Memoirs: Libby Adelson
Bar Mitzvah illustration
Congregation Poale Zedeck
Calendar
Community News
|
|
|
The Kittanning religious school posing outside its rented school house, c.1914.
—Robert and Betty Lou Margolis Photographs [2017.0289]
|
|
If you catalogue all the appliances mentioned in Libby Adelson's memoir, you'll get a pocket history of early 20th century domestic life in America.
She remembers when her family traded gas mantles for electric lights. A horse drawn buggy for a new automobile. A leaky icebox for a humming refrigerator. A washboard for an electric washing machine (but never an electric dryer: to the end, mother Dina Adelson insisted on line-drying all her laundry).
And of course: the telephone.
Now the Adelsons could call orders into Rambach’s grocery for delivery. When they settled the bill, Rambach’s gave a bag of chocolate drops as a thank you.
|
|
Confirmation class of the Kittanning Religious School, 1921. Pictured: (Seated, left to right) Judas Apple, Edith Gruskin, Miss Glickman, and Morris Kaplan. (Standing, left to right) Genessa Adelson, Lillian Apple, Nettye Kalish, Dorothy Apple, and Lillian Pliscof.
—Pollock Family Papers [MSS 1031]
|
|
Morris and Dina Adelson arrived from Europe, married in New York City, and moved to Corry, Pa. in search of opportunity. They made their way to Brookville, Pa., where Libby was born, and settled in the Applewold section of Kittanning, Pa. Morris Adelson ran a scrap yard. Dina Adelson oversaw a gigantic house of extended family—17 people around the table at some meals.
In her nine-page memoir from the early 1980s, Libby writes, “After the war, WWII, I asked Papa ‘why did you stop at Kittanning, while moving from Corry, Pa. (where Ruth, Nettie and Lou) were born? Why not ‘keep going’ to Pittsburg [sic]?’ His reply, ‘I could not give Mama and my children a good home (house) in Pittsburg where it would be too expensive. I knew I could provide a good home (house) in a small town.’ So it was Kittanning. I never bothered him again. I mention Pittsburg—more Jews and a shule. Also, he could have saved railroad charges from Kitt. to Pgh—where scrap was sent—to the mills.”
The Adelsons ran a traditional home. Morris wrapped tefillin each morning in the family dining room. Dina kept a kosher kitchen, including Passover dishes stored in barrels in the basement. They kept the Sabbath as best they could.
|
|
Knesseth Israel members at a dedication banquet for their new synagogue, 1954.
—Kittanning Jewish Community Papers [2003.0112]
|
|
Libby felt her parents would have had an easier religious life in Pittsburgh, where there were tens of thousands of Jews and a dozen or more active congregations. Before World War I, Kittanning had less than 150 Jews and only informal accommodations for prayer. It was only after the war that the Adelsons and others established a named congregation— Kneseth Israel.
But finding a “good home”—one big enough for everyone, in a town prosperous enough to accommodate the dream of electric appliances—was more likely in a small town than a big city, and so the Adelsons went to Kittanning, and held tightly to religion. Libby writes, “I did say to Mama — ‘you are a modern woman, why go through all this.’ Mama’s reply, ‘I have done this all my life — I will continue.’ And she did. True to tradition. I loved her for it.”
|
|
Next week: Being There
All year, the Rauh Jewish Archives is highlighting memoirs of Jewish life in Western Pennsylvania. If you would like to donate a memoir, or just chat about the stories you've read, contact the archive or call 412-454-6406.
|
|
New Collection:
Isadore Catz Bar Mitzvah Portrait (2021.0055)
|
|
Illustrated portrait [2021.0055] |
|
This illustrated portrait came to the archive from Sheldon and Elaine Catz.
We see a young, smiling man with a tallit and a prayer book, wearing a suit, tie and hat, leaning a hand against the edge of a small table.
The Catz's believe it shows Sheldon’s grandfather Isadore Catz (1907-1984) around 1920, when he became a bar mitzvah. He was one of seven children of Jacob and Libbie Catz. The family lived in the East End and attended B’nai Israel Congregation.
Illustrated portraits were popular in the 19th and early 20th century. They were a special yet affordable way to document important occasions.
This portrait helps us better understand the evolution of an ancient Jewish rite of passage as it gained prominence in America.
|
|
Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania:
Congregation Poale Zedeck
|
|
Photograph of Congregation Poale Zedeck religious school graduating class of 1937. Pictured (front, left to right) unknown, Shirley Chottiner, unknown, Esther Brinn, unknown (back, left to right) unknown, Buddy Swiss, unknown, unknown, Rabbi Joseph Shapiro, unknown, Lawrence Pickholz, unknown, Abraham Butler.
—Poale Zedeck Religious School Class photograph (2013.0134)
|
|
Congregation Poale Zedeck emerged in the early 1880s from an enclave of Austro-Hungarian immigrants living in downtown Pittsburgh. The congregation received a charter in November 1881 and established an early home in the lower Hill District. Following its members eastward, it dedicated a new synagogue at the corner of Shady and Phillips in 1928, becoming the first Jewish institution to relocate from the Hill District to Squirrel Hill.
Our entry for Congregation Poale Zedeck includes photographs of its buildings and anniversary banquets, ephemera from its early years, dedication programs for its building initiatives, minutes from its chevra kadisha (burial society), membership lists, and bylaws from 1919 and 1988. It also includes a dynamic map of its membership in 1917, 1921, and 1924, showing how the membership gradually migrated to the east. An extensive bibliography includes links to the only known photographs of Congregation Poale Zedeck’s synagogue in the Hill District—taken by the legendary Teenie Harris.
|
|
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. |
|
March 15:
Jewish Exodus from the Hill
|
|
As part of Rodef Shalom Congregation's popular Jewish Pittsburgh History series, Rich Brean will discuss the Jewish outmigration from the Hill District in the mid-20th Century. Brean previously presented a two-part talk on the Jewish history of the neighborhood, told through historic research and personal experience. You can view those presentations here and here.
|
|
March 19-20
The Bat Mitzvah Centennial Celebration
|
|
Dress worn by Nancy Moidel Ciccone at her bat mitzvah ceremony on May 24, 1963, at the Aliquippa Jewish Community Center.
|
|
In March 1922, Judith Kaplan celebrated what is widely considered to be the first modern bat mitzvah.
Today, bat mitzvah ceremonies are commonly celebrated across the Jewish world. In honor of the centennial of this milestone, Congregation Dor Hadash is hosting a celebration and symposium, co-sponsored by Jewish Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh, Rodef Shalom Congregation, and the national Reconstructing Judaism.
The March 20 symposium features a keynote address by Rabbi Dr. Deborah Waxman of Reconstructing Judaism, and three local workshops looking at various aspects of the bat mitzvah: the history of bat mitzvah ceremonies in Western Pennsylvania from the Rauh Jewish Archives, an overview of the experience of adult bat mitzvah ceremonies, and the emerging "b'mitzvah" as a non-binary approach to this rite of passage.
|
|
Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project |
|
The home page of the new Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project website, hosted by Carnegie Mellon University Libraries. The redesigned website is launching this month. |
|
By now, you're probably expertly zipping around the new Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project platform. But if you still need a little help navigating the features and tools of the website, the Rauh Jewish Archives recently contributed a brief explanatory article to the Jewish Chronicle. It provides some basic tips and techniques for conducting research using the new site.
We plan to provide a live virtual training workshop in the near future to review the website and its functionalities. Until then, we are here to help you troubleshoot problems. You can contact the archive or call 412-454-6406.
|
|
[IMAGE: Marian Schreiber and employees at the Schreiber Trucking Company, c.1943—from Schreiber Family Papers and Photographs, MSS 846.]
If you like this newsletter, why not forward it to a friend? We want to share the story of Western Pennsylvania Jewish history with as many people as possible.
If you've received this newsletter from a friend or neighbor, and you want to read more, just click on the link below to start receiving future editions.
|
|
The Rauh Jewish 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. |
|
 |
Plan a Visit
Senator John Heinz History Center
1212 Smallman Street
Pittsburgh, Pa. 15222
412-454-6000
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
