Vol. 4

No. 7

Restaurants:

Richest's Restaurant

The Jewish Encyclopedia:

The Maimonides Institute

Yahrzeit Plaques update:

B'nai Abraham (Butler)

Calendar:

Feb. 12: LitvakSIG

Community:

Jewish Daily Forward exhibit

Mystery portraits

Research Tools:

Newspapers, Cemeteries, Memorial Plaques, Books, Newsletters

Restaurants:

Richest's Restaurant

1300 block Fifth Avenue, looking southwest and showing local businesses including N. Krakoff Kosher Meat Market and Richest Sanitary Delicatessen Shop, September 21, 1928.

—from Pittsburgh City Photographer Collection

University of Pittsburgh Archives & Special Collections

[715.287840.CP] (online—Historic Pittsburgh)

This story gets complicated, so let’s start with something simple. 

Let's start with a bowl of pickles. 

This bowl contained a mélange of fermented pickles and peppers, brought to the table for communal snacking while meal orders were being prepared. By the late 1970s, it had become a cornerstone of the $4.95 early bird special at Richest Restaurant. It was listed in ads as “Richest’s Famous Pickle Bowl.”

While you’re mentally snacking on those pickles, here’s the rest of the story.

82 Logan St., 2023.

Anna Richest was a young, recently widowed mother in 1914, when she started Richest Delicatessen Shop at 82 Logan Street in the lower Hill District. The restaurant was located above Reichbaum’s restaurant.

Richest gained a following for her cooking. In 1922 she moved down the block to 1314 Fifth Ave.

She married Leon Mitchel in 1924. They ran the business together, but Anna Richest Mitchel remained the lead proprietor, and the restaurant kept her original married name.

In 1934, her son Joseph P. Richest opened his own sandwich shop downtown. It started at 621 Penn Ave. and then moved to 140 Sixth St.

To distinguish his restaurant from his mother's Uptown restaurant, J. P. Richest used the name Downtown Richest’s. He also went for a different vibe, catering to the after-theater crowd. The slogan was “Pittsburgh’s Rendezvous of the Nation’s Screen, Stage and Radio Stars.”

We have a menu from Downtown Richest’s restaurant during these years. It includes a long list of classic deli sandwiches—tongue, corned beef, pastrami, lox—as well as a special list of triple decker sandwiches named for downtown theaters: the Alvin, the Fulton, the Penn, the Stanley, the Art Cinema. It also had a page of wine, beer, and spirits with the promise of daily “mixed drink specials.”

IMAGE: Matchbook for Downtown Richest’s Restaurant at 140 Sixth St. in downtown Pittsburgh. Cover includes illustration of deli platter and the slogan “Pittsburgh rendezvous for the nation’s stars of stage and screen.” Inside cover reads, “We sell more corned beef and tongue than any other store in Western Penna. Take a pound home and be convinced.”

—from Western Pennsylvania Matchbook Covers Collection [2021.0015]

Joseph P. Richest eventually married Anne Brucken, and they ran the downtown restaurant together for many years. As a result, from the mid-1930s into the 1940s, there were two Jewish delicatessens in Pittsburgh known as “Richest’s,” and both were overseen by an Anna/Anne Richest.

Anna Richest Mitchel (the mother) retired in the 1940s. Sometime around 1944, she sold the Uptown business at 1314 Fifth Ave. to brothers-in-law and partners Ted Tobin and William “Bubbles” Rosenstein. It was still called “Richest’s” into the 1950s. We’ll follow that thread of the story next week. 

Advertisement for Richest's Restaurant at 140 Sixth St.., announcing “Trick Or Treat Special” of free salami and rye bread with the purchase of corned beef, Oct. 23, 1969.

—Jewish Chronicle [Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project]

Erwin and Marion Vogel acquired Downtown Richest’s in 1966. They later brought on their son-in-law and daughter Jack and Ronna Farberow.

Over time, they gradually renamed the business. No longer needing to distinguish themselves from the original Uptown restaurant, they dropped “Downtown” to make it Richest’s Restaurant. They later dropped the possessive to make Richest Restaurant. The surname became an adjective.

Richest Restaurant regularly advertised itself as “Pittsburgh’s Finest Jewish Style Restaurant.” Its delicatessen sold Kosher Zion and Weiss meats, but the kitchen prepared non-kosher menu items. Perhaps the best-known of these was its Reuben. Richest Restaurant closed in 1997. The location became the Stage Door Saloon and then Olive or Twist. For a time, Kenny B’s Eatery offered the “Richest Reuben,” which it claimed followed the original recipe.

As the food scene changed in the 21st century, the local press occasionally solicited restaurant memories from readers. Richest Restaurant frequently appeared in these columns, as diners recalled the crusty waitstaff, the neon sign reading “BEST CORNED BEEF IN TOWN, and of course the pickles.

Do you remember Richest's, Downtown Richest's, or Richest?

Next week: Bubbles & Sherman

All year, the Rauh Jewish Archives is highlighting Jewish restaurants in Western Pennsylvania. If you would like to donate a material from a Jewish restaurant, or just reminisce, contact the archive or call 412-454-6406.

Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania

The Maimonides Institute

Weekly notice for Beth Midrash Rambam. Includes times for services, classes including Pirke Avot and the formation of a new Hevrah Shas (Talmud study group), July 31, 1942.

—Jewish Chronicle [Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project]

The Maimonides Institute was a Jewish educational center based in Squirrel Hill. Rabbi Wolf Leiter started the Beth Midrash Rambam at 1620 Murray Ave. in July 1942, after relocating to Squirrel Hill from the Hill District. The building included a synagogue, a study hall with a chevrah shas (Talmud study group), and a short-lived local branch of the Beis Yakov School for Girls. Beth Midrash Rambam began using the name “The Maimonides Institute” in 1943 to organize lectures and exhibits and to oversee publication of scholarly works.

The Maimonides Institute formally launched in December 1944 under the leadership of Rabbi Leiter with assistance from a “Committee of Sponsors” comprising lay leaders from across the denominational spectrum. The Maimonides Institute sold 1620 Murray Ave. in 1962 to the National Council of Jewish Women. The building became the new home for the Council Lounge for Older People, later known as the Anathan House. The Maimonides Institute continued operating locally for several years following the sale, arranging educational displays, scholarly publications, and events throughout Pittsburgh.

Western Pennsylvania Yahrzeit Plaque Project update:

316 records added

Detail from memorial board at Congregation B'nai Abraham in Butler, Pa.

The Western Pennsylvania Yahrzeit Plaques database now contains 404 listings. We recently added four memorial boards from Congregation B’nai Abraham in Butler, Pa. containing 316 individual yahrzeit plaques.

Rauh Jewish Archives volunteer Pat Andrews transcribed the English information from these plaques with Hebrew assistance from staff.

We are actively transcribing yahrzeit plaques from congregations from throughout the region. Each month, we’ll use this space in the newsletter to report on additions to the database. We are currently working through a backlog of nearly 20,000 individual records. The more help we have, the quicker we’ll go. We’re currently looking for volunteers who can read and transcribe Hebrew names and Hebrew dates. Work can be completed remotely or in-person at the Archive. To volunteer, email us or call 412-454-6406.

February 12:

JGS-Pittsburgh Presents: Judy Baston

With almost 2.5 million Lithuanian Jewish record translations — mainly censuses and vital records — LitvakSIG’s publicly searchable “All Lithuania Database” provides the primary foundation for Litvak genealogical research. There are also additional sources online for researching your Litvak roots.

In her talk “Researching Your Roots with LitvakSIG,” Judy Baston will offer a comprehensive overview of the LitvakSIG (Special Interest Group) database and website, as well as other important sources. The presentation will detail the best ways to use Litvak databases and websites to achieve optimum results and to enhance your knowledge of your Litvak family information. It will also include tips for determining what records are available, for understanding search results, and for accessing information in search results. The presentation will also cover LitvakSIG and its “All Lithuania Database,” as well as other resources from JewishGen, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, YIVO and other sources.

The program is Sunday, Feb. 12 from 2-3:30 p.m. ET It's free for JGS-Pittsburgh members and $5 for the general public. Please register online. 

All attendees are encouraged to log on 30 minutes early for a virtual open house. It’s an opportunity to share genealogy stories and make new friends.

This is a virtual program. It will be recorded, and the recording will be made available for JGS-Pittsburgh members who are current on their dues.

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

Currently secretary of LitvakSIG, Judy Baston has served for 25 years on that organization’s Board, as well as the JRI-Poland Board, and has moderated the Discussion Groups of LitvakSIG and JRI-Poland. She coordinates LitvakSIG’s Lida and Oshmiany District Research Groups. Judy has been involved with the Jewish Community Library in San Francisco for 30 years, and serves as co-president of Friends of the Jewish Community Library. In July 2015, she received the IAJGS Lifetime Achievement Award at the IAJGS conference in Jerusalem. She is continuing her research on the Vilna Ghetto Library.

Community

From the Jewish Studies Program

PRESSED: Images from the Jewish Daily Forward

Detail from front page of Jewish Daily Forward, including photograph showing President and First Lady Kennedy, 1960.

Founded in 1897 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the Jewish Daily Forward became the most widely read Jewish news source anywhere. By the 1920s, this Yiddish-language daily had more readers than the New York Times. With rigorous reporting, incisive editorials and powerful commentary, the Forward chronicled the events that affected immigrants eager to earn their place in American life. This was the paper read by congregants from its neighborhood’s many synagogues, by families squeezing into tenement apartments, by sweatshop workers and pushcart vendors. Its articles were debated on park benches and at local haunts like the Garden Cafeteria and the Royal Café, its discarded pages then used to wrap fish for Friday night Sabbath eve dinners. The Forward’s ideals have been held dear for generations of readers, not just on the Lower East Side but across the country and around the world.

The new exhibit Pressed at Hillman Library on the University of Pittsburgh campus looks into the vast Forward archive to present a selection of metal plates used to print photographs in the paper from the 1920s to the 1960s. These plates are accompanied by prints made just for this exhibition. These prints have rendered the images with greater clarity than they had as dotted, halftone prints in the newspaper. The Forward pages on which some of these images appeared are also displayed. These pages are enlarged and reproduced from microfilm and photographs because printed copies of the newspaper have not been preserved at the Forward or in any other archive, although they occasionally pop up at auction or in private collections. Together these images of strikes and activists, Yiddish theater stars and baseball players, daily life and historic moments, present the depth and breadth of this singular publication, its audience and Jewish life in America and around the world.

Pressed is organized by the Forward in collaboration with the Museum at Eldridge Street, and hosted by the University of Pittsburgh Library System and the Jewish Studies program. It will remain on display through April 2023.

Portraits at Rodef Shalom: A mystery in primary colors

The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle reports on an effort by Rodef Shalom Congregation to identify two people from a pair of mid-19th century portraits in the congregation's holdings. Do you recognize these tw people?

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 almost 400 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.

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.