As the United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh wound down its $12.68 million "EXODUS" campaign to resettle Jewish families fleeing the Soviet Union, it threw a big party to celebrate its accomplishments. "Help Light the Flame" was billed as the first citywide Chanukah party in the history of Pittsburgh.
Whether or not the claim is true, the event was certainly huge: more than 1,500 people came to the David Lawrence Convention Center on Dec. 18, 1990 for games, food, and entertainment. Television personalities David and Nancy Polinsky Johnson were masters of ceremonies, Cantor Joseph Germaine led a holiday choir, and Mayor Sophie Masloff delivered special remarks.
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A program from the event, donated to the archives by Dena Chottiner, includes song lyrics in English, Hebrew, and Russian. It also reprints welcome notes from eight local Jewish day schools and religious schools where newly arrived children were placed.
Of the millions of Jewish families who came to the U.S. from the Soviet Union before 1990, only about 250 resettled in Pittsburgh, according to newspaper reports.
Institutional records do a good job of documenting the communal effort to help these families make a new life in this region. But few first-person accounts exist from these families—nothing to document their experiences from their perspective.
If you came to the Pittsburgh area from the former Soviet Union in those years and want to share your story, please contact the archives or call us at 412-454-6406.
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The JGS of Pittsburgh Presents: Steve Morse |
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In his lecture "Case Study: Genealogy of Renee Kaufman," Steve Morse presents a genealogical case study using his "One-Step Webpages," as well as other websites, to develop a family history. He will illustrate how, with a minimal amount of initial information, you can obtain an entire genealogy for a particular person. He will also show you how to obtain records despite name misspellings, and how you can avoid accepting wrong information.
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Stephen Morse is the creator of the One-Step Website, for which he has received both the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Outstanding Contribution Award from the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, Award of Merit from the National Genealogical Society, first-ever Excellence Award from the Association of Professional Genealogists, and two awards that he cannot pronounce from Polish genealogical societies.
In his other life, Morse is a computer professional with a doctorate degree in electrical engineering. He has held various research, development, and teaching positions, authored numerous technical papers, written four textbooks, and holds four patents. He is best known as the architect of the Intel 8086 (the granddaddy of today’s Pentium processor), which sparked the PC revolution nearly 40 years ago.
For more information, please contact Eric Lidji or call 412-454-6406.
This program is made possible by support from the William M. Lowenstein Genealogical Research Endowment Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation.
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"Pittsburgh's Early Jewish Neighborhoods" |
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Rodef Shalom Congregation's local Jewish history series continues on Tuesday, Dec. 15, when Rabbi Mark Mahler looks at the early Jewish neighborhoods of Pittsburgh—both in the city and south of the Monongahela.
The remaining sessions, held the third Tuesday of each month through May 2021, will look at the tenures of Rabbi Dr. J. Leonard Levy and Rabbi Dr. Samuel Goldenson, important lay leaders within the congregation, and the art and architecture of the Rodef Shalom's landmark Fifth Avenue synagogue.
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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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