October 13, 2024

Vol. 5, No. 41



The Early 1970s:

Montefiore Hospital Phase IV

Jewish Encyclopedia:

Urban Affairs Foundation

Database:

Maccabi Games athletes

Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life

The "Gut Yontif" Project

Exhibits:

A Woman's Place

Calendar:

Oct 14: Lost Cousins



Community:

URA photographs

SHHS archives

"How We Got Here"

JCBA "Road-Trip"

Research Tools:

Newspapers, Cemeteries,

Memorial Plaques, Books,

Population Figures, Synagogues, Newsletter Archive,

Shul Records America

The Early 1970s:

Montefiore Hospital Phase IV

Black and white aerial photograph of Oakland showing Montefiore Hospital complex around the time of Phase III and Phase IV—c1960s.

—Montefiore Hospital Photographs [MSP 286]

Montefiore Hospital made two big moves in 1969.

In July 1969, the hospital launched Phase IV of its decade-long capital improvement program. It was building out the last 20 percent of a 10-story addition with new services with, as it was described at the time, “new X-ray and clinical laboratories; new admissions, accident, and emergency suites, relocated and expanded Intensive Care and Coronary Care units."

The funds for the first three phases had come mostly from a small circle of sources: the federal government, the Ladies Hospital Aid Society, and a few private donors. One of the biggest gifts during Phase IV was $500,000 from the Richard King Mellon Charitable Trust in 1971. In the citation for that gift, the foundation noted the importance of another recent development.

Montefiore joined the University Health Center in December 1969. The health care complex had begun in 1965, and by the end of the decade included five other hospitals: Children’s, Eye and Ear, Magee-Women’s, Presbyterian, and Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. The stated goal was to improve patient care and reduce costs by making services available across the system.

Black and white photograph of the exterior of the Ladies Hospital Aid Society Auditorium in the Frank Wing of Montefiore Hospital, completed during Phase IV—undated.

—Montefiore Hospital Photographs [MSP 286]

Montefiore Hospital opened in 1908 as a health care facility designed to meet the needs of the Jewish community—Jewish patients and Jewish doctors, alike. Already by the early 1920s, the hospital was discussing the possibility of affiliating with the University of Pittsburgh. The two organizations began partnering in various ways throughout the 1950s and 1960s, but joining the University Health Center represented a new level of integration, eventually leading to the sale of Montefiore Hospital to the UPMC system in 1990.

These developments intensified a debate over the purpose of a Jewish hospital in an era of increasing Jewish cultural integration into American society. Harry Golden devoted much of his profile of Pittsburgh to this question.

“And you are worried about the possible extinction of the Jewish hospital?” he asked Dr. Yale David Koskoff, neurosurgeon and president of the medical staff.

“It is probably insane to pass a law which will deprive a man of two or three years of his freedom for shooting a bald eagle from a Piper Cub. And it is insane unless you are quite serious about preserving bald eagles,” Koskoff said. “The Jewish hospital is a bald eagle. There are few of them and they have a symbolic value past all worth.” And then the quotation continued: “When there is a dearth of doctors, the minorities get a break. There may not always be a dearth. Maybe the minorities won’t be as lucky in the coming decades as they have been in the past, if lucky is what you want to call it.”

But an anonymous businessman quoted in the profile said that the Richard King Mellon Charitable Trust donation to Montefiore Hospital was more significant and impactful for the Jewish community than parallel efforts at the time to integrate the Duquesne Club. Broadening support for the hospital had freed the Jewish community to support other causes, he said.

Montefiore Hospital launched Phase V of its campaign in September 1976. It was a two-stage program to raise $30 million toward campus expansions.

All year, the Rauh Jewish Archives is highlighting stories of Jewish life in Western Pennsylvania in the early 1970s. If you would like to donate a material from this time period, or any historic materials documenting Jewish life in this region, contact the archive or call 412-454-6406.

Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania:

Urban Affairs Foundation

Saul Shapira—undated.

—Jewish Chronicle Records [MSS 906]

The Rauh Jewish Archives recently published a finding aid and meeting minute index for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh Records [MSS 287]. As part of that effort, we’re using this space for the next few weeks to summarize the history of the organization and its predecessors and projects.

Throughout its first half-century, the United Jewish Federation focused predominantly on Jewish issues—first locally and then expanding overseas.

The Urban Affairs Foundation was announced in July 1968 for the Jewish community to contribute directly to cross-communal relationships. The initiative followed a series of intense months: the expansion of the Vietnam War, the assassination of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the unrest that followed, the turmoil of the 1968 election, the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, and various acts of violence and radicalism across the country.

Earlier efforts by the UJF to address wider civic issues had often emerged from overlapping interests with Jewish issues, such as the work of the Jewish Community Relations Council in the 1940s to promote human relations. The Urban Affairs Foundation would fund interdenominational projects designed to improve the lives of Black people in the city and to alleviate urban poverty. 

Perhaps anticipating debates within the Jewish community, the United Jewish Federation structured its new initiative as a distinct foundation. The idea was to honor donor intent. Those who felt that a Jewish organization should only support Jewish communal causes could give through traditional channels. Those who wanted to support this new cause could donate to it directly.

“The violence in our country is an expression of the severity of our problems and our frustration at our inability to deal with them,” United Jewish Federation Chair Saul Shapira said in an October 1968 address, explaining the purpose of the new Urban Affairs Foundation. “One thing is becoming clear. The very quality and character of our lives are at stake. None of us can stand aside. Somehow or other we must try to control the course of events.”

Database:

Maccabi Games

Color photograph of the Pittsburgh JCC Maccabi Games girls basketball team—1986.

—Jewish Sports Hall of Fame Photographs [MSP 308]

The JCC Maccabi Games will be coming to Pittsburgh next summer. The games bring together great teenage athletes from across the country and also serve as a community and character building exercise for Jewish youth.

As part of the celebrations, the Rauh Jewish Archives is creating a database of local JCC Maccabi athletes. It currently lists 1,702 names between 1991 and 2023, based on the banners in the gymnasium of the JCC Squirrel Hill. 

The Rauh Jewish Archives is looking to expand this database with additional names going back to the start of the games in 1982, as well as photographs, documents, and stories. If you have JCC Maccabi material you would like to share, please contact the archive at rjarchives@heinzhistorycenter.org.

Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life

The Gut Yontif Project: Sukkot

Our exhibit “Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life” is something relatively rare in Pittsburgh: a celebration of the career of a living, local artist. While we look back, we also want to look forward. And so, as part of the exhibit, the Rauh Jewish Archives is launching a four-part program series tied to upcoming Jewish holidays. It’s called “Gut Yontif!” We’ve invited a new generation of local Jewish artists to create holiday celebrations for the entire community. 

“Gut Yontif!” (a Yiddish greeting equivalent to "Happy Holiday") begins Sunday, October 20 at 5 p.m. when sculptor Oreen Cohen will build a pop-up sukkah at the Heinz History Center. Inside this warm and protective space, Cohen will host an interactive performance where the public can find community and catharsis at this complicated moment of grief, remembrance, and holiday joy.

The series will continue on Saturday night, December 28 with a fiery Chanukah celebration from Rosabel Rosalind, then on Thursday, February 13 with an intimate Tu B’shvat seder from Lydia Rosenberg, and finally on Wednesday, March 12 with an all-embracing Purim party from Olivia Devorah Tucker. 

The “Gut Yontif!” series is made possible thanks to a generous grant from the SteelTree Fund of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

"Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life" will be on display in the Barensfeld Gallery on the fifth floor of the Heinz History Center through April 6, 2025.

Exhibit:

A Woman's Place: How Women Shaped Pittsburgh

“How Mrs. Enoch Rauh ushered in the year 1913 — on Dec. 31st 1912.”

—from Richard E. Rauh Papers [MSS 301]

From pioneering investigative journalism to leading their country to Olympic gold, Western Pennsylvania women have made an immeasurable impact in America, but too often, their stories have been overlooked.

The Heinz History Center is taking an unprecedented deep dive into the lives of these fierce and unflappable women who helped change the world inside a major new exhibition, A Woman’s Place: How Women Shaped Pittsburgh.

Take an interactive, thematic journey through Western Pennsylvania women’s history from the early 1800s to modern day that will showcase the stories of entrepreneurs and activists, artists and athletes, scientists and inventors, and changemakers and barrier breakers. Through more than 250 artifacts, immersive experiences, and striking archival images, A Woman’s Place will reveal how women have made Pittsburgh and the world a better place.  

Oct. 14:

JGS Pittsburgh Presents:

Gone Girl: Strategies for Finding

a VERY Long-Lost Female Cousin

DNA and document strategies will be unfolded in this quest for a female cousin. Finding females is a common genealogical challenge. When the woman does not want to be found, the challenge becomes even greater. Learn techniques for breaking through a brick wall and as well as the new problems on the other side of that wall.

The program is Monday, October 14 from 7:30-9:30 p.m. ET. This is an online program, occurring exclusively on Zoom. The program will be recorded, and the recording will be made available to current JGS-Pittsburgh members. 

“Gone Girl: Strategies for Finding a VERY Long-Lost Female Cousin” with Rhoda Miller is a collaboration between the Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh and the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center. Please register online. The program is free for JGS-Pittsburgh members and $5 for the general public. To become a member of the JGS-Pittsburgh and receive a free membership code for this program, please visit its website.

This program is possible through the generous support of the William M. Lowenstein Genealogical Research Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation.

Rhoda Miller, Ed.D., CG® has been a Certified Genealogist since 1998, retired 2023, specializing in Jewish research and Holocaust studies. Rhoda is a Past President of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Long Island (JGSLI) and currently serves on the Liaison Committee of the International Association of Jewish Genealogy Societies (IAJGS). With JGSLI, she led the award-winning project of publishing Jewish Community of Long Island. She is a past board member of LitvakSIG and is currently the Coordinator for the Svencionys Research District. Rhoda retired as a Genealogist Researcher for Ancestry ProGenealogists. In May 2025, she will be the featured Jewish genealogist on a Mediterranean cruise.

Community

Urban Redevelopment Authority Archives

The City of Pittsburgh Archives has launched a new digital archive containing thousands of photographs and documents spanning more than two centuries. Of particular interest to local Jewish history is a collection of more than 2,000 photographs of properties in the lower Hill District taken by the Urban Redevelopment Authority in the late 1950s prior to demolitions in the area. 

Squirrel Hill Historical Society Archives

Squirrel Hill Historical Society has added a collection of 60 historic images of Squirrel Hill to the Historic Pittsburgh website. The collection contains selected images from three organizations: the Squirrel Hill Historical Society, Squirrel Hill Urban  Coalition, and Mary S. Brown Memorial-Ames United Methodist Church. The photographs document many aspects of life in Squirrel Hill, including many beloved businesses from the 1990s that no longer exist.

From the Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh

"How We Got Here"

Each family is unique. 

Each family has its own traditions, its own spirit, and its own dynamics. 

Despite all these differences, every Jewish family in Western Pennsylvania has at least one thing in common: They all have a story about how they got here.

Perhaps your family sailed in steerage across the Atlanti in the 19th century.

Or perhaps your family drove the Pennsylvania Turnpike in a station wagon in the 1960s to work for the universities and hospitals during Renaissance.

Or perhaps your arrival into one of the many Jewish communities of Western Pennsylvania involves marriage, or conversion, or a surprising DNA discovery.

Each of these stories is special, and each contributes to the larger story of our community. To collect and honor these origin stories, the Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh is launching a new initiative called “How We Got Here.” To participate, just write a short account explaining how you or your ancestors came to settle in Western Pennsylvania. All stories are welcome.

Stories will be eligible for inclusion in the JGS-Pittsburgh’s monthly newsletter Z’chor and also for preservation in the Rauh Jewish Archives. For more information about this initiative, or to contribute, contact Eric Lidji.

From the Jewish Cemetery & Burial Association

"Road Trip: The Jewish Cemeteries of Western Pennsylvania"

The Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association of Greater Pittsburgh has released a new documentary showcasing Jewish cemeteries in Western Pennsylvania.

“Road Trip: The Jewish Cemeteries of Western Pennsylvania” is a one-hour tour of the many cemetery properties overseen by the JCBA, as well as an overview of the organization’s ongoing work to care for these sacred burial grounds. The video is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate these special Jewish cultural sites in our region. The video includes many historic photographs and documents from the collections of the Rauh Jewish Archives. 

Research Tools

The Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project contains digitized, searchable copies of four local English-language Jewish newspapers between 1895 and 2010. It is a valuable tool for researching almost any topic about Jewish history in Western Pennsylvania. For a primer on using the website, watch our video.

Western Pennsylvania Jewish Cemetery Project

The Rauh Jewish Archives launched the Western Pennsylvania Jewish Cemetery Project in 1998 to preserve burial records from Jewish cemeteries across the region. Over a period of fifteen years, the information was compiled into a searchable, online database containing approximately 50,000 burial records from 78 Jewish cemeteries throughout the region.

Western Pennsylvania Yahrzeit Plaques Project

The Rauh Jewish Archives launched the Western Pennsylvania Yahrzeit Plaques Project in 2020. The goal was to create a comprehensive collection of burial records from memorial boards at synagogues across the region. Volunteers are currently transcribing these boards and records are being added monthly to our online database. The database currently contains more than 2,700 listings.

Rauh Jewish Archives Bibliography

University of Pittsburgh librarian and Rauh Jewish Archives volunteer Laurie Cohen created this comprehensive bibliography of the Rauh Jewish Archives library holdings from 1988 through 2018. It lists nearly 350 volumes arranged by type and then by subject. This a great tool to use early in your research process, as you’re surveying available resources on a given subject.

Jewish Population Estimates

Looking to figure out how many Jews lived in a certain part of Western Pennsylvania at a certain moment in time? This bibliography includes more than 30 estimates of the Jewish population of Pittsburgh and small-towns throughout the region, conducted between 1852 and 2017.

Synagogues

A database of buildings throughout Western Pennsylvania known to have hosted Jewish worship services. Includes links to photographs and citations with original source material. Database currently includes 90 locations from 2 institutions

Rauh Jewish Archives Newsletter

The Rauh Jewish Archives has been publishing a weekly newsletter since 2020. The newsletter contains a variety of articles about local Jewish history, including much original research not found anywhere else. You can find and read every issue—more than 150!— in our new index.

Shul Records America

Online finding aid from JewishGen listing congregational archival collections held at publicly accessible repositories across the United States. Includes 63 listings from the Rauh Jewish Archives, as well as other repositories with Western Pennsylvania congregational records.

The Rauh Jewish Archives was founded on November 1, 1988 to collect and preserve the documentary history of Jewish life in Western Pennsylvania and to make it available to the world through research assistance, programing, exhibits, publications, and partnerships.

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