October 27 Commemoration
The Early 1970s:
Yiddish
Jewish Encyclopedia:
Western Pennsylvania Jewish Archives
Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life
The Gut Yontif Project
Exhibits:
A Woman's Place
Calendar:
Oct. 27: Commemoration
Nov. 3: JRI-Poland
Nov. 10: Pittsburgh Jewish Book Festival
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
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“El Kiddush Hashem” (2018), painting by Judith Robinson with portraits of the 11 people killed in the October 27 attack, first shown at her exhibit "The Numbers Keep Changing." | |
Today marks six years since Oct. 27, 2018, when 11 people were killed during Shabbat services and seven were wounded including five police officers.
We remember Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Irving Younger, and Mel Wax. They were members of Tree of Life Congregation, New Light Congregation, and Congregation Dor Hadash.
“Beloved and dear, in their life and their death they were not parted.”
—II Samuel 1:23
Some of the events planned for this year include:
- a commemoration ceremony at the Squirrel Hill JCC today at 5:30 p.m.
- commemorative service opportunities throughout the day
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an evening of communal Jewish study on the evening of Nov. 18 and the morning of Nov. 19, commemorating the yahrzeit (18 Cheshvan).
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The days following the October 27 attack were marked by solidarity. People all over the world reached across boundaries to support the Jewish community.
Over this past year, many in the Jewish community have been reckoning with a gap between the embrace they felt after October 27 and the isolation they have felt since the October 7 attack in Israel last year. The emptiness of that gap has been filled with painful emotions—bewilderment, anger, frustration, sorrow, hurt, cynicism, and betrayal. In an attempt to reconcile these two experiences, many people have publicly and privately wondered whether the support shown for the Jewish community after October 27 was sincere.
The “October 27 Tribute Collection” at the Rauh Jewish Archives documents that support. It includes the thousands of objects left outside the synagogue following the attack and mailed to local organizations and thousands of letters sent to families, congregations, and community groups. It is likely the most extensive archival collection in the world documenting the global response to an antisemitic event. It comprises more than 10,000 individual objects.
To date, few have seen these objects. But in recent months, the Rauh Jewish Archives has begun making the October 27 Tribute Collection available to the public through the October 27 Archive website. We are adding objects week by week and will be sharing stories in this newsletter over the coming year.
The October 27 Tribute Collection records individual experiences. Each object in the collection comes from one person who decided to reach out to a stranger in a moment of need. When you study these objects, there is no obligation to draw larger conclusions about the state of the world today. Each object is allowed stand alone, as a record of a single human encounter.
If you are searching for meaning today, consider spending time with these objects and letters, and listening to the voices of people from all over the world who are desperate to connect, to comfort, to heal, and to be healed.
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Cover of program for the musical revue "Light, Lively & Yiddish" at the Y-IKC Auditorium—March 18, 1973.
—Malke Frank Papers
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Yiddish never went quiet in Pittsburgh but its voice softened. Throughout the decades of Jewish life here, Yiddish went from being a lingua franca to a cultural heritage.
Yiddish came to Western Pennsylvania in the mouths of native speakers from Europe starting in the mid-to-late 19th century and continued arriving year by year until the implementation of federal immigration quotas in the early 1920s. By the early-1970s, the oldest Yiddish-speaking immigrants in Pittsburgh were community elders. Their children and grandchildren likely recognized the language, but they rarely spoke it themselves.
And so Yiddish lovers got to work protecting it. The most enthusiastic preservationists locally were Labor Zionists, including the Workmen’s Circle, the Labor Zionist Organization, the Farband, and later the Labor Zionist Alliance.
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These groups hosted an annual Yiddish musical revue throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s. The last appears to have been “Light, Lively & Yiddish” at the Y-IKC auditorium in 1973. They also started a series of Yiddish discussion groups, including the Yiddish Circle, the Lebedicke Zeitung, and the Joy of Yiddish Club. These groups persisted entirely through the energies of a small group of local Yiddishists, including Sara Clair, Esther Goss, Harry Slawkin, Joseph Saul, Eddie Steinfeld, and Bess Topolsky, among others. | |
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:
Western Pennsylvania Jewish Archives
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Black and white photograph from the announcement of the establishment of the Western Pennsylvania Jewish Archives—Nov. 1, 1988. Pictured (left to right): Advisory Committee Chair Corinne Krause, Bess Topolsky of Workmen's Circle Branch 45, and inaugural supporters Selma and Allan Berkman. Shown is the first artifact donated to the archives.
—Rauh Jewish Archives internal files
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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.
Growing interest in cultural heritage in the late 1960s and early 1970s led to numerous initiatives to preserve Jewish culture in this region, including new Judaica libraries, university programs, and oral history projects.
The United Jewish Federation provided a $2,000 seed grant in 1970 to support the Western Pennsylvania Jewish History Project. Based out of the University of Pittsburgh, the project was building a computerized database of Jewish historical information from this region, as a first step toward maintaining an archive. It struggled to gain support and went dormant for years.
The UJF revived the idea in the mid-to-late-1980s. The success of the exhibit “Roots and Branches” in 1983 and the publication of “The Jewish Experience in Western Pennsylvania” in 1986 created momentum for establishing a central repository for documentation of the Jewish experience in this region. With support from the Berkman family, the UJF partnered with Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania in 1987 to fund the Jewish Archival Survey, a one-year effort to inventory existing historical records held at area synagogues and Jewish communal organizations, as well as by select individuals.
The final report of the Jewish Archival Survey determined that sufficient records existed throughout the community to justify the formation of dedicated repository. The Western Pennsylvania Jewish Archives were established November 1, 1988 with the donation of materials from Workmen’s Circle Branch 45. It was renamed the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center following a gift from Richard Rauh in 1999.
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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. | |
Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life
The Gut Yontif Project: Sukkot
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Oreen Cohen in front of her sukkah sculpture before the start of the performance. | |
The Torah describes Sukkot as z’man simchateinu: “the time of our rejoicing.” But how hard it can be to rejoice in times of sadness and uncertainty.
In the first of our four-part holiday series “Gut Yontif: A Patchwork Holiday Experience,” sculptor Oreen Cohen found a path to joy by working through her grief over the events of this past year. Reimagining and subverting the symbols of Sukkot, Cohen crafted a powerful performance that was communal, cathartic, and accommodating of many viewpoints and traditions.
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[ABOVE] Attendees making bundles of torn cloth.
[BELOW] Oren Cohen inside the sukkah draped in soaked, torn cloth.
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The two-hour performance took place outside the Heinz History Center’s Dietrich building at 1231 Penn Ave., protected by mountainous walls on three sides. Guests arrived through gates decorated with billowing silk tapestries by Rosalind Rosabel (the artist behind our upcoming Chanukah program).
Just beyond these gates were three tables: one where guests ripped white linens into three-inch strips, a second where they tied these strips end-to-end into long cords, and a third where they wrapped the cords into bundles to be placed into a wicker basket on the ground. The basket called to mind the agricultural connections of the holiday. Sukkot was once a harvest festival. After months of planting, fields yielded their final bounty for the year.
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[LEFT] "City Quilts I" (1987)
[RIGHT] "Self-Portrait" (2010) including reference to City Quilts I.
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The basket was brought to Cohen, who was standing inside an eight-sided sukkah she had welded together from reclaimed rebar. She based the pattern on Louise Silk’s piece “City Quilt I”—the initial piece in Louise’s first one-person show from 1987, an effort to “break the box” of traditional quilting.
In the center of the sukkah, Cohen had made a 10-foot totem of welded metal and luminous colored slag, filled with memorials to the losses of this season.
As the sun slowly set over downtown, Cohen soaked the bundles in water, tied them to the totem, and strung the dripping cords over the sukkah. The air filled with the smell of water, reminiscent of healing tears and nourishing rain.
The performance culminated at sunset. Just as daylight faded, small footlights were arranged around the sukkah, making it glow against the oncoming night.
It was magical.
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Oreen Cohen blowing the shofar outside the finished sukkah at the end of the performance. | |
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.
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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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Nov. 3:
JGS Pittsburgh Presents:
Finding your Eastern European Family on JRI-Poland.org
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Come learn to use the JRI-Poland.org database effectively to find data about your family. See it within the context of the town and Jewish community in which your family lived if they lived in the current or former territories of Poland. These include over 1900 towns represented on the JRI-Poland website for places once in Poland and possibly in Ukraine, Germany, Belarus, or Lithuania today. If your family said they were from “Russia” or “Galicia” or “Austria-Hungary” or “Prussia”, chances are that there is something in the JRI-Poland database waiting for you to discover!
The program is Sunday, November 3 from 1-3 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.
“Finding your Eastern European Family on JRI-Poland.org” with Robinn Magid 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.
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Robinn Magid is the assistant director of JRI-Poland.org and the project manager of the NextGen project to rebuild their website and database of more than 6 million records. She has been volunteering for JRI-Poland for almost 30 years and speaks about Polish Jewish research frequently. Robinn has chaired two landmark International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) conferences: the 2018 Warsaw Conference and the 2020 Virtual Conference. She is a recipient of the IAJGS Lifetime Achievement Award and received a medal from the mayor of her grandmother’s birthplace (Lublin, Poland) for her contributions to furthering culture in this city of 340,000 people on the occasion of the town’s 700th birthday. | |
Nov. 10-13:
Pittsburgh Jewish Book Festival
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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 Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh
"How We Got Here"
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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.
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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. | | | | |