Vol. 4

No. 2

Restaurants:

The Little Hungarian Restaurant

The Agudath Kehillath

Announcing

the Yahrzeit Plaques Project

Calendar: JGS-Pittsburgh Presents: Judy Russell

Restaurants:

The Little Hungarian Restaurant

Matchbook from the Little Hungarian Restaurant at 5800 Bartlett Street in Squirrel Hill. From cover lists name and address of restaurant. Back reads “Finest/Foods/Service.”

—from Western Pennsylvania Matchbook Covers Collection [2021.0015]

Over the 1930s, Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill went from a residential street to a commercial district.

Consider the intersection of Murray and Bartlett. In this map from 1923, all four corners are occupied by big houses with spacious yards.

Jump to the next available map, from 1939, and all four corners are businesses: an Esso Gas Station, an Atlantic Gas Station, the Murray Building, and the Block Building. 

The Block Building occupied the southeast corner, at 1901-1913 Murray Ave. (Today the address is a Giant Eagle.) The Block Building had two floors. The street-level storefront was a branch of the Perl-Reichbaum Co. grocery store chain. The upper floors were offices, including the local branches of Hadassah and the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization, as well as the offices of the Squirrel Hill News.

The Block Building also had a separate canopied entrance on Bartlett Street. On Saturday evening, July 6, 1940, the Little Hungarian Restaurant opened on its second floor, at 5800 Bartlett Street.

Advertisement for the Little Hungarian Restaurant, announcing opening.

—Jewish Criterion, July 5, 1940 [Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project]

No known records exist for the Little Hungarian Restaurant. The best available source of information comes from newspaper articles and advertisements.

Here’s what they say:

Imre and Sarah Ungar owned the Little Hungarian Restaurant and also lived on the premises, in an apartment connected to the restaurant. They came from Hungary and had been in the restaurant business for about 30 years.

Census records suggest the Ungars started in New York and relocated to Pittsburgh in the 1920s. From city directories, we know they ran a restaurant at 1347 Fifth Avenue in 1926. Thanks to our database of Fifth Avenue businesses created by volunteer Amy Lowenstein, we know that the building was home to a string of restaurants with Jewish ownership: Wolfson’s Restaurant from 1907 to 1917, Meyers & Cohen in 1918 and 1919, Abraham Malitovsky’s from 1922 to 1924, Lampel & Stark in 1924, and Friedman & Sacks in 1925. At one point along that chain of ownership is a notable family connection: Alex Stark of Lampel & Stark was married to Imre Unger’s sister. 

The specifics of the Little Hungarian Restaurant menu are difficult to ascertain from available sources. The restaurant billed itself as “kosher style” but offered few details to explain that notorious ambiguous term. Early advertisements suggest the restaurant changed its menu daily and many have offered family-style meals with many dishes. Several advertisements mention Sarah Ungar’s famous “cakes and pastries.”

The only menu item we’ve found so far is a recipe for Matzo Ball Soup, published in the Sun-Telegraph in 1953. It uses schmaltz or shortening and calls for a pinch of ginger, just like Joan Nathan's popular recipe.

The Little Hungarian Restaurant underwent a major remodel in 1948, but we have no photographs documenting the dining room either before or after. The Ungars relocated to Miami in 1951 and sold the business and the apartment over to Alex Stark. Stark ran the restaurant until 1956, when the Block Building was destroyed in a major fire.

Do you have any information about the Little Hungarian Restaurant? Do you remember eating there? Do you have photographs? Did you save a menu? If so, please let us know.

"A Fond Farewell From The Ungars." Article announcing Imre and Sarah Ungar's retirement from the Little Hungarian Restaurant, plans to relocate to Miami, plans to sell business to Al Stark.

—from Jewish Criterion, December 7, 1951 [Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project]

Next week: What happened to Al Stark after the fire?

All year, the Rauh Jewish Archives is highlighting Jewish restaurants in Western Pennsylvania. If you would like to donate a material from a Jewish restaurant, or just reminisce, contact the archive or call 412-454-6406.

Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania:

Agudath Kehillath

Open letter to "The Presidents of Orthodox Congregations of Greater Pittsburgh" announcing the formation of a local Orthodox Union or "Agudath Kehillath" to address religious issues in the city.

—from Der Volksfreund, Dec. 24, 1920 [University of Pittsburgh Archives & Special Collections]

The Agudath Kehillath, also known as the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, was an attempt to unify and standardize traditional Jewish religious observance throughout the Pittsburgh area. It was formed in December 1920 under the chairmanship of Rabbi Sol B. Friedman of Poale Zedeck Congregation. It attempted to establish local standards for Kashrut certification, to improve Jewish religious education, promote Sabbath observance, to form a Beth Din (religious court) for adjudicating intra-communal disputes, to address complaints of discrimination made by Jewish employees, to counteract Christian missionaries in the city, and to address other issues related to Jewish religious observances. Over the years, its membership included at least 34 Orthodox and Conservative congregations throughout Pittsburgh and several nearby small towns.

Our entry for the Agudath Kehillath includes a selection of newspaper articles documenting its formation in 1920 and its reorganization in 1928.

Announcing...

The Western Pennsylvania Yahrzeit Plaques Project

Memorial board from the former Congregation Kneseth Israel in Kittanning.

The Rauh Jewish Archives launched the Western Pennsylvania Cemetery Project in 1998 to compile valuable genealogical information from area Jewish cemeteries. Since going online in 2014, it has become one of the most popular features on our website.

We are now announcing the next phase of that initiative. The Western Pennsylvania Yahrzeit Plaques Project is an effort to compile genealogical information from yahrzeit plaques and memorial boards in current and former synagogues throughout the region. 

These memorial boards are common throughout North American synagogues. They are a way of keeping deceased loved ones present in synagogue life. They are a wonderful source of genealogical information. In some cases, they are the only way to discover an ancestor’s Hebrew name and death of date.

We’ve been collecting yahrzeit plaque records for years. We’ve recently begun compiling this information according to guidelines provided by the JewishGen Memorial Plaques Project. We’re also maintaining a local copy of the records. Our database is fully integrated into our Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania website, allowing you to follow individual plaques back to relevant archival materials.

We’re launching our Yahrzeit Plaques database this month with the records of 88 yahrzeit plaques from the former Congregation Kneseth Israel of Kittanning, Pa. The two memorial boards from that congregation have hung for many years at Congregation B’nai Abraham in Butler. The information from these plaques was transcribed by Rauh Jewish Archives volunteer Pat Andrews.

We are actively transcribing plaques from throughout the region. Each month, we’ll use this space in the newsletter to report on additions to the database.

We’re always looking for volunteers to help transcribe records. We’re currently looking for volunteers who can read and transcribe Hebrew names and Hebrew dates. Work can be completed remotely or in-person at the Archive.

For more information email the Archive or call 412-454-6406.

January 29:

JGS-Pittsburgh Presents: Judy G. Russell

Genealogy by its very nature is collaborative. We need to work together and share information with others, both relatives and non-relatives if we’re to succeed in filling out our family trees. But doing family research doesn’t mean giving up all semblances of personal privacy, nor is it a license to invade the privacy of others-family or not. All researchers need to follow the rules, both legal and ethical, when we share genealogical information. In her talk, "Share and Share Alike: The Rules of Genealogical Privacy," Judy G. Russell will provide legal and ethical guidelines for seeking genealogical information.

The program is Sunday, Jan. 29 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.

Judy G. Russell, The Legal Genealogist®, is a genealogist with a law degree who provides expert guidance through the murky territory where law and family history intersect. An internationally known lecturer and award-winning writer, she holds credentials as a Certified Genealogist® and Certified Genealogical Lecturer℠ from the Board for Certification of Genealogists®.

Her blog is at www.legalgenealogist.com.

Research Tools

The Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project contains digitized, searchable copies of four local English-language Jewish newspapers: the Jewish Criterion (1895-1962), the American Jewish Outlook (1934-1962), the Jewish Chronicle (1962-2010), and the Y Weekly (1926-1976). It is a valuable tool for researching almost any topic about Jewish history in Western Pennsylvania.

For a primer on using the website, view the video below.

Western Pennsylvania Cemetery Project

The Rauh Jewish Archives launched the Western Pennsylvania Jewish Cemetery Project in 1998. The goal was to create a comprehensive collection of burial records from Jewish cemeteries across the region. Volunteers walked through cemeteries, writing down the names and dates inscribed on gravestones. Over a period of fifteen years, the information was compiled into a database of approximately 50,000 burial records from 78 Jewish cemeteries.

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.