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Announcing:
The newsletter archive
Restaurants:
Sammy's Steak House
The Jewish Social Service Bureau
Calendar:
JGS-Pittsburgh Presents:
Judy Russell on the ethics of privacy, Judy Baston on Litvak SIG
Research Tools
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Screenshot of newsletter archive, showing index of recent issues. | |
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Over the past three years, our email newsletter has expanded from an occasional bulletin of upcoming events to a weekly kaleidoscope of local Jewish history. This issue is our 150th since the start of 2020. Over those issues, we've shared hundreds of stories of Jewish life from all across Western Pennsylvania, reflecting many different expressions of Jewish identity.
Today, we’re launching a comprehensive archive of the newsletter. It includes the weekly newsletters of the past three years, as well as the earlier program announcements going back to 2015. Each issue is indexed, to make it easier to find specific stories. Each issue is also cross referenced with our website, so you can follow your curiosity and learn more about any subject.
Thank you for supporting this newsletter as it has grown these past three years, and thank you for sharing the newsletter with others in the community. We’re looking forward to sharing more stories with you in the years to come.
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Restaurants:
Sammy's Steak House
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Black and white photograph showing neon sign from Sammy’s Steak House at 23 Graeme St. in Market Square, downtown Pittsburgh, 1951.
—from McBride Sign Company Photographs [1997.0097]
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In the past two weeks, we’ve profiled two restaurants at 1229 Fifth Avenue. Here is an abridged chronology of that address, drawn from city directories:
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Now let’s go the other way. Let's start at the end, and look backward.
Sammy’s Steak House arrived at 1229 Fifth Avenue in late summer 1955, under the management of Sammy Lesker and Paul Nabozas.
An early ad in the American Jewish Outlook lists “charcoal broiled steaks and chops, chopped liver, gefilte fish, soups, and meats, milchig dishes, and prepared fish dinners.” “Milchig,” means “dairy” dishes. Think: blintzes.
The least novel item, at least initially, is the first: “charcoal broiled steaks.”
But “charcoal broiled steaks” turns out to be a clue, leading into a beloved corner of Jewish cuisine.
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Advertisement for Sammy's Steak House at 1229 Fifth Ave., Sept. 2, 1955.
—American Jewish Outlook
Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project
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Sammy’s Steak House came to Fifth Avenue from 23 Graeme St. Graeme Street is one of the short side streets leading into Market Square from the north. Lesker started the downtown version of his steak house in 1950, in partnership with E. Harry Frankel.
The move to Market Square was a big deal. Before that, Lesker ran the restaurant by himself at its original location at 1619 Centre Ave. in the Hill District. He purchased the business in 1937 but had been working there for years as waiter under two previous owners: Harry’s Steak House from 1934 to 1937 and originally Hyman’s Steak House.
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Advertisement for Sammy's Steak House at 23 Graeme St., March 3, 1950.
—American Jewish Outlook
Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project
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Advertisement for Hyman's Steak & Chop House.
—Jewish Criterion, Nov. 27, 1925 [Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project]
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Hyman Pascoll (alternately spelled Pascal/Pascale/Pascoll) started Hyman’s Steak House on Center Avenue around 1919. After he died in 1931, his wife Fannie ran the restaurant by herself for a few years, before selling it.
Hyman’s Steak House advertised steaks “broiled in Roumanian style.” As the Chicago food writer Michael Gebert explains, “Roumanian” here doesn’t refer to national origins. It’s a method of preparation, common to Jewish delis.
“Roumanian style” is skirt steak, bathed in a garlicky marinade, and broiled on charcoal. The long cut usually extended a few respectable inches beyond the edges of the dinner plate. Roumanian-style steak houses existed in Jewish neighborhoods all over the country. Some even persisted into the 21st century, like Famous Sammy’s Roumanian Steak House in the Lower East Side in New York and Manny’s Cafeteria & Delicatessen on the West Side of Chicago.
Hyman’s appears to have been one of the earliest Roumanian steak houses in Pittsburgh, but the style appears sporadically on menus into the early 1990s.
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In it’s day, it had devotees. Here is a snippit from a profile of a young Adolph Sufrin, published in the Y Weekly in 1937: “I like Xavier Cugat’s dance music, Maureen O’Sullivan, Roumanian steak broiled on charcoal, and the ‘William Tell Overture.’” | |
Do you remember Sammy's Steak House? Do you have any information about Sammy Lesker, or Hyman and Fannie Pascoll? Do you crave Roumanian steak? | |
Next week: What was the first Kosher restaurant in Pittsburgh? | |
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. | |
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Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania:
Jewish Social Service Bureau
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The Jewish Social Service Bureau was created in late 1936 through the merger of five local beneficiaries of the Federation of the Jewish Philanthropies of Pittsburgh. The merger was an attempt to expand social services in the Jewish community by reducing duplication.
As described in its constitution, the Jewish Social Service Bureau was created to “aid and assist Jewish families, children, young men and women, and immigrants, who may be in need of material or other assistance or advice, with a view of promoting and conserving individual and family life, and improving standards of living.” The Jewish Social Service Bureau changed its name to Jewish Family & Children’s Service in 1950 and then to Jewish Family and Community Services in 2017.
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"Who We Are/What We Do/How We Do it,' published by Jewish Social Service Bureau, 1961.
—Health and Welfare Planning Association Records [MSS 158]
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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. | |
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Today:
JGS-Pittsburgh Presents: Judy G. Russell
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Genealogy by its very nature is collaborative. We need to work together and share information with others, both relatives and non-relatives if we’re to succeed in filling out our family trees. But doing family research doesn’t mean giving up all semblances of personal privacy, nor is it a license to invade the privacy of others-family or not. All researchers need to follow the rules, both legal and ethical, when we share genealogical information. In her talk, "Share and Share Alike: The Rules of Genealogical Privacy," Judy G. Russell will provide legal and ethical guidelines for seeking genealogical information.
The program is Sunday, Jan. 29 from 1-2:30 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.
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Judy G. Russell, The Legal Genealogist®, is a genealogist with a law degree who provides expert guidance through the murky territory where law and family history intersect. An internationally known lecturer and award-winning writer, she holds credentials as a Certified Genealogist® and Certified Genealogical Lecturer℠ from the Board for Certification of Genealogists®.
Her blog is at www.legalgenealogist.com.
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February 12 (NEW TIME):
JGS-Pittsburgh Presents: Judy Baston
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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. | |
Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project | |
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. | |
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Western Pennsylvania Jewish Cemetery Project | | |
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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. | |
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Rauh Jewish Archives Bibliography | | |
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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. | |
[IMAGE: Marian Schreiber and employees at the Schreiber Trucking Company, c.1943—from Schreiber Family Papers and Photographs, MSS 846.]
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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. | | | | |
