Around this time last year, the Rauh Jewish Archives announced a call for cookbooks.
It was part of an effort to deputize the Jewish community in preserving its history.
Each year, we would choose one type of material—something commonplace enough to emerge from many corners of the local Jewish community and also broad enough to yield surprises. The entire Jewish community would go on the hunt together.
For this first attempt, we chose cookbooks.
[IMAGE: "Cooking with Class," B'nai Emunoh Sisterhood, undated]
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Cookbooks are fun. They are also revealing. Knowing what people ate can tell you where they came from, what they believed, how they lived, and who they hoped to be.
So many local Jewish groups have published cookbooks over the years.
Often, these cookbooks were fundraisers. Those funds helped these groups pursue their missions.
Just as important was the communal spirit these projects engendered.
[IMAGE: "The Happy Cooker," North Hills Jewish Community Center, 1981]
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The recipes in these cookbooks come from private homes and lives. They were passed down through families, copied from friends, clipped from newspapers, or invented anew.
Unlike the cookbooks of famous chefs, these community cookbooks rarely have a strong culinary theme. What unites these recipes is the community of their contributors.
[IMAGE: "Why is this Cookbook Different?" Yael Chapter of Hadassah, 1985]
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Community cookbooks expand the story told in congregational histories, minute books, and financial ledgers.
You can watch as traditions are preserved, adapted, and created at tables all over the region—and then shared, so that others may bring those traditions to their tables.
[IMAGE: "Kosher Kalories," Tree of Life Sisterhood, 1971/1972]
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So far, the Archive has received 26 cookbooks created by Jewish people and groups in Western Pennsylvania.
And more arrive each month.
They have come from Squirrel Hill, from the suburbs, and from small towns. They represent sisterhoods, schools, and philanthropies.
A few families even sent copies of their privately published collections.
[IMAGE: "The SpORT of Cooking," Women’s American ORT District IV, 1975]
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The oldest cookbook we received was published way back in 1941. The newest came from 2015.
But most were created between 1975 and 1985. Perhaps that reflects the rise of ethnic studies in the late 20th century and the related desire to revisit the cultural distinctions that defined America’s melting pot.
Or perhaps people are just now looking for a home for precious things they acquired half a century ago.
[IMAGE: "Cook Book," Temple B'nai Israel McKeesport Sisterhood, 1941]
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If would like to donate a cookbook created by a Jewish person or organization in Western Pennsylvania, please contact the archive or call 412-454-6406.
We will continue collecting these cookbooks indefinitely.
But next week, we will also announce our community collecting initiative for 2021. We hope it will inspire as much enthusiasm as cookbooks did this year.
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A Project 50 Years Ahead of Its Time |
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In the spring of 1969, two history professors from the University of Pittsburgh partnered with the Rodef Shalom Brotherhood and the Pittsburgh chapter of the American Jewish Committee to save the Jewish history of Western Pennsylvania. They had three ideas: archival collecting, oral history recordings, and a "data bank" of local Jewish communal historical records...
[IMAGE: University of Pittsburgh graduate students creating an inventory of historic records at Temple Sinai—Jewish Chronicle, Aug. 6, 1970.]
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The Story of a Box of Candles |
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In the Chanukah display of the A Very Merry Pittsburgh experience at the Heinz History Center is a box of candles with 120 years of history. The box itself is unremarkable, but a sticker pasted on its backside offers this intriguing note: "These Chanuko Candles are Presented in Loving Memory of Abraham Lippman, President of The Rodef Shalom Congregation from 1889 to 1910."
[IMAGE: Chanukah candles, gift of Mark Aronson]
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The Rauh Jewish History Program & 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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Plan a Visit
Senator John Heinz History Center
1212 Smallman Street
Pittsburgh, Pa. 15222
412-454-6000
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A proud affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, the Senator John Heinz History Center is the largest history museum in Pennsylvania and presents American history with a Western Pennsylvania connection.
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