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The Early 1970s:
23rd District
Jewish Encyclopedia:
Hadassah
Family Clubs:
Rosenfeld-Cohen Cousins Club
Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life
Chanukah
Exhibits:
A Woman's Place
Calendar:
Dec. 28: Gut Yontif
Jan. 9: "Teach Them to Your Children"
Community:
URA photographs
SHHS archives
JCBA "Road-Trip"
Research Tools:
Newspapers, Cemeteries,
Memorial Plaques, Books,
Population Figures, Synagogues, Newsletter Archive,
Shul Records America
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The Early 1970s:
23rd District
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[LEFT] Newspaper advertisement for candidate Bernard Markovitz—Nov. 2, 1972.
[RIGHT] Newspaper advertisement for candidate Ivan Itkin—Oct. 26, 1972.
—Jewish Chronicle
Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project
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Pennsylvania convened a constitutional convention in 1967, revisiting the Constitution of 1874. Under the new Constitution of 1968, the Commonwealth was divided into 50 senatorial and 203 representative districts of roughly similar size. This redistricting included an important geographic note: “Unless absolutely necessary no county, city, incorporated town, borough, township or ward shall be divided in forming either a senatorial or representative district.”
Under the previous system, districts had been fixed to county boundaries. The more populous the county, the more representatives it had. Rep. Gerald Kaufmann (D) had been one of 29 representatives for Allegheny County. Under the new system, he became representative for the new 23rd district covering Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, Greenfield and parts of surrounding neighborhoods.
This redistricting gave a new degree of political representation to the largest Jewish settlement in Western Pennsylvania just as that settlement was starting to shrink. Squirrel Hill had accounted for 55 percent of the Jewish population of the county in 1963 but had fallen to 41.1 percent in 1976, according to Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh population surveys. The change reflected a Jewish migration to the eastern suburbs and the South Hills.
Rep. Kaufman was reelected in 1970 but decided not to run in 1972, creating the first election in the 23rd district without an incumbent. A close race ensued between Ivan Itkin (D) and Bernard Markovitz (R). Itkin won by 277 votes.
Such a small margin cannot be attributed to any one cause, but many who endorsed Itkin pointed to his experience as the 14th Ward Democratic Chairman. Itkin retired in 1999 and was succeeded by Rep. Dan Frankel.
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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. | |
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Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania:
Hadassah of Western Pennsylvania
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Black and white photograph of Hadassah march down Fifth Avenue in Pittsburgh—c1920.
—Corinne Azen Krause Photographs [MSP 113]
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The Palestine Welfare Society of Allegheny County was formed in late 1913 or early 1914, following a fact-finding visit to Palestine by Dr. J. Leonard Levy of Rodef Shalom Congregation and a public visit to Pittsburgh by Hadassah Founder and President Henrietta Szold under the auspices of the Zionist Council of Pittsburgh. The Palestine Welfare Society was created to raise funds to provide medical care for Jewish people living in Palestine, and specifically to underwrite a traveling “Pittsburgh Nurse” to send overseas. With the start of American involvement in World War I in early 1917, the funds for the traveling nurse were instead diverted to a medical unit being organized by Hadassah.
Hadassah began in 1912. Discussions for a Pittsburgh chapter began in May 1916, when members of the local Daughters of Zion held a meeting at the Fort Pitt Hotel. The Pittsburgh chapter was formally established on Feb. 18, 1917 with Rachel Vixman as president. The Pittsburgh chapter grew through World War I and into World War II with 13 study groups in Pittsburgh by 1940.
Hadassah organized groups in nearby towns, including Aliquippa, Beaver Valley, Butler, Canonsburg, Carnegie, Clairton, Ellwood City-Wampum, Homestead, Irwin, Johnstown, Kiski-Valley, Kittanning, McDonald, McKeesport, New Castle, New Kensington, Oil City, Punxsutawney, Shenango Valley, Uniontown, Washington, and Westmoreland-Fayette.
Hadassah reorganized its local operations in 1948 to create six neighborhood-based groups. The groups were originally numbered but received names in 1971. Hadassah of Greater Pittsburgh grew to have some 4,200 members across 24 groups by the early 1990s. Hadassah merged Pittsburgh operations into its Detroit chapter in 2020 and disbanded the Pittsburgh chapter in 2022.
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The Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania brings together numerous online resources into a clearinghouse for conducting research about Jewish history in this region. As we migrate information to this new website, we’ll be announcing new entries and resources in this section of the newsletter. | |
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Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life
Chanukah
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Cover of the Jewish Chronicle featuring Louise Silk chanukah quilt—Dec. 18, 2003.
—Jewish Chronicle
Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project
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The Jewish Chronicle used to publish original works of locally made art for the covers of its holiday editions. The cover of its Dec. 18, 2003 edition featured a photograph of a Chanukah quilt by Louise Silk. The quilt had the letters that appear on a dreidel: Nun-Gimel-Hey-Shin, representing the Hebrew phrase “A great miracle happened there.” The nine flames atop the letters represented the nine branches of the Chanukah menorah.
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The Rauh Jewish Archives will be celebrating Chanukah with the next session of our series “Gut Yontif: A Patchwork Holiday Experience.”
Rosabel Rosalind is leading special Chanukah havdalah service on Saturday, Dec. 28. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. The event begins at 7 p.m.
Rosalind has created a series of gorgeous hand-painted silk tapestries, each emblazoned with a powerful flame motif. She will illuminate them one by one as part of an outdoor candle-lighting ceremony that brings awareness to moments of transition in our lives as individuals and communities.
There will be kosher wine and sufganyiot (The Pop Cakery).
The next installments of our Gut Yontif! series will be Thursday, Feb. 13 with an intimate Tu B’shvat seder from Lydia Rosenberg, and 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.
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Exhibit:
A Woman's Place: How Women Shaped Pittsburgh
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“How Mrs. Enoch Rauh ushered in the year 1913 — on Dec. 31st 1912.”
—from Richard E. Rauh Papers [MSS 301]
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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.
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Jan. 9:
"Teach Them To Your Children"
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Since the times of the Talmud, Jewish education has been a communal responsibility. How has Western Pennsylvania met this challenge?
In a fast-paced and engaging monthly series “Teach Them To Your Children,” Rauh Jewish Archives Director Eric Lidji will cover 150 years of Jewish educational initiatives in Western Pennsylvania, showing how our community has perpetuated Jewish knowledge from generation to generation.
This series will take place monthly in the Community Day School library (2743 Beechwood Blvd.) on Thursday evenings at 7 p.m.
The series begins Thursday, Jan. 9 with a look at educational initiatives created between 1850 and 1890. A small local Jewish population faced numerous challenges, including internal divisions, the lack of good Jewish libraries and trained religious school teachers, the beginnings of Eastern European immigration, the rise of public schools, and a wave of Christian evangelism. And yet it managed to close the century with several enduring Jewish schools.
The schedule for the rest of the year includes:
Feb. 6—The 1910s
March 6—The 1920s
April 10—The 1930s
May 8—The 1940s
June 12—The 1950s
July 10—The 1960s
Aug. 14—The 1970s
Sept. 11—The 1980s
Oct. 9—The 1990s
Nov. 13—The 2000s
Dec. 11—The Future
"Teach Them To Your Children" is presented by Community Day School, Hillel
Academy of Pittsburgh, and Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh.
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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 Cemetery & Burial Association
"Road Trip: The Jewish Cemeteries of Western Pennsylvania"
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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.
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Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project | |
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. | |
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Western Pennsylvania Jewish Cemetery Project | | |
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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. | |
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Rauh Jewish Archives Bibliography | | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
[IMAGE: Marian Schreiber and employees at the Schreiber Trucking Company, c.1943—from Schreiber Family Papers and Photographs, MSS 846.]
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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. | | | | |
