “with the proviso that the inclusiveness intended at the original celebration be the standard used for this commemoration.” The event 75 years ago sought to leave its audience with a message of tolerance in the wake of World War II.
At the anniversary celebration, there will be a reading of Ralph Bunche’s original 1949 speech. Additionally, at the event, guests will have the opportunity to view the restored version of the 1951 short film, “The Aaronsburg Story,” as well as sing hymns of peace together. A Penns Valley High School senior student of history or English will be awarded a $500 prize for an essay on tolerance.
Associate for Congregational Vitality and Shaped by Faith and Interim Transition Minister for the Episcopal Church in Central Pennsylvania, Kevin Barron, will deliver Bunche’s speech with a call for peace and justice.
“There is but one road to peace and that is the road of human understanding. There can be one secure foundation for peace and justice in the world. That foundation must be in the hearts and minds of men,” the statement for the anniversary event shared.
“Bunche’s participation in ‘The Aaronsburg Story’ was itself a coup, as he had served as a mediator during the 1948 Palestinian conflict between the Arab and Jewish people, winning a Nobel Peace Prize in 1950 for that work. A wide array of notable figures from government and religious life, international media and Hollywood stars attended the event. It was, by all accounts, a thrilling event.”
Members of the audience will have the chance to identify their ancestors on the enlarged pages of the original program, “The Issue of Ideal.” The piece is a pageant describing the town’s founding, written specifically for the occasion by Penn State professor, W. R. Gordon, and scores were performed by Centre County and Aaronsburg residents in 1949.
“’The Issue of an Ideal’ pageant recalls the generous acts of Aaronsburg founding father, Aaron Levy, a Jewish merchant who established the town and sold land to German immigrants after the 1754 Albany Purchase and 1768 Treaty of Stanwix made white settlement land legal in central Pennsylvania,” the statement said. “Levy gave two lots to the German Lutheran settlers to build their church, school and cemetery, as well as a communion set created by the most skilled craftsmen in Philadelphia. The communion set will be on view at the 75th-anniversary celebration.”
The Penns Valley Historical Society will be open from noon to 5 p.m. during the event on Saturday, Oct. 26 and Salem Lutheran Church is handicap accessible. Funding for the anniversary event was provided by 3 Dots Downtown.
