Memoirs: Roses in December
Saul Kurtz
Beth Jacob Congregation
Jones Hollow
Community News
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Memoirs:
"Roses in December"
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"Roses in December," cover. |
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Some memoirs exist between biography and autobiography. The author tells the story of a life other than their own, but they tell that story through close first-hand observations, rather than research and interviews. The result can often feel both intimate and thoughtful.
The subtitle of Florence Berman Karp’s 1983 memoir “Roses in December” is “A Memoir of My Parents.” In the 83-page book, Karp tells the story of her father Abraham Berman and her mother Sylvia Gordin Berman. They came to the United States from present-day Latvia in the early 20th century and briefly lived in tiny Houtzdale, Pa. before making a rich and full life as merchants, parents, and citizens in Altoona, Pa.
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“Roses in December” is a candid and evocative portrait of an immigrant couple navigating a sequence of big transitions: from Europe to America, from the formal 19th century to the freewheeling 20th century, from poverty to comfort, from tradition to reform, from youth to old age. Abraham and Sylvia Karp are presented in their full humanity: deep, complicated, and specific.
Karp writes as a grandmother who is thinking back on her years as a daughter. Her recollections are studded with reflections born through life experience.
Once, as young parents, she and her husband spontaneously dropped their three kids with her parents and spent a week in the country with friends. “I have learned a lot about grandparenting since then,” Karp writes about the incident. “In her autobiography Margaret Mead speaks of ‘the much trumpeted freedom from responsibility that grandparents are supposed to feel.’ She writes of the effort it takes on the part of grandparents to be ‘a resource but not an interference’ and says that we do not allow sufficiently for the obligations we lay on grandparents. When I recently read these thoughts in ‘Blackberry Winter,’ the almost forgotten incident of forty years ago came immediately to my mind, as if it had been waiting for the right moment to present itself for examination. Evidently I must have buried some well-deserved feelings of guilt that day in 1943 to have them reappear so strongly upon reading Mead’s words. But at the time there was not a word of unwillingness from the grandparents when three children suddenly became their responsibility without even the courtesy of a request from the parents.”
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Sylvia and Abraham Berman, illustration by Marty Wolfson
—"Roses in December"
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Karp also considers the past through the lessons and insights of the late 20th century, a time when societal imbalances past and present were being re-examined. Recalling how her mother once secretly purchased a garbage disposal against the wishes of her father, Karp writes, “A kitchen convenience is a might small item in the general scheme of things but with a garbage disposal Mama had struck a blow for ERA, for NOW, and for the Civil Liberties Union. She had moved one tiny step up the ladder towards equality.” |
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Next week: Yiddish
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:
Saul Kurtz Papers and Photographs [MSS 1195]
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Wolfe's Jewelers liquidation sale notice, Pittsburgh Press, April 30, 1978
—Saul Kurtz Papers [MSS 1195]
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Saul Kurtz (1926-2013) was the owner of the Federal Liquidation Company. It was one of several local firms in the business of acquiring wholesale and retail operations at bankruptcy auctions and then overseeing liquidation sales of their assets. These companies were known colloquially as “The 40 Thieves.”
The advertisements are a rare record of an important aspect of the local mercantile trade in the 20th century.
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Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania:
Beth Jacob Congregation (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
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Beth Jacob Congregation (Pittsburgh, Pa.) synagogue
—Beth Hamedrash Hagodol-Beth Jacob Congregation Photographs [MSQ 438]
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Beth Jacob Congregation was an Orthodox congregation in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. It was created in 1879, when a group of people originally from the Litvishe (Lithuanian) towns of Kalverie and Mariampol in Sulwalk province in present-day Poland broke away from Beth Hamedrash Hagodol Congregation to form their own congregation. They incorporated Beth Jacob in 1883.
Beth Jacob rented meeting space until purchasing a building on Logan Street after 1890. As membership grew, the congregation purchased the former Sixth Presbyterian Church at Townsend and Epiphany streets in 1901 and converted it into a synagogue. Beth Jacob re-joined Beth Hamedrash Hagodol in 1964 to create the merged Beth Hamedrash Hagodol-Beth Jacob Congregation.
Our entry for Beth Jacob Congregation includes a photograph of its Townsend Street synagogue, its charter and bylaws, and an early membership list.
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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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Before Fern Hollow, there was Jones Hollow |
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Crews building a temporary plank road over a collapsed section of Bigelow Boulevard in November 1920. —Pittsburgh City Photographer Collection, University of Pittsburgh |
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"The collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge earlier this year is reviving a familiar urban tale: the detour story. Hearing friends describe their daily struggles to move between Regent Square and Squirrel Hill — taking Penn to Dallas, or crawling along the Parkway, or tramping through Frick Park — has given me new way to think about a local road catastrophe from a century ago..."
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Women's History Month Display |
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Section of Women's History Month display at Detre Library & Archives reading room. |
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In celebration of Women’s History Month, Rauh Jewish Archives Project Archivist Catelyn Cocuzzi has created a display in the archive reading room honoring four local Jewish women who have recently added collections to the archives: Bessie Anathan, Rosalie Glickman, Ethel Halpern, and Phyllis Cohen.
The next time you visit the Heinz History Center, come up to the sixth floor to see the display and learn about these talented and accomplished leaders.
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Having honored the required 72-year delay, the National Archives and Records Administration was set to release the 1950 Census on April 1.
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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Pittsburghers preserve history
through Jewish Women’s Archive
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Lillian Simon Freehof, undated.
—Rodef Shalom Congregation Archives
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A report from the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle about local contributions to the Jewish Women's Archive—an online encyclopedia documenting the contributions of Jewish women.
Rachel Kranson, director of the Jewish Studies Department at the University of Pittsburgh; Martha Berg, archivist at Rodef Shalom Congregation; and Squirrel Hill resident Ruth Reidbord each contributed to the website.
Essays include profiles of Lillian Simon Freehof and Elaine Lobl Konigsburg. The website also includes profiles of locals Bertha Floersheim Rauh and Dr. Luba Robin Goldsmith.
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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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