Memoirs: Your Story
Beth Israel Center
Emma Kaufmann Clinic
Calendar: Shavuout, Brownsville reunion, Shaare Torah celebration, Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project
Community News
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All year we've been sharing memoirs of Jewish life in Western Pennsylvania. So far, we've added more than 25 of these memoirs to our website.
Our goal is to share the stories of people just like you, and also to encourage you to write a memoir of your own, for others to enjoy in the future. But we know that the prospect of writing your entire life story can feel daunting.
One question people often ask: How long is a memoir?
The answer: As long as your memory allows it to be.
The memoirs we've shared so far range in size. Some are hundreds of pages, large enough to fill a book. Mollie Brunwasser's memoir famously fills 57 volumes. But not all memoirs are long. Mel Pollock gives a rich account of his childhood in Gallitzin in just 14 pages. Dr. Henry J. Mankin gives the feel of Squirrel Hill in the 1930s and 1940s in just 20 pages. Sanford Baskind overflowed with memories, but rather than attempt one big book, he divided his memoirs into several short essays, each concerning a different theme.
If you have memories, you have enough material to write a memoir.
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Next week: Kitty
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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The Beth Israel Center synagogue on Gill Hall Road in Pleasant Hills, Aug. 1963.
—Beth Israel Center Records [MSS 1084]
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Beth Israel Center was founded in 1958 by businessmen, engineers, scientists, and other professionals, many of whom had moved to the South Hills of Pittsburgh to work at the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in West Mifflin, Pa. The congregation was incorporated in 1959 and later affiliated with the Conservative movement. Beth Israel Center formally closed in 2017, selling its building and donating the proceeds to charities throughout the region.
The Beth Israel Center Records [MSS 1084] provide a comprehensive look at the life and work of this suburban congregation from its founding to its closing through minutes, scrapbooks, membership records, and other documentation.
Our entry for Beth Israel Center includes a detailed history, key documents, links to several books, photographs of confirmation classes from 1961 through 2006, and six oral history recordings with members of the congregation.
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Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania:
Emma Kaufmann Clinic
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The former Emma Kaufmann Clinic, 1998.
—Gerald Sapir Papers and Photographs [MSS 775]
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The Emma Kaufmann Clinic was a women’s clinic and dispensary located at 3028 Brereton St. on the campus of the Western Pennsylvania Medical College in Polish Hill. The clinic was dedicated in 1897 by Isaac Kaufmann and named for his late wife. The clinic later became part of the University of Pittsburgh.
Our entry includes a brief history with links to supporting documentation, as well as photographs of the building, taken in 1998 by Gerald Sapir.
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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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Calendar: Past and Present |
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Jewish Criterion, May 4, 1928 |
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The early-summer holiday of Shavuot commemorates the giving of the Torah. In modern times, the holiday has been used as an anchor for Jewish educational initiatives. Confirmation ceremonies have traditionally been held around the time of Shavuot, which conveniently falls near the end of the school year.
The local Bureau of Jewish Education held a communitywide Shavuot program for children at the Y.M.&W.H.A in Oakland in May 1928, just a few years after the Y opened its new facility on Bellefield Avenue. The program included representatives from the Y, the Irene Kaufmann Settlement House, the Hebrew Institute, and the Southwestern District of Pennsylvania Jewish Religious Schools Program, as well as several local congregations.
The Rauh Jewish Archives phone and email account will be offline on Sunday, June 5 and Monday, June 6, in observance of the holiday.
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June 19:
Brownsville Jewish Community Reunion
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Group photograph of the students and teachers of the Ohave Israel Religious School in Brownsville, Pa., standing in front of the synagogue building, undated.
—Synagogue Documentation Project Photographs [MSP 317].
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The former Jewish community of Brownsville, Pa., is hosting a reunion.
In addition to celebrating the 115th anniversary of the founding of Congregation Ohave Israel in 1907, the reunion will include a rededication of the Ohave Israel Cemetery, which has recently been rediscovered, restored and documented by the Jewish Cemetery & Burial Association.
The reunion will be June 19, 2022 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Nemacolin’s Castle Courtyard, 136 Front St. in Brownsville, Pa. To RSVP, or to learn more about the event, please contact Danny Greenfield or Norma Ryan.
As part of the reunion, work is underway to properly document the history of former Jewish community of Brownsville. If you have memories or materials of Jewish life in the community, email the Archive or call 412-454-6406.
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June 23:
Rabbi and Rebbetzin Wasserman Celebration
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Rabbi Daniel Wasserman and Rebbetzin Judy Wasserman came to Pittsburgh in early 1997 to lead Shaare Torah Congregation.
As they prepare to leave Pittsburgh for Israel this summer, Shaare Torah is hosting a weekend of learning, prayer and community in their honor.
The Rauh Jewish Archives will be kicking off the weekend on the evening of Thursday, June 23 with a historical perspective about Shaare Torah Congregation. The talk will consider previous moments of transition and renewal at the congregation over the past century, such as the creation of the Pittsburgh Hebrew School and the introduction of bat mitzvah rituals.
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[Left] Cover of program for Shaare Torah Congregation's 117th annual banquet, featuring the installation of Rabbi Daniel Wasserman, March 1997. |
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June 26:
How to Use the Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project
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The Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project is a free, online collection of English-language newspapers covering the Jewish population of Western Pennsylvania from 1895 to 2010. Carnegie Mellon University hosts the website and recently moved it to a new online platform. To help researchers with this transition, the Rauh Jewish Archives, the Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh, and the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle are providing a free online workshop to help researchers use the website. We’ll introduce the website, review its basic features and functions, and offer tips and techniques for conducting research. We’ll also be collecting questions and suggestions.
This vritual program is on Sun., June 26 at 1:00 p.m. ET. Please register online. The program will be recorded and made available online.
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August Wilson's Doc Goldblum
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Dr. Albert Goldblum's head mirror and baby scale, as seen in the Jewish section of the Special Collections gallery on the 4th floor of the Heinz History Center.
-gift of Carol Goldblum
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The name "Doc Goldblum" is spoken seven times across four August Wilson plays, one character among many in his complex tapestry of Hill District life.
In an article in the Jewish Chronicle, Michael Downing of Kutztown University looks into the real-life Dr. Albert Goldblum, who operated a general practice in the Hill District in the 1930s and 1940s before relocating to Squirrel Hill.
The Rauh Jewish Archives has three tools from Doc Goldblum's practice: his head mirror, his examination table, and the scale he used to weigh babies.
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Now Open:
“Pittsburgh’s John Kane:
The Life & Art of an American Workman”
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"Crossing the Junction," John Kane |
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The Carnegie Institute surprised the art world in 1927 when it accepted a painting called “Scene from the Scottish Highlands” into its annual International Exhibition of Paintings. The exhibit, now called the Carnegie International, was one of the longest-running and most important surveys of American contemporary painting, a showcase of world-famous painters.
The artist was John Kane, a 67-year-old immigrant laborer in Pittsburgh with no formal art training but an artistic eye and approach all his own. Through the exposure from the exhibit, Kane gained international recognition in the final years of his life. Today, his work can be found in some of the most prestigious art museums in America, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Art Institute of Chicago.
The local art world has revisited Kane many times since his death in 1934, but there has never been a thorough historical examination of his life. The new Heinz History Center exhibit “Pittsburgh’s John Kane: The Life & Art of an American Workman” is the first to consider how Kane’s life and world influenced his art. Grounded in scholarship from Louise Lippincott and Maxwell King's new book “American Workman: The Life and Art of John Kane,” the exhibit asks: How did an immigrant worker roaming around Western Pennsylvania at the turn of the century become an artist of national acclaim?
“Pittsburgh’s John Kane” includes 37 paintings by Kane from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Carnegie Museum of Art, American Folk Art Museum, Detroit Institute of Arts, the Phillips Collection, and others collections. The exhibit also includes rarely seen archival objects, including a collection of silver gelatin photographs Kane took as painting studies. An immersive walk-through of Kane’s final painting—“Crossing the Junction”—will allow visitors to travel through a Pittsburgh landscape as Kane did and explore his artistic process.
The exhibit is now open and runs through the rest of the year.
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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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