Memoir: Eva Wasbutsky
Maurice Nernberg Papers
Erste Warshaver Verein
Calendar: Tisha B'av (pictured), Rosh Chodesh Elul
Community News: Jakob's Torah, 1950 Census, Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project
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The 1913 confirmation class of B’nai Israel in East Liverpool, Ohio, including (top, left to right) Rebecca Rich, Dorothy Stern, Eva Wasbutsky and Mollie Sarbin, (bottom, left to right) Rabbi Abram Brill of Wheeling, W.V., Julius Erlanger and President Gustave Bendheim.
—from Beth Shalom Congregation (East Liverpool, Ohio) Records (MSS 1121)
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In the last newsletter, we featured Harry Gordon’s memoir of life in East Liverpool, Ohio in the early 20th century. His story was zigzagging, intimate, and personal. Down to its spelling, it was an expression of his personality.
Our memoir this week covers similar ground but takes a different path.
But her intention is a bit different than Gordon’s. Instead of sharing scenes from her life, and offering reflections gained through the advantage of passing time, Wasbutsky tells the story of the founding of the Jewish community using her memories as a source. She is old enough to remember the early years of Jewish communal life in the neighboring towns of East Liverpool, Wellsville, and Midland, but not quite old enough to remember the actual founding. As a result, her account combines personal memories with overheard facts.
“While the earliest religious services were recorded being held in the Elks and Odd Fellows Halls, also the Moose Hall, I believe that I, as a child of six, first attended what we called ‘Sunday School’ on the second or third floor of the Oyster Building, on East Sixth Street,” she writes early in her four-page memoir. “I also faintly recall going to the second floor of the Citizens National Bank Building, on Washington St., for religious instruction.”
History is created from sources. You may recall learning in school about the difference between primary and secondary sources. Primary sources are often defined as sources created by people who participated in historic events, close to the time those events occurred. Secondary sources are usually created later, by synthesizing primary sources into a new account of events.
A memoir like Wasbutsky’s blurs the line. In her later years, she tried to bring together all available information—the things she remembered and the things she had heard—to create a short, definitive account: a secondary source. But in our time, her memoir has become a voice among many: a primary source.
There is a lesson here. You can try to stand outside history by creating a definitive account of it, but the passage of time inevitably pulls everyone into the story of history itself. We are all locked into our moment in time.
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All year, the Rauh Jewish Archives is highlighting memoirs of Jewish life in Western Pennsylvania. If you would like to donate a memoir, or just chat about the stories you've read, contact the archive or call 412-454-6406.
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New Collection:
Maurice Nernberg Papers and Photographs [MSS 1191]
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Pittsburgh Press profile of Maurice Nernberg, Nov. 30, 1958.
—from Maurice Nernberg Papers and Photographs [MSS 1191]
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Maurice A. Nernberg Sr. (1897- 1972) was a local lawyer and handwriting expert who testified at several high-profile legal cases in Pittsburgh.
Nernberg was born in Romania and showed an aptitude for handwriting as a child, including a knack for forgery. After immigrating to the United States, he attended the Zanerian School of Penmanship in Columbus, Ohio. He served with the U.S. Army during World War I and was regularly asked to verify signatures on furlough documents. He eventually earned degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and the Duquesne University Law School and started a career as a lawyer before transitioning into a second career as a handwriting expert. His best-known cases include testimony leading to the conviction of 140 people for election fraud in 1934 and 1935 and identifying the author of extortion letters sent to legendary Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Ralph Kiner.
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Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania:
Erste Warshaver Unterstitzungs Verein
(First Warsaw Beneficial Society)
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The Varshover Ladies Auxiliary Society, 1930.
—from Varshover Ladies Auxiliary Society photograph [PFF 52]
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The Erste Warshaver Unterstitzungs Verein (First Warsaw Beneficial Society) was a landsmanshaft (mutual aid society) comprising Jewish immigrants from Poland. It was founded in the Hill District in 1905 to bring together recent Jewish immigrants from Warsaw who were living in Pittsburgh and small towns throughout the region. In time, the First Warsaw Beneficial Society expanded its membership to include Jewish people from all parts of Poland.
In its first two decades, during the peak years of Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe, the Erste Warshaver Unterstitzungs Verein provided many benefits for its members, including health insurance, life insurance, burial assistance, and resettlement assistance. It established a Free Loan fund in 1908 and later created the Warshaver Ladies Auxiliary. In time, as the needs of its membership changed, the society focused largely on its free loan fund.
Our entry for the Erste Warshaver Unterstitzungs Verein includes its 1930 and 1955 anniversary books, a photograph of its ladies auxiliary, and articles.
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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. |
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Jewish Chronicle, Jan. 19, 1968 |
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Today marks the observance of Tisha B’Av—the 25-hour fast day of the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av.
Tisha B’Av is the saddest day on the Jewish calendar and one steeped in history. While primarily intended to commemorate the destruction of the ancient Holy Temple in Jerusalem, the day has come to commemorate a sequence of Jewish tragedies starting with Biblical events and carrying through to modern times. Tisha B’Av has become a way of limiting sorrow by consolidating the darkest moments of Jewish history into one day.
Today is actually the tenth day of the month of Av. If the ninth day of the month falls on the Sabbath, the observance is pushed off one day.
That was also the case in 1968. It was a year after the Six Day War, when Israel had gained control of Jerusalem and the Western Wall of the ancient Temple. Jewish Chronicle Editor Albert Bloom, writing as his persona Prof. Eruv Rav, had recently visited Jerusalem. He pondered the meaning of Tisha B’av in light of the war. “Oh if only Nebuchadnezzar, Vespasian, Titus, and Hadrian could see me now,” Bloom wrote.
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August 28
Our Deuteronomies
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(Left) "Background Music," by Jim Haber
(Right) "Roses in December," by Florence Berman Karp
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The 10.27 Healing Partnership is holding its fourth annual Rosh Chodesh Elul program on Sunday, August 28, from 2-4 p.m. at its suite on the top floor of the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill, at 5738 Forbes Ave.
This reflective and meditative event is an opportunity to awaken, prepare, and become grounded as you head into the reflective time of autumn and the High Holidays. It includes meditation practitioners, reiki-infused sound baths, expressive drum circles, speakers who will connect you with Jewish learning, and a communal shofar blowing on the steps of Sixth Presbyterian Church.
As part of the free event, the Rauh Jewish Archives will be presenting "Our Deuteronomies," connecting current Torah readings to local Jewish memoirs.
Deuteronomy is arguably the first Jewish memoir. As the Jewish people prepared to enter the Promised Land without him, Moses delivered a public review of the legal, moral and narrative framework of the Torah. Deuteronomy is always the backdrop to the weeks leading into the High Holidays and therefore has long been a source of guidance for anyone seeking personal improvement. We’ll read through Deuteronomy for lessons for how to craft our own stories, using memoirs from the Rauh Jewish Archives to show how ancient techniques organically manifest in the stories of everyday people.
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From the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh:
Jakob's Torah: An International Journey
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In its newest digital exhibit, the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh tells the story of Jakob's Torah, which made its way from Germany to Shanghai to San Francisco and New York during and after the War before coming to Western Pennsylvania. It is now on display at the Holocaust Center's new exhibition space at the Jennie King Mellon Library on the campus of Chatham University. |
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The 1950 Census is now online.
You can access the census data using the link below. As additional research tools become the coming weeks and months, we'll share them here.
If you would like help using these records, please contact the Archive.
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Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project |
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The home page of the new Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project website, hosted by Carnegie Mellon University Libraries. The redesigned website is launching this month. |
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By now, you're probably expertly zipping around the new Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project platform. But if you still need a little help navigating the features and tools of the website, the Rauh Jewish Archives recently contributed a brief explanatory article to the Jewish Chronicle. It provides some basic tips and techniques for conducting research using the new site.
We plan to provide a live virtual training workshop in the near future to review the website and its functionalities. Until then, we are here to help you troubleshoot problems. You can contact the archive or call 412-454-6406.
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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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The Rauh Jewish 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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