Of the 282,000 Jews in the state, 250,000 live in the Philadelphia area, and 40,000 live in Pittsburgh. Smaller communities exist in Harrisburg (7,000), Scranton and Wilkes-Barre (3,200 each), and Lancaster (2,500). Jewish life started in Philadelphia in 1738 when Nathan Levy bought a burial plot. It started in Pittsburgh in 1760. Jews played an important part in the Revolutionary War. In the 1850’s there was an influx of German Jews, and in the Civil War more than 500 Jews served in the Union Army. In the early years of the 20th century, close to 100,000 Jews arrived in the state from Eastern Europe, giving rise to today’s large urban communities.