The Montefiore Civic League
JGS Presents: Ask the Experts!
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The Montefiore Civic League |
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(Left) "League Wins Signal Fight," Pittsburgh Press, Jan. 10, 1932;
(Right) Negley and East Liberty Blvd. intersection, Google Street View, Aug. 2021
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If you've ever driven up Negley Avenue in East Liberty, there's a chance you've had to stop at the traffic light at the East Liberty Boulevard intersection.
You can thank the Montefiore Civic League.
In the early 1930s, the league spent more than a year lobbying the city to install a traffic signal at the intersection—which was then Margaretta Street—and to install a second traffic signal just a few yards up the road, at the Columbo Street intersection. That second traffic signal no longer exists.
The idea was to protect the hundreds of children who crossed Negley Avenue daily to get to Rogers Elementary School. Drivers had killed several pedestrians at the intersection in the three years prior to the installation.
The intersection was also important to Jewish residents of the neighborhood. It was a block north of B'nai israel Congregation and a block west of Adath Jeshurun Congregation, also known as the Margaretta Street shul. Many of the people who walked to synagogue had to cross that intersection at some point.
The Montefiore Civic League was formed in early 1930 as the East Liberty Jewish Voters League. Its purpose was to improve voter turnout and civic engagement within the Jewish population of the East End. According to one of its founders, Louis Rosenberg, Jewish voter turnout in the neighborhood was only about 10 percent. He provided no source for that statistic, but at the very least it points to a perception of disengagement within the local community.
The East Liberty Jewish Voters League held regular meetings, initially at Adath Jeshurun Congregation or down the street at Torath Chaim Congregation. The meetings usually included a speaker who discussed some aspect of the democratic process. The league did not endorse candidates or political parties.
Within a year, the club was reporting about 500 members and had offices at 5602 Baum Blvd., which later became the offices of the Jewish Chronicle.
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Jewish Criterion, March 7, 1930 |
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The Chronicle connection is ironic. Its predecessor, the Jewish Criterion, was opposed to the East Liberty Jewish Voters League from the beginning.
As he had back in 1911 with the Allegheny County Political Club, Criterion Editor Charles H. Joseph opposed the idea of the league and of any "Jewish political club." In an editorial from April 11, 1930, he wrote, "There is no Jewish vote. There are a great many American citizens who are Jews who vote as American citizens. That is as it should be. I object and have objected all my life to Jewish political clubs. They have no place in this country."
In a letter to the editor a few days later, Rosenberg asked Joseph if he was speaking "as a Jew or as an American, or perhaps an American Jew," when he wrote in opposition to the very existence of clubs like the East Liberty Jewish Voters League.
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In his nationally syndicated column, Joseph dismissed Rosenberg's distinction as irrelevant. Joseph wrote, "Jews are American citizens and should vote as American citizens and not as Jews. There is surely a religious connotation in the term 'Jew' even if some Jews are Jews by birth only and believe themselves to be Jews only racially. So when Jews organize as in the case of the East Liberty Jewish Voters League they are dragging religion into politics."
In that same issue of the Criterion, the East Liberty Jewish Voters League announced that it was changing its name to the Montefiore Civic League. The club remained explicitly Jewish but increasingly focused on civic improvement projects such as traffic signals, road repairs, and new park construction.
Despite early successes like the traffic signal, the club lost momentum. It fades from the public record around early 1932, two years after its founding.
All this year, the Rauh Jewish Archives is highlighting stories of Jewish club life in Western Pennsylvania. If you would like to donate records of a local Jewish club, or just chat about clubs, contact the archive or call 412-454-6406.
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Oct. 31: JGS Pittsburgh Presents: Ask the Experts! |
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In honor of Family History Month (October) and International Jewish Genealogy Month (the Hebrew month of Cheshvan), the Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh is hosting “Ask The Experts.” A panel of Jewish genealogists from a variety of backgrounds, interests, and areas of expertise will be available to help break through those brick walls.
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Tammy Hepps is a local historian who focuses on topics within American Jewish history, especially small towns and synagogues. Her projects combine research techniques from genealogy and history and draw heavily upon her technology expertise to break new ground in data gathering and interpretation. She is best known for her community reconstitution project focusing on the Jewish community of Homestead, PA, available online at HomesteadHebrews.com. Tammy earned her AB in computer science from Harvard.
Areas of expertise: American Jewish roots, Western PA/Pgh Jewish community research, underused American records, technology for genealogy, family history writing
Caitlin Hollander is a New York-based genealogist, specializing in Ashkenazi Jewish genealogy in both the United States and Europe, Holocaust records and documentation, as well as forensic genealogy for high- value estates and assisting clients in citizenship reclamation. She holds a bachelor’s degree in anthropology with a minor in history from Florida International University, as well as academic certificates in Jewish studies and Holocaust and genocide studies, the latter of which she intends to pursue a master’s degree in beginning Spring 2022. With her business partner, Michael Waas, she co-founded Hollander-Waas Jewish Heritage services, a full-service genealogy and family history firm. Hollander-Waas specializes in Jewish genealogy and provides a customized full-service heritage preservation and genealogy service. Her citizenship reclamation work has been featured in Family Tree Magazine, The Times of Israel, and the South Florida Sun Sentinel, among other publications.
Areas of expertise: Ashkenazi Genealogy, Holocaust Research, Probate and Legal Records, Citizenship Reclamation
Jarrett Ross began researching his own family history in 2009 while finishing his undergraduate degree at the University of Pittsburgh. Since then he has built his own personal tree with over 7000 people, successfully connected with thousands of relatives all over the world and has helped build hundreds of trees for people of varying ancestral backgrounds. Jarrett has found multiple specialties including Genetic Genealogy, Sephardic Jewish research with an emphasis on the Portuguese Jewish Community of Amsterdam, the Jewish Agricultural Societies of Southern New Jersey, Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry in Ukraine, and American Jewish history. Jarrett writes a blog called “Sephardic Genealogy” and he also has a vlog called “GeneaVlogger” where he talks about his research, gives genealogy tips, interviews other genealogists and shows different aspects of working in genealogy. Jarrett currently works as the lead forensic genealogist at DNA Labs International where he helps solve cold cases. He also volunteers as a Search Angel where he helps people find their biological family, and he volunteers as a curator on Geni.com, home of the World Family Tree. Jarrett currently serves as the vice president of the Triangle JGS in North Carolina and as an IAJGS Board Member.
Areas of expertise: Netherlands, New Jersey Agricultural Societies, DNA
Michael Waas is a heritage professional, specializing in site research and evaluation, and archival research. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology with a specialization in Historical Archaeology from New College of Florida, and the subject of his Senior Thesis was “The Archaeology of Ethnogenesis of the Seminole People of Florida.” He then received his Master’s Degree from the Department of Jewish History at the University of Haifa and the subject of his MA thesis was “Istorya i oy: A comparative study on the Development of Jewish Heritage of the former Ottoman Empire.” He received the Gaon Prize for Outstanding M.A. Thesis research for the academic year 2017-2018 of the Moshe David Gaon Center for Judeo- Spanish (Ladino) Culture as well as the Prize for Research into the Heritage of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jewry, awarded by the Ben Zvi Institute and the Israeli Ministry of Education, for the year 2017-2018. He has presented papers at multiple international conferences on Sephardic Studies, including most recently, the Terras de Sefarad conference in Bragança. Portugal, and the annual Society for Sephardic Studies conference in Lisbon, Portugal, both in June 2019. He also volunteers his time as the anthropologist and historian of the Avotaynu Genetic Census of the Jewish People Project.
Areas of expertise: Sephardic Genealogy, YDNA, Mitochondrial DNA
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[IMAGE: Marian Schreiber and employees at the Schreiber Trucking Company, c.1943—from Schreiber Family Papers and Photographs, MSS 846.]
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Plan a Visit
Senator John Heinz History Center
1212 Smallman Street
Pittsburgh, Pa. 15222
412-454-6000
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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.
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