No. 37

Memoir: An Appeal

Bet Tikvah Congregation Records

Montefiore Hospital [pictured]

Calendar: Rauh Jewish Archives featured in new WQED documentary



Community News: Jakob's Torah, 1950 Census, Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

Memoir:

An Appeal

[From left to right] "Kitty: An Uncommon Memoir of a Non-Celebrity, by Kitty Ruttenberg; "I Remember When,' by Louis Michael; "Roses in December" by Florence Karp Berman.

Dr. Jacob Rader Marcus (1896-1995) was the founder of the American Jewish Archives at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, as well as a long-time professor of Jewish history at the Reform rabbinic school. For many decades, Dr. Marcus cleverly used the latter position to the benefit of the former. 

Just about every rabbinic student at the school passed through his classroom during their time at the college, and most of those rabbis-in-training held student pulpits in small Jewish congregations all over the country. Seeing these students as archival deputies, Dr. Marcus created a long questionnaire to collect basic historical information about communities that had largely been overlooked by scholars. As early as 1935, he gave this questionnaire to rabbinic students heading to their first pulpits. The responses have become an important source of information about small-town Jewish life in America.

Some examples: 

Question 7: What was the occupation of early Jewish settlers?

Question 36: Is there a distinct cleavage between orthodox and reform Jews?

Question 49: Are Jews permitted in the country club?

Question 54: Have non-Jews ever contributed to Jewish organizations?

Question 63: Any Jewish criminality?

Some of the memoirs we’ve shared this year—such as Dora Davis and Eva Wasbutzky—came from similar questionnaires Dr. Marcus created to help people convert their fleeting memories into lasting historical documents. The memoirs resulting from these questionnaires are often brief, some not more than a few pages, and yet they provide great and irreplaceable insights.

How many aspiring memoirists have stared down the terror of a blank page. How do you begin to tell the story of your life in all its twisty significance? 

The genius of the questionnaire is its guiding hand. Documenting history can be an overwhelming prospect. A list of questions makes it much easier. 

In the spirit of Dr. Marcus, here are three general areas to get you started:

Ancestry

What do you know about the people who preceded you? Where did they come from? How did they get here? What were you told about them, and what did you learn first hand or through research? How did they influence your life?

Childhood

What was typical about your youth? What was atypical about it? What people, places, institutions, and ideas were important to your personal development?

Community

What involvement have you had with people and organizations outside of your home? How did you choose your profession? How did it develop? What institutions or causes have mattered to you, and why? What do you believe?

New Collection:

Bet Tikvah Congregation Records [MSS 1155]

Bet Tikvah Congregation informational table, c. 1998.

—from Bet Tikvah Congregation Records [MSS1 1155]

Bet Tikvah Congregation was founded in 1988 as a community for gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender Jews, as well as their families and friends.

Initially meeting in the homes of members, the congregation began holding regular religious services at Rodef Shalom Congregation in 1994. In addition to these services, Bet Tikvah held community events, most notably a long-running interfaith Passover seder. The Bet Tikvah Congregation Records [MSS 1155] include meeting minutes, custom prayerbook, photographs, correspondence, news clippings and digital records detailing congregational activities between 1994-2017. A selection of oral histories and newspaper clippings provide information about the early years of the congregation.

Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania:

Montefiore Hospital

Montefiore Hospital Health Place, 5808 Forbes Ave, undated.

—from Montefiore Hospital Photographs [MSP 286]

Montefiore Hospital was created to provide culturally sensitive care for Jewish patients and professional opportunities for Jewish healthcare providers, but it provided care to all patients regardless of race, ethnicity or background.

Annie Jacobs Davis founded the Hebrew Ladies Hospital Aid Society in 1898 to raise funds and support for a Jewish hospital in Pittsburgh. The first Montefiore Hospital in the Hill District was dedicated on May 24 and 25, 1908. The second Montefiore Hospital in Oakland was dedicated July 14-17, 1929. The building and its operations expanded over the following decades, and the hospital became increasingly affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The University of Pittsburgh purchased Montefiore Hospital in 1990, and some proceeds formed the basis for the Jewish Healthcare Foundation.

Our entry for Montefiore Hospital includes a comprehensive bibliography of known archival resources documenting the hospital, staff and operations.

September 12:

"The Letters: A Plea For Help"

[Left] Gertrude and Edwin Perles of Vienna. [Right] Hasele and Abe Levy of Pittsburgh.

—from A. Sanford Levy and Gertrude Deutsch Perles Papers [MFF 4883]

In late October 1938, Abe and Hasele Levy of Pittsburgh received a letter from Gertrude Perles, a stranger in Vienna who was trying to escape the Nazis and come to the United States. “My husband and I are both Jews,” she wrote. “I am sure you know what is going on here and I need not give you a more precise explanation. It is growing worse every day. Our only hope is to emigrate to the U.S.A. Please, if you are able to send affidavits for me and my husband, for Heaven’s sake, do it, before it will be too late for us.”

Over the next few months, the Levys worked to help this Viennese couple through the challenges and pressures of the immigration process. Their correspondence is preserved in the A. Sanford Levy and Gertrude Deutsch Perles Papers [MFF 4883] held by the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center. The collection vividly shows the logistical and emotional challenges facing Jewish refugees as they navigated the immigration process.

On Friday, September 9, 2022, WQED will premiere a new online documentary, The Letters: A Plea for Help, featuring these letters. The production comes as PBS prepares to premiere The U.S. and the Holocaust, a new film by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick & Sarah Botstein. The new three-part documentary explores America’s response to one of the greatest humanitarian crises in history. The U.S. and the Holocaust will air premiere on September 18, 19, and 20, 2022 from 8 PM to 10 PM on WQED-TV.

In collaboration with Baldwin-Whitehall School District, WQED will hold a free public screening and discussion event of The Letters, along with preview clips of The U.S. and the Holocaust at Baldwin High School on Monday, September 12, 2022 from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM. The event, featuring a discussion panel, will engage diverse perspectives through cross-cultural and inter-generational storytelling about the Holocaust and the stories of today’s immigrants and refugees. Panel includes speakers from the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh Executive Director Dr. Lauren Bairnsfather, Rauh Jewish Archives Director Eric Lidji, University of Pittsburgh and Chatham University Professor Dr. Barbara Burstin, and Seton Hill University Professor Dr. John Spurlock.

By now, you're probably expertly zipping around the new Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project platform. But if you still need a little help navigating its features and tools, you can view a virtual training workshop at the link below. Or, you can contact the archive or call 412-454-6406 with your questions.