JTA — An abandoned synagogue in Pennsylvania’s coal region, which until the early 2000s had served Jewish residents of Mahanoy City for more than 80 years, collapsed late Thursday night, officials and neighbors told the local media.

Emergency crews responded to reports of falling walls and scattered debris at the former Beth Israel Synagogue, a brick building whose cornerstone was laid in 1923.

No injuries were reported, according to Skook News, a news site serving Schuylkill County. Crews began demolishing what was left of the building and carted away the debris.

“It’s sad to see the buildings go, I lived in Mahanoy City or I worked here my whole life, and one by one these historic buildings seem to be going,” Paul Coombe, president and historian of the Mahanoy Area Historical Society, told television station WFMZ.

According to local histories, Mahanoy City’s first organized Jewish congregation dated to 1888. Jewish merchants and families had settled in the area — about an hour and a half northeast of Harrisburg — at the turn of the century, opening shops and businesses serving the booming coal economy.

“When we talk about the Jewish communities and the Rust Belt, the Jews didn’t come to be part of that particular industry or that particular labor. They came to support it,” said Alanna Cooper, chair of Jewish Studies at Case-Western University and an authority on synagogues past their prime. “They understood that it was........

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