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Announcement
500 Entries
Jewish Artists:
Samuel Levitt
Jewish Encyclopedia:
Hillel Academy Women's Club
Article:
The Pittsburgh Dybbuk (Part 2)
A Patchwork Life:
The Witness Quilt
Calendar:
March 19: Americans and the Holocaust
March 26: Barbara Trellis exhibit
April 10: "Teach Them to Your Children"
Jewish Genealogy Society:
Mar. 19: Michael Moritz
April 6 and 20: Gil Bardige
Community:
URA photographs
SHHS archives
JCBA "Road-Trip"
Research Tools:
Newspapers, Cemeteries,
Memorial Plaques, Books,
Population Figures, Synagogues, Newsletter Archive,
Shul Records America
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Announcement:
Jewish Encyclopedia reaches 500 Entries
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The Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania now has 500 entries documenting 250 years of rich and varied Jewish experience in this region.
The Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania is a central clearinghouse for information about the Jewish history of this region. Each entry includes a biographical essay, a comprehensive bibliography, and digitized materials. The website currently has more than 5,300 photographs, documents, and audio recordings. It also has numerous research databases listing information such as burial records, yahrzeit plaques, synagogues, Yiddish plays, Squirrel Hill businesses, and local JCC Maccabi Games athletes.
The Rauh Jewish Archives launched the Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania in 2021 by merging and expanded two existing websites: “A Tradition of Giving” documenting Jewish philanthropy and “Generation to Generation” documenting Jewish families and small-town communities.
The Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania is widely used. It was viewed more than 97,000 times last year by more than 32,000 users.
We hope you’ll take some time today to browse the Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania and follow along as we add new entries each week.
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Jewish Artists:
Samuel Levitt
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Black and white photograph of Samuel Levitt working on his bust of Judge Josiah Cohen.
Pittsburgh Press (June 23, 1929)
Newspapers.com
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In 1929, the Young Men’s and Women’s Hebrew Association of Pittsburgh honored Judge Josiah Cohen for 50 years of support for the organization. As part of the tribute, Edgar J. Kaufmann commissioned a bust of Judge Cohen.
The YM&WHA gave the commission to a young artist named Samuel Levitt. Levitt (July 12, 1907-????) had come to Pittsburgh from Latvia with his family around 1923. To help support his family, he clerked at a local wholesaling house while taking classes at the Franklin Night School, the Fifth Avenue Night School, and the Neighborhood Art School at the Irene Kaufmann Settlement House. He later studied under painter Samuel Rosenberg and sculptor Frank Vittor at the Isaac Seder Educational Center of the YM&WHA. He was hospitalized for nearly five months in the mid-1920s due to exhaustion.
Levitt began sculpting by copying existing pieces, including Antoine-Louis Barye’s “Lion Crushing a Serpent” and Jean Antoine Houdon’s bust of George Washington. The bust of Judge Josiah Cohen in 1929 was his first big commission. The following year, Levitt produced a statue of Rabbi Yehudah Loeb, creator of the legendary Golem, in association with a theatrical production of “The Golem” by the Y Playhouse. Despite this rise, he soon faded from the record. His activities in the 1930s have yet to be determined.
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All year, the Rauh Jewish Archives is highlighting stories of Jewish artist in Western Pennsylvania before World War II. If you would like to donate a material from this time period, or any historic materials documenting Jewish life in this region, contact the archive or call 412-454-6406. | |
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Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania:
Hillel Academy Women's Club
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Black and white photograph of members of the Hillel Academy Women’s Club planning an upcoming annual celebration at the Syria Mosque. Pictured include Mrs. Reimer, Mrs. Rice, Mrs. Klein, Mrs. Cohen, and Mrs. Walters.
Jewish Criterion (Feb. 10, 1950)
Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project
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The Hillel Academy Women’s Club was founded around 1948 as an auxiliary to Hillel Academy day school, which opened the previous year. The club raised funds to support Hillel Academy and held social gatherings for its members.
The Hillel Academy Women’s Club published “The Recorder” by the 1950s, operated a gift shop within the school, and published a cookbook “The Ta’am of Your Life” in 1975. Its activities appear to have slowed in the early 1980s, around the time of the death of Rebbitzin Poupko, who was a founder.
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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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Article:
The Dybbuk Again and Again
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Still from the 1937 film adaptat"The Dybbuk."
—Y Weekly
Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project
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The Y Playhouse mounted “The Dybbuk” in February 1934. It was a massive and ambitious production with a cast of 60. It strove both for artistic daring and historical authenticity. (The second in a three-part series.) | |
Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life: | |
Unmaking The Witness Quilt | | |
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Get your piece of The Witness Quilt!
For the past six months, Louise and the volunteer Patchwork Life Stitching Circle have been diligently adding patches to the Witness Quilt. It grew to include 1,500 patches, reflecting the ideas of dozens of people.
For the final two months of the exhibit, Louise is reversing the process. The Witness Quilt is being systematically dismantled and given away to the public. Louise's team will be stationed in the gallery from 10 a.m. to noon on Friday through Sunday, as well as some surprise drop-in days here and there.
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Gut Yontif:
Purim with Olivia Devorah Tucker
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The final installment of our Gut Yontif! series will be Wednesday, March 12 with an all-embracing Purim party from Olivia Devorah Tucker.
The “Gut Yontif!” series is made possible thanks to a generous grant from the SteelTree Fund of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.
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March 19-April 27:
Americans and the Holocaust
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March 21-April 21:
Barbara Trellis: The Story Behind Her Designs
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A self-made textile designer and artist, Barbara Trellis (1930-2024) graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), where she majored in Clothing and Design. Barbara's passion for needlepoint inspired her to launch a mid-life career teaching the craft to others. She ultimately became an ecclesiastical designer and was tapped to design and produce many large-scale installations for major Pittsburgh religious institutions. She carefully selected and led teams of volunteer stitchers from these organizations to execute her elaborate designs.
For Rodef Shalom, projects included Torah covers, altar chairs, banners depicting the Ten Commandments, and a wall hanging of the Torah portion from Leviticus. In addition, independently, she designed and constructed a silk appliqued chuppah. Her final contribution was a large, dramatic appliqued kidskin Menorah. In addition, Trellis designed Torah covers for Beth Shalom, Torah covers and a chuppah for Beth El, a curtain and valance for the ark and lectern coverings for Poale Zedek, and an ark covering for Beth Israel in McKeesport. She designed a series of communion kneelers for the United Methodist Church in Mt. Lebanon.
This free exhibit will be on display in the Rodef Shalom Congregation Jewish Museum (4905 Fifth Ave.) from March 21 through April 21, 2025 with an opening event on Wednesday, March 26 at 6 p.m.
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April 10:
"Teach Them To Your Children"
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Since the times of the Talmud, Jewish education has been a communal responsibility. How has Western Pennsylvania met this challenge?
In a fast-paced and engaging monthly series “Teach Them To Your Children,” Rauh Jewish Archives Director Eric Lidji will cover 150 years of Jewish educational initiatives in Western Pennsylvania, showing how our community has perpetuated Jewish knowledge from generation to generation.
This series will take place monthly in the Community Day School library (2743 Beechwood Blvd.) on Thursday evenings at 7 p.m.
Jan. 9—The 19th Century
Feb. 6—The 1900s
Mar. 6—The 1910s
The series continues April 10 with a review of local Jewish educational initiatives between 1920 and 1930 including the Southwestern District of Pennsylvania Jewish Religious Schools program, the Bureau of Jewish Education, and the first religious schools in Squirrel Hill.
The schedule for the rest of the year includes:
May 8—The 1930s
June 12—The 1940s
July 10—The 1950s
Aug. 14—The 1960s
Sept. 11—The 1970s
Oct. 9—The 1980s
Nov. 13—The 1990s
Dec. 11—The Future
"Teach Them To Your Children" is presented by Community Day School, Hillel
Academy of Pittsburgh, and Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh.
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March 19:
Romanian Records Go Live
with Michael Moritz
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This session will cover the availability of records from throughout Romania in many different online sources. We will cover all the various regions of the modern-day country, as well as regions that were formerly part of Romania but no longer are. This session also will delve into the specifics of the new developments on Romanian Jewish genealogical research, which will serve to benefit all those researching Romanian ancestors!
For more information, contact the Jewish Genealogy Society at president@pghjgs.org.
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Michael Moritz is a seasoned genealogist with two decades of family research experience, having performed research for hundreds of individuals, with ancestry in over 35 countries and records written in over 10 languages. He has also taught workshops on a wide variety of topics regarding United States and international research. | | |
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Did you get your autosomal DNA results from any or all of the 4 testing companies? Do you, have tens of thousands of matches that they tell you are close relatives, only to find that they don’t share a surname or town in common? Confused? Frustrated? You are not alone.
So, take a deep breath and join us in understanding your results; how to prioritize them, and reduce the thousands of matches to numbers you can research and find keys to expanding your family tree.
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This presentation is for beginners and others who are just stuck or don’t know what to do next. Maybe you need a restart? Learn about the effects of endogamy and how to compensate for them.
Join the thousands of genealogists who have been successful with Gil’s methodologies. He will share an expanded version of his processes and techniques to prioritize matches, to get organized and feel like you can accomplish something and know what to do next. His speaking style is high energy (you won’t be bored) and he loves to take questions at the conclusion. In the end, you will be able to say, “Now I understand, I get it, I know what to do.”
For more information, contact the Jewish Genealogy Society at president@pghjgs.org.
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Did you enjoy Gil Bardige’s previous talk…Part 1? We hope that you tried his methodologies and techniques. Well, it is now time for the Next Steps. This intermediate to advanced level presentation is primarily for people working with Jewish ancestry who have completed Gil’s Part 1 and have run into
new brick walls or want to expand their search parameters productively.
Gil will provide you with actionable processes that you can use in your genealogy research, including new criteria and dealing with the exceptions. Through case studies and examples, he explains Pileup Areas, Segment Triangulation and for those of you who have tested at Ancestry, Gil has added, how he used Pro Tools (Shared matches & ThruLines) to find 7 DNA matches that he would have missed without these techniques and added nearly 4 dozen new documented relatives to his tree.
Tested at MyHeritage? Learn some key shortcuts to help you sort through the unknown matches in a quicker more productive process while making use of the key tools that only My Heritage provides.
He is a firm believer that you can use DNA results as a tool in your genealogical research as it generates clues that can help people confirm/deny relationships. His speaking style is high energy (you won’t be bored) and he loves to take questions at the conclusion. People have said of his presentations, “Thank you, Gil, I am no longer confused!”
Gil Bardige was born & raised in Chicago and currently lives in the Columbus Ohio area. A graduate of the New York Institute of Technology, Gil retired in 2019 after a long career in air conditioning and refrigerationmost recently as a National Business Development Leader for Trane Technologies. At the “instruction” of his mother, Gil began his genealogy adventure in 1979 with 54 people in his tree.
Today his family tree including Mishpocha, is over 3200 people tracing 4 branches back to his 5th great grandfathers born about 1740. His family arrived in Chicago in the early 20th century. For nearly 18 years Gil has expanded his knowledge base to Genetic Genealogy, testing at each of the four
major DNA companies, and currently manages three y-DNA projects at Family Tree DNA as a Volunteer Administrator. He loves to help people manage their expectations and begin to remove confusion from the DNA results whether it’s, Y-DNA, mtDNA, or Autosomal DNA. He had spoken at dozens of local events, international webinars and conferences, including at last 8 IAJGS Conferences. Gil has found nearly four dozen previously unknown cousins through DNA.
Gil is the Chair of the Genealogy Committee of the Columbus Jewish Historical Society (JGS). He co-hosts live Genetic Genealogy Q&A sessions at JGS Illinois and JGS Toronto. Gil developed and hosts the monthly Kvell & Kvetch genealogy Q&A in Columbus. Gil has managed the Mentoring Program for IAJGS and cohosts the Apple Users and Jewish Genealogy Facebook page and monthly virtual BOF (Birds of a Feather) meeting.
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Urban Redevelopment Authority Archives | |
The City of Pittsburgh Archives has launched a new digital archive containing thousands of photographs and documents spanning more than two centuries. Of particular interest to local Jewish history is a collection of more than 2,000 photographs of properties in the lower Hill District taken by the Urban Redevelopment Authority in the late 1950s prior to demolitions in the area. | |
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 Cemetery & Burial Association
"Road Trip: The Jewish Cemeteries of Western Pennsylvania"
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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.
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Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project | |
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. | |
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Western Pennsylvania Jewish Cemetery Project | | |
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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. | |
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Rauh Jewish Archives Bibliography | | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
[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 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. | | | | |
