September 22, 2024

Vol. 5, No. 38



The Early 1970s:

Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition

Jewish Encyclopedia:

Federation of the Jewish Philanthropies of Pittsburgh

Sisterhoods:

B'nai Israel (Pittsburgh)

Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life

"Mazel x Chai"

Exhibits:

A Woman's Place

Calendar:

Oct 14: JGS Presents:

Lost Cousins



Community:

URA photographs

SHHS archives

"How We Got Here"

JCBA "Road-Trip"

Research Tools:

Newspapers, Cemeteries,

Memorial Plaques, Books,

Population Figures, Synagogues, Newsletter Archive,

Shul Records America

The Early 1970s:

Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition

Black and white photograph of new street sweeping initiative by the Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition and the Squirrel Hill Merchants Association. Pictured (left to right): Harry Adelsheimer, Ivan Landman, Leroy Brooks, Edwin Grinberg, and Armstead Guthrey—July 5, 1973.

—Jewish Chronicle

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

Harry Golden visited Squirrel Hill in 1973 and immediately got it. 

In his book “Travels Through Jewish America,” the famed writer for the Carolina Israelite wrote, “Pittsburgh is one of the last major cities whose residents have not left it.” He meant the city as a whole, as well as Squirrel Hill specifically.

Golden offered three explanations for the stability of Squirrel Hill as a Jewish neighborhood. The first was convenience. It was easy to get to Oakland and downtown. The second was topography. Suburbanization often involves a gradual expansion across a flat area. The bridges and tunnels of Pittsburgh mark a clear boundary between the city and the countryside beyond it. 

Golden’s third explanation was racial: suburbanization in many cities was a flight from integration, an integration that never quite happened here.

Golden left Squirrel Hill feeling optimistic. Within the neighborhood though, many worried that the future was tenuous. Intervention was required.

By the early 1970s, the Squirrel Hill housing stock was nearing 40 to 50 years old. The neighborhood was contending with two decades of slight but accelerating population loss. The word used at the time was “decay.” 

In a forum on the future of Squirrel Hill held at Rodef Shalom Congregation in 1970, a city planning official told a crowd, “My opinion is that if the present state of affairs continues—unchecked, unchanged and untampered with—Squirrel Hill in 15 years will be what the Hill District is now.” The comparison feels insensitive today—it ignores the vastly different circumstances of the two city neighborhoods—but it must have resonated with many Squirrel Hillers who still remembered the old Jewish neighborhood of the Hill District.

Squirrel Hill was the undisputed center of the local Jewish population in 1970, and its Jewish population was growing. And yet, the Jewish populations of the eastern suburbs and the South Hills were keeping pace. Jewish families moving to the suburbs were younger and larger than those in Squirrel Hill, suggesting that the future of the regional Jewish community might not be urban.

The Jewish Chronicle paid close attention to the state of Squirrel Hill in those years. It devoted almost the entirety of its March 30, 1972 issue to the state of the neighborhood, looking at its history, politics, real estate, schools, and other issues. It noted that a Jewish migration out of Squirrel Hill would have huge financial consequences. Millions would have to be spent to relocate communal institutions, drawing funds away from local, national, and global needs.

Efforts to addresses big neighborhood issues had often fallen to business groups such as the Squirrel Hill Merchants Association. Starting in the late 1960s, involvement broadened. The 14th Ward Civic Association started in 1965 with a public meeting at the Y-IKC “to air neighborhood problems and aid Pittsburgh’s Planning Department effect a master plan for the city.” The Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition began in late 1971 and early 1972 with a broad mandate to unite all interested groups in the neighborhood toward change.

The population of Squirrel Hill was about half Jewish at the time, and about half of the regional Jewish population lived in the neighborhood. Researching the history of the Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition as part of 50th anniversary celebrations in 2022, the Squirrel Hill Historical Society’s Helen Wilson discovered that the group had emerged out of discussions about the need for building more Jewish senior housing in Squirrel Hill. These initiatives marked the exact place where Jewish issues and broader civic issues intertwined.

All year, the Rauh Jewish Archives is highlighting stories of Jewish life in Western Pennsylvania in the early 1970s. 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.

Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania:

Federation of the Jewish Philanthropies of Pittsburgh

Detail from Federation of the Jewish Philanthropies of Pittsburgh ballot—1923.

—Richard E. Rauh Papers [MSS 301]

The Rauh Jewish Archives recently published a finding aid and meeting minute index for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh Records [MSS 287]. As part of that effort, we’re using this space for the next few weeks to summarize the history of the organization and its predecessors and projects.

In a notable Sunday lecture at Rodef Shalom Congregation in 1965, Rabbi Walter Jacob condensed the entire history of American Jewish philanthropy into two “stages.” The first stage helped a transient 19th century immigrant population get settled in America. The second stage began before World War I with the creation of a professionalized network of Jewish social services.

In most large urban Jewish communities in America, the centerpiece of this new network was a “Jewish Federation.” The movement to “federate” Jewish charities started in Boston in 1895 with Associated Jewish Philanthropies and spread across American cities over the next 20 years. Pittsburgh was among the later of the major Jewish communities in the country to federate its charities, largely due to the resistance of a single person: Abraham Lippman.

Lippman was a Jewish immigrant from present-day Germany who became a successful businessman in Pittsburgh and retired early to devote his life to philanthropy. From 1892 until his death in 1910, he was president of the United Hebrew Relief Association, which was the leading charity in the Jewish community at the time. He provided most of the financing himself and handled all case management personally, spending six hours each day meeting with clients, listening to their stories, and determining their financial need.

By centralizing giving, the Federation model promised to eliminate duplication and reduce fraud, allowing more funds to go toward those in need. Lippman liked the inefficiencies, though, because they humanized giving. He opposed “scientific business charity” with “too much head and not enough heart.” 

As a result, a Jewish Federation could never advance in Pittsburgh until after Lippman’s death, despite strong support from other corners of the Jewish community. The local National Council of Jewish Women, for example, was publically advocating for a Jewish Federation in Pittsburgh as early as 1908.

And so, while Jewish communities in Boston, Cincinnati, Chicago, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and St. Louis all had Federations by 1905, the Federation of the Jewish Philanthropies of Pittsburgh wasn’t founded until 1912. 

Under its first president Aaron Cohen, the Federation selected 10 local charities as its beneficiaries: Montefiore Hospital Association, the Irene Kaufmann Settlement House, the J. M. Gusky Hebrew Orphanage, the United Hebrew Relief Association, the House of Shelter, the Emma Farm Association, the Jewish Home for the Aged, the National Council of Jewish Women-Pittsburgh Section, the Hebrew Free Loan Association, and the Hebrew Ladies Hospital Aid Society. It also supported four national Jewish charities: the Jewish Consumptives Relief Society, the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society, the National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives, and the National Farm School. This philanthropic structure remained relatively unchanged until the 1930s, when the combination of domestic and overseas challenges required additional investments.

Sisterhoods:

B'nai Israel Sisterhood (Pittsburgh, Pa.)

Black and white photograph of members of the B’nai Israel Sisterhood. Sisterhood founder Annie Jacobs Davis can be seen in the first row, second from the left—1941.

—B'nai Israel Congregation Photographs [MSP 470]

“It was the women who first proposed that the Jews of the East End must have a beautiful house of worship, one that our children would be proud and willing to attend,” Annie Jacobs Davis wrote in the Jewish Criterion on May 25, 1923. The occasion was the dedication of B’nai Israel Congregation's new synagogue, designed by architect Henry Hornbostel with Sharove & Friedman.

Annie Jacobs Davis and her husband Barnett had moved to Aiken Street in the East End from the Hill District shortly in the first few years of the 20th century. They were part of the first wave of Jewish out-migration from the Hill District to eastern parts of the city in the first decade of the 20th century.

Soon after the move, they joined B’nai Israel. The congregation was nomadic at the time, renting meeting spaces for more than a decade before purchasing land at 327 North Negley Avenue in East Liberty in 1920. According to her memoir, Jacobs Davis felt these rented spaces were primitive, unbecoming, and inconvenient. Saturday services were held in a small room in an old post office while High Holidays services were held in an auditorium on Collins Avenue. Ever the communal worker, she offered to help the men of the congregation create a more cohesive synagogue, which they gladly accepted.

Jacobs Davis along with Annie Wolk called the first meeting of the B’nai Israel Ladies Auxiliary on Aug. 19, 1912. (It formally became the B’nai Israel Sisterhood in 1920). The Ladies Auxiliary would oversee the beautification of the congregation’s rented space, help the men of the congregation on projects benefiting the greater Jewish population of the East End, and ultimately raise enough money to build a permanent synagogue. “This was no easy matter to bring about, for in those early days it was not known that women could or should help in congregational labors,” Jacobs Davis wrote in her 1923 article.

Every change proposed by the Ladies Auxiliary required consensus from the male board of directors. Consensus sometimes came easily and sometimes didn’t. “Oh how I can recall all the hundreds of things that the women of the B’nai Israel Ladies Auxiliary did in the fifteen years of our organization,” Jacobs Davis wrote in 1923, attributing much of the success of the congregation to women who had traditionally been left out of congregational matters. 

[LEFT] Exterior of B'nai Israel synagogue—c1980s.

[RIGHT] Interior of sanctuary, showing Holy Ark—c1955.

—B'nai Israel Congregation Photographs [MSP 470]

Some of those men agreed. In an separate article in the dedication issue, Vice President and Building Committee Chairman Max Azen wrote, “But it is our good Sisterhood that we are indebted most of all for the wonderful synagogue we are now putting up." In fact, he claimed that the new synagogue would have never been built without the Sisterhood's helpful and sympathetic nature.

The Sisterhood had willingly sacrificed its own financial reserve in order to help finance a new synagogue for the congregation because it believed in its mission and believed it had a duty to help. The Sisterhood had also donated the Holy Ark to the new synagogue once construction was completed.

Black and white photograph of the B’nai Israel Sisterhood Executive Committee. Pictured: (Front row, left to right) Molly Daniels, Mary Heller, Sylvia Smizik, Dorothy Rosenberg, Lily Chersoff, Erica Lauten, (Middle row, left to right) Sarah Abrams, Ellie Neiser, Rose Berman, Ann Herwitz, Rhea Wesoley, Phyllis last name unknown, Edith Sharblatt, (Back row, left to right) Shirley Kass, Helen Gisser, Edith Greenberg, unknown—1961-1962.

—B'nai Israel Congregation Photographs [MSP 470]

And yet, in press coverage of B’nai Israel Congregation's 25th anniversary in 1929, just six years after the dedication ceremony, the only mention of the Sisterhood was the role it had played arranging anniversary-week events.

The Jewish Criterion focused on the accomplishments of the whole congregation rather than any one person or group. As the saying goes, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. On the other hand, such momentous occasions often call for honoring the people that made them possible, especially when one part of the congregation was an auxiliary to another.

In its own printed anniversary volume, B'nai Israel dedicated a section to the Sisterhood, describing the integral role it had played developing the new synagogue building. But a commemorative anniversary book wouldn't have the same reach as the community newspaper read by thousands. Even today, as historic documents, the newspaper account is digitized and easily available online, while the book can only be found by visiting the archive in person.

Some of these dynamics changed over time. By the late 1980s, women were increasingly included in B'nai Israel leadership. Doris D. Binstock was elected the first female president of B'nai Israel in 1985. She was followed in 1988 by Maxine Abrams Horn, who was also Annie Jacobs Davis' grand-daughter.

—Catelyn Cocuzzi

The Rauh Jewish Archives' Catelyn Cocuzzi is exploring congregational Sisterhoods throughout the region in this monthly series for our newsletter.

Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life

"Mazel x Chai"

Detail from "Mazel x Chai"—2023.

Parnasah is a Hebrew word meaning “livelihood.”

With a Yiddish inflection, the word expresses much more than money. It is the human desire for economic stability amid the inherent uncertainty of life.  

Louise Silk’s ancestors were among the thousands of Jewish immigrants who came to Western Pennsylvania from corners of Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, seeking parnasah. Her grandfather Hyman Shapiro started Jitterbug Records in 1937, selling used 78-RPM records from old jukeboxes. With the help of his three sons Howard, Jason, and Sam, they expanded the business into National Record Mart. It grew into a large regional chain of stores selling music, concert tickets, books, and magazines. 

Even with its size and prominence, National Record Mart was really a family business. It was a source of opportunity, bonding, and memories. Louise met the Beatles backstage at their concert in Pittsburgh in 1964. Her mother Sadye shuttled the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys to and from Pittsburgh International Airport. The whole family helped out during the holiday rush. 

“Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life” includes a recent piece called “Mazel X Chai.” It’s a collection of 18 quilted 45-RPM records sold by National Record Mart in the 1960s and early 1970s, as well as a quilted carrying case. Louise has described the piece is an expression of gratitude for being born into the National Record Mart family. “Mazel” means fortune, and “Chai” means life.

"Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life" will be on display in the Barensfeld Gallery on the fifth floor of the Heinz History Center through April 6, 2025.

Exhibit:

A Woman's Place: How Women Shaped Pittsburgh

“How Mrs. Enoch Rauh ushered in the year 1913 — on Dec. 31st 1912.”

—from Richard E. Rauh Papers [MSS 301]

From pioneering investigative journalism to leading their country to Olympic gold, Western Pennsylvania women have made an immeasurable impact in America, but too often, their stories have been overlooked.

The Heinz History Center is taking an unprecedented deep dive into the lives of these fierce and unflappable women who helped change the world inside a major new exhibition, A Woman’s Place: How Women Shaped Pittsburgh.

Take an interactive, thematic journey through Western Pennsylvania women’s history from the early 1800s to modern day that will showcase the stories of entrepreneurs and activists, artists and athletes, scientists and inventors, and changemakers and barrier breakers. Through more than 250 artifacts, immersive experiences, and striking archival images, A Woman’s Place will reveal how women have made Pittsburgh and the world a better place.  

Oct. 14:

JGS Pittsburgh Presents:

Gone Girl: Strategies for Finding

a VERY Long-Lost Female Cousin

DNA and document strategies will be unfolded in this quest for a female cousin. Finding females is a common genealogical challenge. When the woman does not want to be found, the challenge becomes even greater. Learn techniques for breaking through a brick wall and as well as the new problems on the other side of that wall.

The program is Monday, October 14 from 7:30-9:30 p.m. ET. This is an online program, occurring exclusively on Zoom. The program will be recorded, and the recording will be made available to current JGS-Pittsburgh members. 

“Gone Girl: Strategies for Finding a VERY Long-Lost Female Cousin” with Rhoda Miller is a collaboration between the Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh and the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center. Please register online. The program is free for JGS-Pittsburgh members and $5 for the general public. To become a member of the JGS-Pittsburgh and receive a free membership code for this program, please visit its website.

This program is possible through the generous support of the William M. Lowenstein Genealogical Research Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation.

Rhoda Miller, Ed.D., CG® has been a Certified Genealogist since 1998, retired 2023, specializing in Jewish research and Holocaust studies. Rhoda is a Past President of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Long Island (JGSLI) and currently serves on the Liaison Committee of the International Association of Jewish Genealogy Societies (IAJGS). With JGSLI, she led the award-winning project of publishing Jewish Community of Long Island. She is a past board member of LitvakSIG and is currently the Coordinator for the Svencionys Research District. Rhoda retired as a Genealogist Researcher for Ancestry ProGenealogists. In May 2025, she will be the featured Jewish genealogist on a Mediterranean cruise.

Community

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 Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh

"How We Got Here"

Each family is unique. 

Each family has its own traditions, its own spirit, and its own dynamics. 

Despite all these differences, every Jewish family in Western Pennsylvania has at least one thing in common: They all have a story about how they got here.

Perhaps your family sailed in steerage across the Atlanti in the 19th century.

Or perhaps your family drove the Pennsylvania Turnpike in a station wagon in the 1960s to work for the universities and hospitals during Renaissance.

Or perhaps your arrival into one of the many Jewish communities of Western Pennsylvania involves marriage, or conversion, or a surprising DNA discovery.

Each of these stories is special, and each contributes to the larger story of our community. To collect and honor these origin stories, the Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh is launching a new initiative called “How We Got Here.” To participate, just write a short account explaining how you or your ancestors came to settle in Western Pennsylvania. All stories are welcome.

Stories will be eligible for inclusion in the JGS-Pittsburgh’s monthly newsletter Z’chor and also for preservation in the Rauh Jewish Archives. For more information about this initiative, or to contribute, contact Eric Lidji.

From the Jewish Cemetery & Burial Association

"Road Trip: The Jewish Cemeteries of Western Pennsylvania"

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. 

Research Tools

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.

Western Pennsylvania Jewish Cemetery Project

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.

Rauh Jewish Archives Bibliography

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.

Synagogues

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.

Shul Records America

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.

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.

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