The Pollyanna Club was one of the most successful girls' clubs at the Irene Kaufmann Settlement. It won "Honor Club" year after year in the late 1920s.
[IMAGE: A photograph showing the members of the Pollyanna Club sitting around a table at the Irene Kaufmann Settlement House, with a caption announcing that the girls had been named Girls' Honor Club for 1926—Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh Photographs, MSP 0389.]
|
|
|
|
The earliest reference to the Pollyanna Club is a meeting notice from the Jewish Criterion from November 1924. It lists the officers of the club, including club reporter Yetta Oberfield. Oberfield later volunteered for the Irene Kaufmann Settlement House and joined the staff in 1931. She was a membership clerk and a receptionist there until 1972, long after the settlement left the Hill District and merged with the YMWHA to become the Y-IKC in Squirrel Hill.
[IMAGES: (Top) An IKSH staff photograph from 1935, including Yetta Oberfield (center row, fifth from left)—American Jewish Outlook, June 26, 1959. (Left) A portrait of Oberfield drawn by Edward Goodwin as part of art classes at the IKSH—Yetta Oberfield Papers, 1997.0368.]
|
|
Surviving documentation of the Pollyanna Club is slight, making it hard to describe the nature of its affairs. But we do have some clues.
A notice from the Jewish Criterion from March 1925 says that the girls spent one meeting making "handkerchiefs and candy boxes."
In 1930, the girls held an "aviation party" with a miniature airplane race.
The girls in the club also participated in IKSH inter-club activities. Among the most popular were the annual "Declamation Contests," where girls could win prizes for their oratory skills. Elsie Spector represented the Pollyanna Club during the Hilary Declamation Content in 1930.
The Pollyanna Club also had a small dramatic program. In April 1933, it participated in the Irene Kaufmann Settlement House One-Act Play Festival with a production of "Little Prison." The play by George Milton Savage told the story of a group of people trapped in an elevator.
The play notice is one of the last known records of the Pollyanna Club.
[IMAGES: Notices from the March 20, 1925, Feb. 28, 1930, and April 11, 1930 issues of the Jewish Criterion, reporting on activities of the Pollyanna Club, including its handkerchief making event, its aviation party, and its involvement in the Hilary Declamation Contest.]
|
|
|
In the next issue of the newsletter, we'll look at The Redael Club.
|
|
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.
|
|
Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski, obm (1930-2021) |
|
Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski, of blessed memory, died on Jan. 31 at the age of 90, following a singular career in the field of Pittsburgh medicine.
Rabbi Twerski was a child of several famed Chassidic dynasties, a pioneering advocate in the fields of mental health and addiction recovery, and a prolific author of scholarly and popular literature on a wide range of subjects.
With the financial help of actor Danny Thomas, Rabbi Twerski came to Pittsburgh in 1959 to complete his studies at the University of Pittsburgh’s Western Psychiatric Institute. Rabbi Twerski was later named the clinical director of the Department of Psychiatry at St. Francis General Hospital, where he founded Gateway Rehabilitation Center with the Sisters of St. Francis.
[IMAGE: Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski standing outside the offices of "Shaare Hatikvah" or Gateway to Hope, a drug addiction rehabilitation center for prisoners, founded in Israel in 1993—Jewish Chronicle Records, MSS 906.]
|
|
JGS-Pittsburgh Presents: Roger Lustig |
|
The Germany where your Jewish ancestors lived is not the Germany of today. Its boundaries have changed several times. Before its unification in 1871, Germany was more of a concept than a state, composed of dozens of kingdoms, duchies, and principalities large and small. Each area had its own laws and attitudes toward Jews. To do research in this historic “Germany,” one must know which places belonged to which state at a given time, the legal status of Jews in each place, and the records that were kept in those places. Germany has an enormous wealth of records pertaining to Jews, especially after 1800, but there are no simple, global rules for using them.
In Jewish Genealogy in the Germanies, Roger Lustig will work backward from today’s Germany to the early 19th century, focusing on key historical events, their impact on Jewish life, and the way records were kept.
|
|
Roger Lustig is a genealogical researcher based in Princeton, N.J. Since 2002, he has specialized in the Jewish families of Prussian Poland, especially Upper Silesia and West Prussia. He has done research in archives in the United States, Germany, and Poland.
As research coordinator for GerSIG (German Special Interest Group) he is developing databases, including NALDEX (Name-Adoption List index), Württemberg Family Registers, and the Hessen-Gatermann database. He has also contributed over 25,000 Prussian records to the JRI-Poland database.
This program is possible through the support of the William M. Lowenstein Genealogical Research Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation.
|
|
"Samuel Goldenson, Labor Activist" |
|
Rodef Shalom Congregation's local Jewish history series continues on Tuesday, Feb. 16, when D. Clarke looks at the labor activism of Rabbi Dr. Samuel Goldenson, who led the congregation from 1918 until 1933.
The remaining sessions, held the third Tuesday of each month through May 2021, will look at important lay leaders within the congregation, and the art and architecture of the Rodef Shalom's landmark Fifth Avenue synagogue.
|
|
"Groundhog Day: Meet the Jews of Punxsutawney, Pa." |
|
The Forward recently profiled the Jewish community of Punxsutawney, including its central role in the development of Groundhog Day traditions.
The Rauh Jewish Archives profiled the town back in 2017, as part of our Small Town Jewish History Project, which documents and celebrates the legacy of the small-town Jewish communities throughout Western Pennsylvania
[IMAGE: Sam Light was president of the Punxsutawney Groundhogs Club from 1952 to 1976 and introduced the now-iconic formal wear worn by members of the club. He is seen here communing with Punxsutawney Phil—from "Gourmets and Groundhogs, The Second Helping," by Elaine Kahn Light.]
|
|
If you like this newsletter, why not forward it to a friend? We want to share the story of local Jewish history with as many friends and neighbors as possible.
If you've received this newsletter from a friend or neighbor, and you want to read more, just click on the link below to start receiving future editions.
[IMAGE: Marian Schreiber and employees at the Schreiber Trucking Company, c.1943—Schreiber Family Papers and Photographs [MSS 846]."
|
|
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. |
|
 |
Plan a Visit
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
