Vol. 4

No. 25

Restaurants:

Schulberg's Food Bar

The Jewish Encyclopedia:

The Mordecai Family

Article:

The First Minyan in Pittsburgh

Calendar:

July 9: Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld

through Aug. 13: Green Book

Community:

"How We Got Here"

Under the Dome of Rodef Shalom

JCBA "Road-Trip"

Mystery portraits

Research Tools:

Newspapers, Cemeteries,

Memorial Plaques, Books,

Population Figures, Newsletters

Restaurants:

Schulberg's Food Bar

Black and white photograph showing Schulberg's at 1822 Murray Ave., Feb. 19, 1947.

—from Pittsburgh City Photographer Collection 

University of Pittsburgh Archives & Special Collections 

[715.4775743.CP] (online—Historic Pittsburgh)

In the last issue, Helen Spirer recalled a detail about the Temple Restaurant, run by her parents Louis and Rebecca Bart and her uncle Alex Schulberg.

“It was never a kosher restaurant,” she said, “but it was a kosher-style.”

What did she mean? 

The interviewer didn’t ask, and so we can only guess how Spirer understood the terms “kosher” and “kosher-style.” But the distinction has been one of the central dramas of Jewish dining in the United States over the past century.

The term “kosher” generally refers to a system of religious standards and regulations governing the production and consumption of food. This system originated in the Torah and has been expanded through the subsequent millennia of Rabbinic thought. Despite many disagreements about the precise applications of kashrut, several basic principles are widely accepted.

The term “kosher style” has generally referred to types of foods. When you look at the various ways that the phrase “kosher-style” has been used in promotional materials through the years, you find different implications. Sometimes it seems to refer to certain dishes preferred by Jewish immigrants from Europe. Sometimes it seems to refer to specific ingredients, a way of indicating that the menu follows Jewish culinary norms, if not Jewish ritual law.

Jewish-owned restaurants commonly billed themselves as kosher-style without being certified as kosher, causing frustration among Jewish religious circles.

Advertisement announcing opening of Schulberg’s Food Bar at 1822 Murray Ave. in Squirrel Hill. Includes photograph of proprietor Alex Schulberg, Aug. 14, 1936.

—from American Jewish Outlook

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

Using that framework as a starting place, Spirer may have meant that the Temple Restaurant never received kosher certification but mostly adhered to Jewish culinary norms of the day. She recalled, for example, that her parents always purchased a new supply of dishes for the restaurant just before Passover, “so that at least they could say the dishes were new.”

The Temple Restaurant appears to have never actually used the term “kosher-style” in its advertisements. Instead, it billed itself throughout the 1920s and into the early 1930s as “the leading Jewish restaurant in Pittsburgh.”

It stopped using that designation following a major renovation in late 1934. The renovation also included a new menu that included "seafood."

Seafood presents a clear distinction.

In one of the foundational principles of kashrut, seafood must have fins and scales to be considered kosher. Salmon is a kosher fish. Shrimp is not.  

Sometime in late 1935 or early 1936, the owners of the Temple Restaurant parted. The Barts stayed downtown, and Alex Schulberg relocated to Squirrel Hill. He started Schulberg’s Food Bar at 1822 Murray Ave. in August 1936. 

Advertisement for Schulberg’s Food Bar at 1822 Murray Ave. in Squirrel Hill. Includes seafood specials, June 9, 1939.

—from American Jewish Outlook

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

The documentation for Schulberg’s Food Bar is slim, essentially just a photograph of the exterior and a selection of newspaper advertisements. These advertisements provide some specifics about the nature of the seafood: “hard-shell crabs,” “steamed shrimp,” reads an advertisement from 1939. 

Although we have been unable to find menus for either restaurant, through these advertisements, you can watch as the changing norms of Jewish dining.

Next Week: Penn Avenue

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:

The Mordecai Family

Mordecai Moses and Zipporah Mordecai are believed to be the first Jewish family in Western Pennsylvania. As early as 1775, the Mordecais were operating operated a whiskey distillery and a tavern in Bellefield, located several miles east of downtown Pittsburgh in the present-day Oakland neighborhood of the city. While living in the area, they had a son, Samuel Mordecai, who is believed to be the first Jewish child born in Western Pennsylvania. The Mordecai family struggled financially and relocated to Philadelphia sometime before May 1779.

Portrait of Mordecai Moses Mordecai, undated.

—from Sheftall Family Trust and Congregation Mickve Israel

(online—Loeb Database).

“The Life and Death of a Factoid"

Illustration of Vigilant Fire Engine House.

—from Corinne Azen Krause Photographs [MSP 113]

Every time I read a story, I picture the action. Perhaps you do, too. These mental pictures are often vivid and convincing, but they are essentially make-believe.

With fiction, that’s part of the fun: Words on a page become a mental movie. With any writing based in fact, though, I’m often suspicious of these images. The whole point of journalism and his-tory is to convey reality, not a personal imagined version of it.

Some time ago, I read that the first minyan in western Pennsylvania occurred in Lawrenceville in 1842. Instantly, I pictured this momentous occasion: peddlers crammed into a parlor somewhere off Butler Street, prayer shawls on their shoulders, prayer books in their hands, perhaps a Torah scroll, and the Allegheny River chugging along outside.

This image is completely fictional, and not only because it was imagined.

July 9:

JGS-Pittsburgh presents:

"Stumbling Stones, Commemoration, and Family History"

with Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld

Searching for the history of his house, Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld stumbled upon the dramatic history of a Jewish family and a son who was murdered in Auschwitz. With the help of surviving relatives and by doing archival research, Bijsterveld was able to reconstruct the family’s past, while reconnecting scattered family members at the same time. As a result, they were able to place a stumbling stone, create a documentary film, and write a book.

In this talk, Bijsterveld will sketch the wider context of the changes in the Dutch memory culture of World War II and the Holocaust. This can be characterized as a transformation of remembrance to a more individual approach, doing justice to the agency of the people involved as well as to the nuance and paradoxes that come with every family history. The stumbling stones are a case in point, as these exemplify this transformation.

Recently, the focus has shifted from a single narrative on the Holocaust in the Netherlands to multiple narratives. Research on life and family histories is essential to further this approach. This asks of the (family) historian to strike a balance between personal involvement and professional attitude.

The program is Sunday, July 9 from 1:00-3:00 p.m. ET. This is a virtual program, occurring exclusively online. The program will be recorded, and the recording will be made available to current JGS-Pittsburgh members.

“Stumbling Stones, Commemoration, and Family History” is a collaboration between the Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh and the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center. Please register online. 

This virtual 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.

Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld (1962) was trained as a medieval historian and is professor at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. He studied at the Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen (1980-1986) and graduated at the University of Amsterdam (1987). In 1993, he received his PhD (cum laude) at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. For research and teaching, he was affiliated with the Université de Liège (1988-1989), Princeton University (1994-1995), the Max-Planck-Institut für Geschichte in Göttingen (1997), the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (1998-1999 and 2006), Venice International University (2011), and the Humboldt Universität Berlin (2018). 

Since 1999, he has held the funded chair for the Regional History and Ethnology of Brabant at Tilburg University. As member of the Department of Sociology and professor in the University College Tilburg, he teaches on nationalism and regionalism in Europe, regional history, medieval history, the philosophy of history and memory, and the representation of traumatic histories (Public and Applied History). Under his supervision, 23 PhD students have completed their PhD so far. At the moment, he supervises three PhDs working on Holocaust and World War II history. Since 2011, he has been involved in the placing of stumbling stones (Stolpersteine) in his hometown Tilburg.

He published widely on the medieval history of the Low Countries and on the interplay between history, cultural heritage, and (regional) identity. Since 2011, he focuses on the history and the memory culture of the Holocaust. In 2012, he was involved in the making of the documentary film Here was Bertram: In search for a lost life. In 2016, he published House of Memories: Uncovering the Past of a Dutch Jewish Family (Hilversum: Verloren), which appeared in Dutch as Ons huis. Op zoek naar een Joodse familie in Tilburg in 2020.

through August 13:

The Negro Motorist Green Book

“The Negro Motorist Green Book” was a travel guide listing restaurants, gas stations, department stores, and other businesses that welcomed Black travelers. In an era of Jim Crow laws and “sundown towns,” the Green Book offered critical, life-saving information and sanctuary for Black individuals and families traveling the country. Harlem postman Victor Green started the publication in 1936, based in part on a similar volume published in Yiddish for Jewish travelers. The Green Book continued annually through 1967.

The new exhibit “The Negro Motorist Green Book,” on display in the McGuinn Gallery of the Heinz History Center through Aug. 13, tells the story of this landmark publication and its impact on the nation’s rising Black middle class in the middle 20th century. The exhibit also reveals the world of the Green Book in Pittsburgh with artifacts from hotels, jazz clubs, restaurants, and more than 30 local businesses listed in the Green Book, including the Terrace Hall Hotel, Harlem Casino Dance Hall, and Palace Hotel. The exhibit features images from the Melvin Seidenberg Photographs at the Rauh Jewish Archives and the Charles “Teenie” Harris Archive at the Carnegie Museum of Art.

Community

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 NEXT Pittsburgh

"What's Under the Dome at Rodef Shalom?"

NEXT Pittsburgh's Boaz Frankel visits with archivist Martha Berg to discover the secrets of Rodef Shalom Congregation's historic Fifth Avenue synagogue.

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. 

From Rodef Shalom Congregation

A mystery in primary colors

The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle reports on an effort by Rodef Shalom Congregation to identify two people from a pair of mid-19th century portraits in the congregation's holdings. Do you recognize these two people?

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 2,000 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.

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.