Who was Pearl Ashinsky?
Rabbi Aaron Mordechai Ashinsky was the most accomplished Orthodox rabbi in Western Pa. during the first half of the 20th century.

He founded several major local Jewish communal institutions. He was a skilled fundraiser, collecting millions not only for local organizations but also for war relief in Europe and for the emerging State of Israel.

As he was overseeing these efforts, he was also leading more than half a dozen congregations in three neighborhoods and informally advising many smaller lay-led Jewish communities throughout the region.

He commanded the title "Chief Rabbi of Western Pennsylvania."

But what do we know about his wife, the Rebbetzin Pearl Drob Ashinsky?
IMAGE: A notice for a memorial service for the Rebbetzin Pearl Ashinsky, 1942. (Rabbi Aaron Mordechai Ashinsky Papers and Photographs, MSS 222)
Featured Cookbook: From Our Kitchen to Yours
Even in our age of mass media, community cookbooks retain something of the old folkways, where ideas expand, migrate, and evolve.

A lot of the recipes in these cookbooks have a history of their own. They were copied from the newspaper or from ancestors or friends. And those original recipes, in turn, each had their own history.

A small example of this phenomenon comes from the cookbook "From Our Kitchen to Yours," published by the Women of Temple Sinai in 2016.
An anonymous recipe for "Olive Spread" cites an earlier recipe by Deborah Freedman published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "many years ago."

Digging through the Post-Gazette archives reveals the original article, published on Jan. 4, 2001.
Stacy Port of Mars, Pa. had written into the newspaper, seeking a recipe similar to the Green Olive Hummus served at Cafe Zinho in Shadyside.

In response, Deborah Freedman of Point Breeze submitted a recipe she had "sort of developed." It was based on an appetizer she had discovered while honeymooning in Italy.

And so, over 15 years, the recipe went from a restaurant, to an Italian honeymoon, to a kitchen in Point Breeze, to the newspaper, to the pages of "From Our Kitchen to Yours," each time evolving ever so slightly.
The Rauh Jewish Archives is placing a special focus on Jewish cookbooks throughout 2020. If you have an extra copy of a cookbook published by a Jewish individual or a Jewish group in Western Pennsylvania, please contact Eric Lidji at 412-454-6406 or eslidji@heinzhistorycenter.org.
The Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives was founded on November 1, 1988 to collect, preserve, and make accessible the documentary history of Jews and Jewish communities of Western Pennsylvania. You can help the RJHPA continue its work by making a donation that will directly support the work being done in Western Pa.
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Senator John Heinz History Center
1212 Smallman Street
Pittsburgh, Pa. 15222
412-454-6000
A proud affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, the Senator John Heinz History Center is the largest history museum in Pennsylvania and presents American history with a Western Pennsylvania connection.