January 21, 2024

Vol. 5, No. 3



The Early 1970s:

Lubavitch Youth Organization

Jewish Encyclopedia:

Adath Jeshurun Congregation

Family Clubs:

Garfinkel-Peisakoff Family Club



Calendar:

Feb. 4: Nolan Altman

Feb. 17: Soul to Soul

"The Sofer"

Community:

NEW: Fine Fellowship

URA photographs

SHHS archives

"How We Got Here"

JCBA "Road-Trip"

Research Tools:

Newspapers, Cemeteries,

Memorial Plaques, Books,

Population Figures, Synagogues, Newsletter Archive,

Shul Records America

The Early 1970s:

Lubavitch Youth Organization

Newspaper photograph showing Rabbi Shmarya Katzen and Meyer Goldwasser putting on Tefillin with KDKA personality Al Julius—July 18, 1974.

—from Jewish Chronicle

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

The four Identicom symposia tackled the most pressing issues facing the American Jewish community in the early 1970s. Leading intellectuals came to Pittsburgh to discuss demographic trends, security concerns, the state of urban neighborhoods, the allocation of limited resources, and Israel at war. 

But the most persistent, recurring theme was the generation gap—the divide between parents born before World War II and their post-War teenage children. 

The generation gap was also a leading topic of discussion at the Jewish Community Forum. The United Jewish Federation launched the series in 1971 to give members of the local Jewish community a chance to discuss major issues with United Jewish Federation leadership in a “town hall” setting. 

Identicom and the Jewish Community Forum coincided in April 1972, and the political scientist Dr. Daniel Elazar was invited to speak at both events. He discussed the widely held perception that college campuses were becoming the “graveyard of the Jewishness of Jewish youth.” If so, he said, the problem lay not with the colleges but with lackluster primary Jewish education, which he felt did too little to instill a sense of Jewish identity in college-bound youth.

Newspaper photograph showing the “Succa Mobile” of the Pittsburgh Friends of Lubavitch Youth Organization. Pictured are Rabbi Shmarya Katzen, Yossi Deren, David Nadoff, and Yossi Rosenblum—September 28, 1972.

—from Jewish Chronicle

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

While all this analysis of youth identity was underway inside the Y-IKC conference hall, a different sort of youth gathering was occurring just outside.

The Jewish Chronicle later reported:

“…as parents listened to speeches on the meaning of Judaism and its roles in their daily lives, their children were receiving a somewhat different type of education from two emissaries of Chabad Chassidim who also happened to be at the Y-IKC.

“They moved through the crowd offering to put ‘tefillin’… on anyone past the age of Bar Mitzvah who expressed interest or willingness in performing this commandment, which has all but disappeared and been abandoned by Conservative and Reform Jews.”

“Tefillin” are a pair of leather boxes containing scrolls with essential Jewish texts. Traditionally, men bind tefillin to their arm and head during daily prayers. 

In the 52 years since that article appeared in print, community habits surrounding tefillin have changed. It is more common today to see liberal Jews wearing Tefillin—both men and women. It is also much more common to see Chabad emissaries stationed at busy street corners in Jewish neighborhoods, encouraging Jewish passersby to partake in this ancient practice.

Newspaper photograph showing Rabbi Shmarya Katzen studying with Benjamin Lefkowitz, Mitchel Small, and Michael Schwarcz, as part of the University Institute of Torah Learning—August 2, 1973.

—from Jewish Chronicle

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

In the early 1970s, though, it made the news.

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of New York, also known as the “Lubavitcher Rebbe,” launched his global Tefillin Campaign shortly before the Six Day War in 1967. The movement soon arrived in Pittsburgh.

A key figure locally was Rabbi Shmarya Katzen, who was sent to Pittsburgh in the early 1970s with a special charge to work with Jewish youth. Following the positive response to the Tefillin Campaign among local Jewish high school and college students, Rabbi Katzen helped launch the Pittsburgh Friends of the Lubavitch Youth Organization. It was a local chapter of an international movement founded by Rabbi Schneerson in the mid-1950s. 

By the early 1970s, the Lubavitch movement in Western Pennsylvania included active day schools for boys and for girls, as well as a synagogue for adults, but the movement had been far less active among Jewish students at non-sectarian high schools and local college campuses. The early success of the local Lubavitch Youth Organization led to the development of the first local Chabad House, which still serves Jewish college students in Pittsburgh today.

[LEFT] Newspaper photograph showing Rabbi Ephraim Rosenblum of Chabad University performing with Allen Meyers and Mike Schwarcz, as part of the Chasidic Musicale series of the Pittsburgh Friends of Lubavitch Youth Organization—August 9, 1973.

—from Jewish Chronicle

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

[RIGHT] Rabbi Shmarya Katzen—undated.

—from Jewish Chronicle Records [MSS 906]

The late 1960s and early 1970s were a tumultuous time at college campuses, prompting many new initiatives from the Jewish community.

As we’ll see over the course of this year, those initiatives included the reorganization of B’nai B’rith-Hillel and the development of the Jewish Studies Program, as well as various initiatives based out of local congregations.

The Jewish Chronicle admired Rabbi Katzen and covered his work. The newspaper includes articles, photographs, and advertisements. The Pittsburgh Friends of the Lubavitch Youth Organization were also the subject of a short study in “Urban Anthropology” in 1975 by Douglas Mitchell of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and Leonard Plotnicov of the University of Pittsburgh.

Otherwise, little documentation survives in public archives. 

Do you recall these campus efforts in the early 1970s? Did you know Rabbi Katzen and participate in his programming? If so, please contact the archive.

All year, the Rauh Jewish Archives is highlighting stories of Jewish life in Western Pennsylvania in the early 1970s. If you would like to donate a material from this time period, or any historically relevant materials documenting Jewish life in this region, contact the archive or call 412-454-6406.

Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania:

Adath Jeshurun Congregation

Color photograph of main sanctuary of Adath Jeshurun Congregation synagogue on Margaretta Street in East Liberty, showing bima and ark—March 31, 1996.

—from Adath Jeshurun Congregation Records [MSS 448]

We looked last week at the Montefiore Hebrew Congregation, which left B’nai Israel Congregation in late 1915. While the factions quickly reunited, the divisions persisted, leading to Adath Jeshurun Congregation in 1917.

The name “Adath Jeshurun” was likely a reference to a famous congregation of the same name in Frankfurt, Germany. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch founded the original Adath Jeshurun in the mid-19th century as a traditional response to the increasing liberalization of organized German Jewry. He created a model for Orthodoxy that retained a strict adherence to tradition but attempted to incorporate the spirit and techniques of modernity—a "modern Orthodoxy."

The split between these two East End congregations allowed the Jewish community to diversify. By the early 1920s, B’nai Israel had affiliated with the Conservative movement, while Adath Jeshurun retained its affiliation with Orthodoxy. A similar dynamic occurred a few years later in Squirrel Hill, when the arrival of the Orthodox congregation Poale Zedeck in 1928 allowed Beth Shalom to pursue an explicit affiliation with the Conservative movement.

Family Clubs:

Garfinkel-Peisakoff Family Club

Notice for the Garfinkel-Peisakoff Cousins' Club—July 2, 1954.

—Jewish Criterion

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

Louis and Fannie PEISAKOFF had at least five children: Sarah GARFINKEL, Jessie YOUNG, Esther Young, Samuel Peisakoff, and Harold Peisakoff. Sarah and William Garfinkel had a daughter, Eleanor PERSKY and a granddaughter Susan COHEN. These and other branches of the family formed the Garfinkel-Peisakoff Family Club as early as July 1954. The club was still meeting in November 1960, according to notices in the local Jewish newspapers.

Known surnames in the Garfinkel-Peisakoff Family Club include Cohen, Feldman, Garfinkel, Love, Peisakoff, Persky, and Young. Known meeting places of the club include: 2323 1/2 Sherbrook St. (William Garfinkel residence); Byrer Avenue, Uniontown (Adriel Cohen residence); 5548 Phillips Ave. (Aaron Young residence); 5647 Pocussett St. (Jacob Garfinkel residence); 943 Flemington St. (Morris Young residence); 311 Dunbar Dr. (Sidney Garfinkel residence); 1414 Denniston Ave. (Herbert Cohen residence); 1618 Denniston Ave. (Jerome Cohen residence); 6363 Douglas St. (Meyer Feldman residence); 1457 Barnesdale St. (Albert Love residence); 1523 Hawthorn St. (Leonard Persky residence); 1640 Denniston Ave. (Allen Cohen residence); New Cumberland, W.V. (Abe Herman residence); and Bea and Jerry Cohen residence. The club also held special events at the Horizon Room at the Pittsburgh International Airport, Idlewood Park, and the Hebrew Institute.

The Rauh Jewish Archives holds materials on the Garfinkel-Love-Cohen branch of the family but no records of the Garfinkel-Peisakoff Family Club. If you have information about the club or its members, please contact the archive.

February 4:

JGS Pittsburgh Presents:

Patronymic Naming and Cemetery Research

Headstone inscriptions provide one of the most important tools for researching Jewish genealogical history: patronymic naming, or names derived from paternal ancestors. This presentation will familiarize attendees with the evolution of family surnames and the practice of patronymic naming. Recognizing the components of patronymic naming, participants will learn how to take advantage of these clues to link their family through generations. Nolan Altman will review an actual case study using headstone inscriptions and will show participants online resources to help find headstone information.



Altman will also show examples of headstones and explain what you’re likely to find if you take a trip to the cemetery. He will explain the meaning of symbols that you will find on stones. Even if you can’t read Hebrew, you can understand the inscriptions. He will also show many examples of inscription trends, some odd inscriptions, and errors in inscriptions…even well-known ones. With a presentation on cemetery records, you wouldn’t expect to leave laughing, but he guarranties you will.

The program is on Sunday, Feb. 4, from 1-3 p.m. ET. This is an online program, occurring exclusively on Zoom. The program will be recorded, and the recording will be made available to current JGS-Pittsburgh members. 

"Patronymic Naming and Cemetery Research" is a collaboration between the Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh and the Rauh Jewish Archives. Please register online. This program is free for JGS-Pittsburgh members and $5 for the general public. To become a member of the JGS-Pittsburgh and to receive a free membership code for this program, please visit its website.

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

Nolan Altman was bit by the “genealogy bug” when he was inspired to write his family history in 1996 in memory of his mother. After making use of the valuable information on JewishGen, he volunteered to do data entry on various projects. In time, he was asked to become the Coordinator for JewishGen’s Holocaust Database and subsequently the Coordinator for the JOWBR (JewishGen’s Online Worldwide Burial Registry) project. Nolan works with volunteers from around the world helping to grow both databases for the benefit of family members and researchers. Nolan currently holds the position of JewishGen’s Director for Data Acquisition and focuses on growing the JOWBR, Holocaust and Memorial Plaques databases. In 2021, JOWBR won the IAJGS Outstanding Project Award.

Feb. 17:

Congregation Beth Shalom Presents:

Soul to Soul

Soul To Soul follows the experience of the African American and Jewish communities and their paths to America’s promise of freedom in a dazzling multi-media program. 

Celebrating its 109th season, the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF), under the direction of Zalman Mlotek, is visiting Pittsburgh for the first time to stage Soul To Soul.

Sung by brilliant performers with careers spanning from Broadway to the pulpit, these stirring songs range from spirituals, jazz, civil rights era anthems to Yiddish traditional and theatre songs from the Great American Songbook, culminating in a high-energy collection of enthralling music, highlighting the historic partnership between Blacks and Jews. 

The recently restored Kaufmann Center’s state-of-the-art Elsie H. Hillman auditorium in the city’s historic Hill District is the perfect venue for this concert. The Hill District embodies the shared history of these two communities in Pittsburgh: It was the center of Jewish life from the late 1880s into the early 1930s and, "the Hill" was the cultural center of Black life and a major center of jazz since before World War I. The venue is run by ACH Clear Pathways and serves as a vibrant artistic hub of the neighborhood and repository of this cultural legacy. 

The concert features the talents of Lisa Fishman (NYTF's Yiddish Fiddler on the Roof), Elmore James (Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast), Tony Perry (Broadway's Five Guys Named Moe) and Daniella Rabbani (NTF's Amid Falling Walls.) Conceived in 2010 by NYTF Artistic Director Zalman Mlotek, the show is accompanied by multimedia imagery and video curated by Motl Didner that reflects the ongoing need for unity and healing. The musical ensemble includes Brian Glassman, Dmitri Zisl Slepovitch, and Matt Temkin with music direction by Mlotek. 

Immediately following the concert will be a talkback with the cast on the genesis and creation of the show as well as a presentation by a respected academic from University of Pittsburgh's History department about jazz and the collaboration between Black and Jewish musicians in the Hill. 

Soul To Soul will be staged on Saturday night, Feb. 17 at the historic Kaufmann Center in the Hill District. Tickets start at $25 and can be purchased at bethshalompgh.org.

through March 18:

Rodef Shalom Congregation Presents:

"The Sofer: A Tribute To My Zayde"

The Sofer is a multi-generational narrative about Pittsburgh artist Rosabel Rosalind's relationship with Zayde, her grandfather, a retired Orthodox rabbi with whom she lived for the first twelve years of her life. (He spent part of his career in Western Pennsylvania, leading Beth Samuel Jewish Center in Ambridge.) Fragmented by time and memory, the story recounts details from the years Zayde and Rosalind lived as roommates, interspersed with historical reimaginings and stark cultural observations that span past and present. 

The book follows Zayde and Rosalind, as she came of age in a Conservative Jewish household and as she continues to come to terms with her Jewishness. The Sofer is about the haunting of memory, history, and tradition in the face of a resurgence of anti-Semitism, through an intimate and inherited perspective. 

The original manuscript of The Sofer is 185 pages and is entirely hand-painted with beet juice, citing Zayde's affinity for Manischewitz brand borscht and the complexities of diasporic Jewishness. Sofer, translates to a Jewish scribe of ancient texts, and it is also Rosalind's maternal name; her Zayde’s last name. Thus she transcribed the familial, ancestral, and historical, using an untraditional hand-made ink, per scribal ritual, with a combination of painting and comic techniques and specific Sofer lettering of Rosalind's design.

Community

The Fine Fellowship

Jewish Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh and the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center announce the inaugural Fine Fellowship for the study of the October 27 attack. This $4000 fellowship will provide funding for a scholar to travel to Pittsburgh and work with local materials related to the attack and its aftermath and to engage with the local community.

A committee of representatives from the Jewish studies faculty of University of Pittsburgh, the Rauh Jewish Archives, and the 10.27 Healing Partnership will consider the applications. They will offer the award to an outstanding scholar whose research promises to make excellent use of local materials, stands to gain from thoughtful conversations with the people of Pittsburgh, and will prove instructive to local community-members seeking to better understand the contexts and repercussions of the October 27 attack.

Applications due March 15, 2024. For more information, click link below.

Urban Redevelopment Authority Archives

The City of Pittsburgh Archives has launched a new digital archive containing thousands of photographs and documents spanning more than two centuries. Of particular interest to local Jewish history is a collection of more than 2,000 photographs of properties in the lower Hill District taken by the Urban Redevelopment Authority in the late 1950s prior to demolitions in the area. 

Squirrel Hill Historical Society Archives

Squirrel Hill Historical Society has added a collection of 60 historic images of Squirrel Hill to the Historic Pittsburgh website. The collection contains selected images from three organizations: the Squirrel Hill Historical Society, Squirrel Hill Urban  Coalition, and Mary S. Brown Memorial-Ames United Methodist Church. The photographs document many aspects of life in Squirrel Hill, including many beloved businesses from the 1990s that no longer exist.

From the Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh

"How We Got Here"

Each family is unique. 

Each family has its own traditions, its own spirit, and its own dynamics. 

Despite all these differences, every Jewish family in Western Pennsylvania has at least one thing in common: They all have a story about how they got here.

Perhaps your family sailed in steerage across the Atlanti in the 19th century.

Or perhaps your family drove the Pennsylvania Turnpike in a station wagon in the 1960s to work for the universities and hospitals during Renaissance.

Or perhaps your arrival into one of the many Jewish communities of Western Pennsylvania involves marriage, or conversion, or a surprising DNA discovery.

Each of these stories is special, and each contributes to the larger story of our community. To collect and honor these origin stories, the Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh is launching a new initiative called “How We Got Here.” To participate, just write a short account explaining how you or your ancestors came to settle in Western Pennsylvania. All stories are welcome.

Stories will be eligible for inclusion in the JGS-Pittsburgh’s monthly newsletter Z’chor and also for preservation in the Rauh Jewish Archives. For more information about this initiative, or to contribute, contact Eric Lidji.

From the Jewish Cemetery & Burial Association

"Road Trip: The Jewish Cemeteries of Western Pennsylvania"

The Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association of Greater Pittsburgh has released a new documentary showcasing Jewish cemeteries in Western Pennsylvania.

“Road Trip: The Jewish Cemeteries of Western Pennsylvania” is a one-hour tour of the many cemetery properties overseen by the JCBA, as well as an overview of the organization’s ongoing work to care for these sacred burial grounds. The video is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate these special Jewish cultural sites in our region. The video includes many historic photographs and documents from the collections of the Rauh Jewish Archives. 

Research Tools

The Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project contains digitized, searchable copies of four local English-language Jewish newspapers between 1895 and 2010. It is a valuable tool for researching almost any topic about Jewish history in Western Pennsylvania. For a primer on using the website, watch our video.

Western Pennsylvania Jewish Cemetery Project

The Rauh Jewish Archives launched the Western Pennsylvania Jewish Cemetery Project in 1998 to preserve burial records from Jewish cemeteries across the region. Over a period of fifteen years, the information was compiled into a searchable, online database containing approximately 50,000 burial records from 78 Jewish cemeteries throughout the region.

Western Pennsylvania Yahrzeit Plaques Project

The Rauh Jewish Archives launched the Western Pennsylvania Yahrzeit Plaques Project in 2020. The goal was to create a comprehensive collection of burial records from memorial boards at synagogues across the region. Volunteers are currently transcribing these boards and records are being added monthly to our online database. The database currently contains more than 2,700 listings.

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.

Jewish Population Estimates

Looking to figure out how many Jews lived in a certain part of Western Pennsylvania at a certain moment in time? This bibliography includes more than 30 estimates of the Jewish population of Pittsburgh and small-towns throughout the region, conducted between 1852 and 2017.

Synagogues

A database of buildings throughout Western Pennsylvania known to have hosted Jewish worship services. Includes links to photographs and citations with original source material. Database currently includes 90 locations from 2 institutions

Rauh Jewish Archives Newsletter

The Rauh Jewish Archives has been publishing a weekly newsletter since 2020. The newsletter contains a variety of articles about local Jewish history, including much original research not found anywhere else. You can find and read every issue—more than 150!— in our new index.

Shul Records America

Online finding aid from JewishGen listing congregational archival collections held at publicly accessible repositories across the United States. Includes 63 listings from the Rauh Jewish Archives, as well as other repositories with Western Pennsylvania congregational records.

The Rauh Jewish Archives was founded on November 1, 1988 to collect and preserve the documentary history of Jewish life in Western Pennsylvania and to make it available to the world through research assistance, programing, exhibits, publications, and partnerships.

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