November 26, 2023

Vol. 4, No. 49



Restaurants:

Kosher Catering Inc.

Jewish Encyclopedia:

Congregation Ezras Tzadickem

Neighborhoods:

Beltzhoover



Calendar:

Dec. 10: JGS presents: Claire Weill

through Dec. 5: Darkness to Light

Community:

SHHS archives

"How We Got Here"

JCBA "Road-Trip"

Research Tools:

Newspapers, Cemeteries,

Memorial Plaques, Books,

Population Figures, Synagogues, Newsletter Archive,

Shul Records America

Restaurants:

Kosher Catering Inc.

Advertisement for Kosher Catering Inc., seeking applications for “an experienced restaurant operator—June 27, 1949.

—from Jewish Criterion

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

In the Oct. 1, 2023 newsletter, we profiled F&F Delicatessen. As part of a push in early 1945 to bring stricter religious standards to the Squirrel Hill business district, the Rabbinical Council of Pittsburgh persuaded the owners of F&F to accept regular rabbinic supervision in return for kosher certification.

The Rabbinical Council had the support of a group of laymen, including Abe Dunn. Max Engelberg, J. D. Golding, Leon Gottlieb, Asher Isaacs, and J. Siegel.

The experiment was short-lived. It appears that F&F Delicatessen only retained its kosher status for only a few months before reverting to its former status.

This week, we investigate what happened next. 

Many of those same Jewish lay leaders came together in April 1947 to incorporate a new business called Kosher Catering Inc. Technical aspects of incorporation were undertaken by Golding, a downtown lawyer who had also recently handled the incorporation of Hillel Academy in February 1947. 

Aside from the required public notice in local papers, Kosher Catering Inc. made no announcements until June 17, 1949. That week, an advertisement in the Jewish Criterion read, “We are about to establish a strictly kosher restaurant in Pittsburgh and are seeking an experience restaurant operator.” 

A little later in the summer, Kosher Catering Inc. issued a press release. It announced that a small group of “public-spirited citizens” would soon be opening a kosher restaurant at 23 Graeme St., just off Market Square downtown. The tri-state area around Pittsburgh was “one of the very few large cities which had not had such service” and had “regularly missed out on national conferences and conventions by Jewish organizations as a result.” 

The directors of Kosher Catering Inc. were Engelberg, Goldin, Gottlieb, and Harry Morris, with a temporary board including Abe Banchek, Abe Dunn, Morris Schwartz, Morris Mazer, and Max Balsam. An associated rabbinic council included all the leading local Orthodox and Conservative rabbis at the time.

A month later, in September 1949, Kosher Catering Inc. announced a $50,000 stock offer and listed 35 initial stockholders, including several lay leaders from the local Orthodox community. The project appears to have quickly stalled. A proposed November 15 opening date came and went without news. The building at 23 Graeme St. opened as Sammy’s Steak House in March 1950. 

Abe Dunn, who had been part of both F&F and Kosher Catering Inc., made another attempt in December 1962 when he opened The Kosher Restaurant at 1718 Murray Ave. Dunn attempted a similar financial structure to Kosher Catering Inc., selling makeshift bonds to improve cash flow. The restaurant lasted a little more than a year before being damaged in a fire in early 1964.

All year, the Rauh Jewish Archives is highlighting Jewish restaurants in Western Pennsylvania. If you would like to donate a material from a Jewish restaurant, or just reminisce, contact the archive or call 412-454-6406.

Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania:

Congregation Ezras Tzadickem

Selection from the charter of Congregation Ezras Tzadickem—1926.

—from Allegheny County Charter Books

Allegheny County

We looked last week at Congregation Moogen David, which broke away from Shaaray Tefilah Congregation in 1911 and settled next door on Miller St. 

A second breakaway occurred 15 years later in 1926. A large group of men and women, including several former members of Shaaray Tefilah, chartered Congregation Ezras Tzadickem [Help of Righteous Ones] “to maintain a place of worship, a school of instruction and a communal center.” Although the group had Galitzianers, Romanians, Polish, and others in addition to Russians, it played a role in the evolution of the Rishishe (Russian Jewish) community.

The only known documentation for Ezras Tzadickem is its 1926 charter, which lists the following members: A. Antis, Jake Bida, Esther Benkovitz, Jake Benkovitz, Morris Benkovitz, Yudel Benkovitz, Anna Berger, Eshia Berger, Anna Caplan, Hymen Caplan, Jacob Colker, Adella Davis, B. Eisner, Annie Faderman, A. Feldman, Fannie Goddy, I. Goddy, Dora Goodstein, Hyman Goodstein, David Hausman, S. Hausman, Isaac Horovitz, Anna Katz, R. Katz, Sam Katz, Esther Kramer, David Levenson, W. Lando, Isaac Laufe, Rose Lefshitz, Anna Linetsky, Frank Linetsky, Bella Morris, Samuel Morris, Leah Mullen, Philip Onickman, Ruth Rosen, Esther Rosenson, Louis Schwartz, Eshia Shapira, Louis Shelkrot, Louis Shussett, R. Silverman, Jerome Solomon, D. Solominsky, Rosie Solominsky, Louis Spector, George Stern, Fannie Tufshinsky, Boruch Twersky, Gertrude Twersky, Jacob Twersky, Frank Weinstein, Mrs. Frank E. Weinstein, and David Wurhaft. It is a rare charter that includes both men and women.

Neighborhoods:

Beltzhoover

Detail from G. M. Hopkins Co. map of Beltzhoover, showing intersection of Climax and Haberman streets where the Hilltop Jewish Community Club met—1923.

—Historic Pittsburgh

The one-sentence summary of Jewish settlement in Pittsburgh is a story of expansion and contraction. It goes something like this: Jewish settlement began in the downtown core, expanded into the Hill District and the North Side, expanded again to touch nearly every part of the city, and eventually contracted down to Squirrel Hill and the surrounding suburban communities.

During the peak of this expansion in the 1920s and 1930s, hundreds of Jewish families chose to settle away from the major Jewish population centers in Pittsburgh, creating communal institutions in every part of the city. These neighborhood Jewish communities can be grouped into five loose geographic clusters: the North Side, the south shore of the Allegheny River, the eastern city limits, the north shore of the Monongahela River, and the South Side.

Each cluster experienced its own miniature wave of expansion and contraction. 

For example, in the late 19th century, a Jewish enclave emerged at the eastern end of the North Side, in Deutschtown. Within a few years, a second enclave emerged at the other end of the North Side, in Manchester. A few years after that, a third emerged to the north, in Woods Run. All three enclaves had shuls.

The Woods Run shul disbanded in the late 1920s. The Manchester and Deutschtown shuln shrank after World War II and disbanded in the late 1960s. 

[LEFT] “New Community Center,” newspaper notice announcing formation of the Hilltop Jewish Community Club, serving the Hilltop neighborhoods of Pittsburgh—Jan. 30, 1925.

[RIGHT] “Hill Top Jewish Community,” newspaper notice announcing commencement of High Holiday services in the Hilltop neighborhoods of Pittsburgh—Oct. 14, 1927.

—Jewish Criterion

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

The other clusters followed a similar pattern: adding communities throughout the 1920s, shrinking after the 1940s, and disappearing by the 1970s.

The earliest Jewish population of the South Side settled along East Carson Street in the late 19th century. These settlers formed several communal institutions between 1907 and 1913, including the B’nai B’rith Birmingham Lodge No. 619, a local religious school, and Congregation Talmud Torah.

A second enclave emerged after 1915 in the new residential developments beyond Saw Mill Run Boulevard, anticipating the constructing of the Liberty Bridge and Tunnel. They formed Beth El Congregation in 1917 in Beechview.

We’ll consider that story next year. 

In the mid-1920s, a third Jewish population emerged between the South Side Flats and Beechview—or, to describe the area topographically, across the sizable plateau between Josephine Street and Saw Mill Run Boulevard. This population was dispersed across the “Hilltop” neighborhoods of Allentown, Arlington, Beltzhoover, Carrick, Knoxville, Mt. Oliver, and Mt. Washington. 

Aware of this growing Jewish population, Knoxille merchants Morris and Irene Fivars canvassed the entire Hilltop on foot, a radius of about five miles. They ultimately identified some 25 Jewish families spread across the entire area. They formed the Hilltop Jewish Community Club in January 1925 based out of the third floor of Weil’s Hall at 239 Climax Street in centrally located Beltzhoover. Henry and Hattie Weil owned the hall and donated it to the club.

The Hilltop Jewish Community Club was an all-purpose communal space. It was a synagogue, religious school, and community center, as needed. It had a Mothers’ Club and a Brotherhood. Starting in the fall of 1927, the community held annual High Holiday services with a borrowed Torah and a hired rabbi.

Detail from map showing Jewish population distribution throughout downtown Pittsburgh, the Hill District, and the southern neighborhoods—1938. Each dot equals five households.

—  Kuntz, Leonard I. “The Changing Pattern of the Distribution of the Jewish Population of Pittsburgh From Earliest Settlement to 1963.”

Throughout the 1930s, the Hilltop Jewish Community Club was a critical link for Jewish families in the area. The community began to shrink in the early 1940s.

The latest known notice of the club was published in 1942. By the early 1960s, the overall population of the area had shifted east to Arlington Heights and south to Brookline and Dormont. The Jewish population also shrank. There were 77 families in the area in 1938 and only 14 by 1963. This trend continued through the 20th century with the growth of Squirrel Hill and the South Hills.

Dec 10:

JGS Pittsburgh Presents:

Jewish Genealogical Resources in France

Waves of French-Jewish immigrants came to North America. In this presentation, Claire Weill will discuss some of the reasons behind emigration and tell you what else you can learn about your French Jewish relatives.

There is an extensive and varied collection of material available for genealogical research for the 20th and 19th centuries, and resources do exist for the 18th century. These include civil vital records, military documents, Census records, cadastral registers, National and Departmental Archives, and many databases. This presentation aims to show you where to find these materials and how best to use them to further your research.

The program is Sunday, Dec. 10, 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. 

"Jewish Genealogical Resources in France" 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.

Claire Weill has French Ashkenazi Jewish roots. She is Professeure de Chaire Supérieure and teaches Spanish Literature. She has been involved in genealogy for more than 30 years, with a special interest in Alsace. She is a board member of the CGJ, Cercle de Généalogie Juive, the first Jewish French Genealogical association, with more than 700 members and a huge collection of information. She recently joined JewishGen as a Project Coordinator for the France Research Division.

through Dec. 5:

From Darkness to Light

Presented in collaboration with Violins of Hope, this free exhibit in the Commons of Rodef Shalom Congregation features mosaics from artists around the world, created in response to October 27. Through their pieces, artists tackle antisemitism and injustice, and promote hope, resilience, and peace.

Community

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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