No. 49

Memoir: Harry Jackson

Goldman Family Papers and Photographs [MSS 1269]

Chofetz Chaim Congregation

Calendar: JGS Pittsburgh Presents: Vivian Kahn



Community News: The Letters, Jakob's Torah, 1950 Census, Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

Memoirs:

Harry Jackson

Harry Jackson (left) and store manager Bob Niedargall at the opening of a Pittsburgh branch of the family business, Jackson Shoe Stores Inc.

—from Eger-Jackson Family Papers and Photographs [MSS 780]

In 1925, Harry Jackson and his brother-in-law Morris Chamovitz purchased the Economy Shoe Store in Aliquippa. They changed the name to Jackson Shoe Stores Inc. and eventually created a chain throughout the region.

The purchase of the small shoe store was a milestone for Jackson. He had arrived in Western Pennsylvania from a small-town in Russia in 1913 to join his brother. He spent the next dozen years in flux, moving from town to town and opportunity to opportunity. Bit by bit, his life became ordered. By the early 1940s, the business was succeeding. He had become a husband, a father, a civic leader in Aliquippa. He decided to write a memoir, explaining his path to success over those previous 30 years. The result was “The History of My Life.” His original text stretched across some 500 pages of Yiddish, and then he spent decades translating the work into English for his family.

In the mid-1970s, a local researcher named Lois Rubin—who also comes from a large Jewish family with branches stretching all over the Pittsburgh area—discovered Jackson’s memoir while participating in an oral history project in the region. She edited a selection of his work for publication in Western Pennsylvania History magazine, the journal of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, which is now the Senator John Heinz History Center. 

Rubin titled her article “Disappointed Expectations: An Immigrant Arrives in Western Pennsylvania.” In her introductory remarks, she considered the pattern of “adjustment and alienation” felt by many recent immigrants as they discovered the challenges of America. The selection she chose from Jackson’s memoir focuses on his a short-lived career peddling brooms along the towns on the Monongahela River and the resulting humiliation he experienced.

Rose and Harry Jackson (right), celebrating their 32nd wedding anniversary in Atlantic City with his sister-in-law and brother Belle and Louis Jackson, 1949.

—from Eger-Jackson Family Papers and Photographs [MSS 780]

In a poignant passage, Jackson describes the shame he felt in his early days in America, when he traded his name Hillel Tzvi Yachnowitz for Harry Jackson.

"Inside of me in my hidden me I did not like this entire idea. It looked to me as if I had died, but of course not for real, because I momentarily came back to life; that is I have resurrected. The name Harry by itself was hard and strange to me, and I did not like him very much. I felt that this here fellow Harry is sort of a stranger to me; one that invaded my private life without getting my heart and my head to agree to him, and I really tried to revolt against it. Imagine me named after one of the greatest Rabbis that ever lived. One that was known for kindness and leniency. One that I met in my studies in the Gomorrah and Talmud. That Rabbi Hillel that every Passover at Sader (sic) were cited what he said. Thus said Rabbi Hillel, thus did Rabbi Hillel. Hillel was an institution, and world with millions of followers, and I humbly say, I was his namesake. It gave me a certain pride to be named after such a noble character, and all of a sudden, I am not Hillel; just Harry. Who was Harry? To me he was a nobody. To me he is a nobody now 50 years later."

New Collection:

Goldman Family Papers and Photographs [MSS 1269]

Monte Carlo night at Poale Zedeck Congregation social hall, January 11, 1953.

—from Goldman Family Papers and Photographs [MSS 1269]

The Goldman Family Papers and Photographs [MSS 1269] documents the communal affairs of the family of Kenneth and Betty (Pickholtz) Goldman. Of note is a scrapbook of photographs and memorabilia from the Poale Zedeck Men’s Club in the early 1950s, and the sheet music for “Women of Valor,” a concert created by Cantor Moshe Taube and lyricist Harriet Kruman in the mid-1960s for which Betty Goldman served as piano accompanist.

Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania:

Chofetz Chaim Congregation

Photograph showing a study session at Chofetz Chaim Congregation. Pictured (far side, left to right) S. Darling, I. Zwerling, Rabbi S. Kronzek, I. Katz, H. Levite (near side, left to right) N. Katz, H. E. Steinfeld, R. Weiss, 1958.

—from Rosalie Levite Glickman and Eugene Glickman Family Papers [MSS 1253]

Chofetz Chaim Congregation was the second Jewish congregation in Squirrel Hill. It began meeting as early as 1923 and obtained a charter in 1925. Regular daily and weekly services were initially held at a rented hall at 2200 Murray Avenue with larger holiday services held at the Orpheum Theater at 5808 Forbes Ave., on the second floor of Forbes Garden at 5843 Forbes Ave., and at the former U.S. Post Office at 5850 Forbes Ave. The congregation remodeled a house at 5807 Beacon St. into a synagogue in 1930, burned the mortgage on the building in 1943, and undertook a major remodeling project in the 1950s. Chofetz Chaim Congregation grew to around 100 members by the early 1940s but declined after World War II and eventually closed in the mid-1970s. Spiritual leaders of the congregation included Rabbi Aaron Mordechai Ashinsky and Rabbi S. Kronzek. Our entry for Chofetz Chaim Congregation includes photographs of its synagogue and leading members, an anniversary volume from 1958, and assorted newspaper clippings.

December 11:

JGS-Pittsburgh Presents: Vivian Kahn

This talk by internationally renowned genealogist Vivian Kahn will reference records from the vast area that was formerly part of Hungary, which includes present-day Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, northern Serbia, northwestern Romania, and Sub-Carpathian Ukraine. Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity to hear from someone who has been instrumental in obtaining many of these records! With almost 2 million records already on-line and more added regularly, the JewishGen Hungary Database is one of the best resources for researching Hungarian Jewish families.

There are, however, a wide variety of websites that are less familiar to many researchers and can help you grow your family trees. This presentation will highlight what’s available from JewishGen and identify other less familiar on-line resources that can help you to expand your Hungarian research horizons.

Although many of them are in Hungarian, armed with a list of basic genealogical terms and an understanding of the site design and contents you can search these resources even if you don’t understand Hungarian. Vivian Kahn will review some of these websites, describe what they offer and provide tips on how to use them even if you don’t know a word of Hungarian.

The program is Sunday, Dec. 11 from 1-2:30 p.m. ET It's free for JGS-Pittsburgh members and $5 for the general public. Please register online. 

All attendees are encouraged to log on 30 minutes early for a virtual open house. It’s an opportunity to share genealogy stories and make new friends.

This is a virtual program. It will be recorded, and the recording will be made available for JGS-Pittsburgh members who are current on their dues.

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

Vivian Kahn is JewishGen’s Hungarian SIG Director. She has presented workshops on Jewish genealogy and, especially, Hungarian Jewish family research at IAJGS annual conferences, for Jewish genealogy societies, and in Sighet, Romania, during a May 2015 gathering of Sighet descendants. Since beginning research on her own family from greater Hungary more than 25 years ago, she has identified and used a wide range of archival, print, and on-line resources to research families from Hungary, Moravia, Slovakia, Romania, and Galicia and has made research trips to Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania. Vivian has also written several articles on Hungarian Jewish family research that appeared in the print and on-line versions of Avotaynu and in other Jewish genealogy publications. Vivian was recognized as JewishGen’s Volunteer of the Year in 2021. Vivian is an urban planning and development consultant and teaches planning classes for University of California extension programs. She lives in Sonoma County, California.

[Right] Gertrude Perles of Vienna. [Left] Hasele and Abe Levy of Pittsburgh.

—from A. Sanford Levy and Gertrude Deutsch Perles Papers [MFF 4883]

"The Letters: A Plea for Help"

In late October 1938, Abe and Hasele Levy of Pittsburgh received a letter from Gertrude Perles, a stranger in Vienna who was trying to escape the Nazis and come to the United States. “My husband and I are both Jews,” she wrote. “I am sure you know what is going on here and I need not give you a more precise explanation. It is growing worse every day. Our only hope is to emigrate to the U.S.A. Please, if you are able to send affidavits for me and my husband, for Heaven’s sake, do it, before it will be too late for us.”

Over the next few months, the Levys worked to help this Viennese couple through the challenges and pressures of the immigration process. Their correspondence is preserved in the A. Sanford Levy and Gertrude Deutsch Perles Papers [MFF 4883] held by the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center. The collection vividly shows the logistical and emotional challenges facing Jewish refugees as they navigated the immigration process.

Iris Samson of WQED recently produced a short documentary about the collection of letters titled The Letters: A Plea for Help. The moving 15-minute documentary places the eight-month correspondence into the larger context of the Anschluss, the Holocaust, and the start of World War II.

By now, you're probably expertly zipping around the new Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project platform. But if you still need a little help navigating its features and tools, you can view a virtual training workshop at the link below. Or, you can contact the archive or call 412-454-6406 with your questions.