November 17, 2024

Vol. 5, No. 46



The Early 1970s:

National Jewish Population Study (1971)

Jewish Encyclopedia:

Mitzvah Day

Family Clubs:

Joseph Ohringer Family Club

Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life

The Quilter's Triangle

Exhibits:

A Woman's Place

Calendar:

Nov. 13-24: Film Festivals

Nov. 18-19: Commemoration

Nov. 20: Reckoning with Antisemitism

Dec. 15: Shaping Family Stories



Community:

URA photographs

SHHS archives

JCBA "Road-Trip"

Research Tools:

Newspapers, Cemeteries,

Memorial Plaques, Books,

Population Figures, Synagogues, Newsletter Archive,

Shul Records America

The Early 1970s:

National Jewish Population Study (1971)

Pittsburgh Jewish Community population survey, as published in the Jewish Chronicle in a special supplement sponsored by Franklin Federal bank—March 10, 1977.

—Jewish Chronicle

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

Over the decades, the U.S. Census has asked American residents about age, sex, race, and national origin, but never about religion. This omission has benefited the Jewish people in some ways but has also created challenges. The biggest challenge has been the lack of comprehensive statistical data. 

Jewish demographers have never found a good alternative to free census data. Trying to recreate the U.S. Census by going door to door was always impractical. That left statistics: extrapolating information from small samples.

Through the first half of the 20th century, the American Jewish Yearbook undertook these national Jewish surveys at periodic intervals. Today, the Pew Research Center does them, most recently in 2020. In between, the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds commissioned three studies.

The first was published in 1971. In addition to including a large sample size, the survey conducted long interviews with its subjects, some lasting 90 minutes. These interviews attempted to learn about “identity, marriage, intermarriage, family life, fund-raising, housing, (and) mobility of families.” 

The National Jewish Population Study was conducted in 39 geographical areas across the country. Those areas included the largest Jewish communities—places with at least 40,000 Jews—as well as some smaller communities. 

Pittsburgh was one of those regions, but the 10 reports issued from the study didn't localize the data. And so, in 1974, the United Jewish Federation commissioned its own version of the study. It was published in 1976.

We've added a summary of the 1976 population survey to the "Population" entry on the Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania website.

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:

Mitzvah Day

Color photograph of members of Congregation Dor Hadash outside Community Day School preparing for a Mitzvah Day community service event—2000.

—Congregation Dor Hadash Records [MSS 410]

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’ve been using this space to summarize the history of the organization and to profile its predecessors and projects.



Jewish congregations in Western Pennsylvania began using the term “Mitzvah Day” in the mid-1990s to describe community service days. The United Jewish Federation appears to have held its first Mitzvah Day in October 1998, when the new Young Adult Division coordinated service projects at UJF beneficiaries such as Jewish Residential Service and the new Kosher SuperPantry.

By 2000, the UJF Mitzvah Day was increasingly tied to Christmas Day. As Mitzvah Day Chair Jennifer Engel explained that year, “Mitzvah Day is an opportunity for us to provide the community with services that would otherwise be unavailable. So many employees take the holiday off that, as volunteers, we become a critical part of the work force that day.”

Family Clubs:

Joseph Ohringer Family Club

Notice of upcoming meeting of the Joseph Ohringer Family Club—May 17, 1957.

—Jewish Criterion

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

Joseph and Sophie OHRINGER had at least six children: Anita CHARAPP, Amy GREENWALD, Ruth EISNER, Shirley STERN, David Ohringer, and Milton Ohringer. Their children started the Joseph Ohringer Family Club no later than 1957 and met through early 1961, according to available newspaper notices.

Known surnames in the Joseph Ohringer Family Club include Charapp, Eisner, Greenwald, Ohringer, and Stern. Known meeting places include 5930 Phillips Ave. (Walter Greenwald residence); 215 Holland Ave., Braddock (Milton Charapp residence); 5636 Melvin St. (Eugene Stern residence); the Holiday House; Renziehausen Park, McKeesport; and the Marvin Eisner residence.

While the Rauh Jewish Archives holds materials from other branches of the Ohringer family, there are no known holdings for the Joseph Ohringer Family Club. If you have information about the club, please contact the archive.

Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life

The Quilter's Triangle

Color photograph of Louise Silk and members of The Quilters Triangle posing in front of the completed "Great Things About Pittsburgh" quilt—1980.

—Louise Silk Papers

Quilting can build community. Once a pattern is selected, the stitching and quilting can be undertaken by many people working simultaneously. 

Through the generations, some of these quilting groups were simple gatherings among friends. Others evolved into formal organizations. If you review back issues of old newspapers, you can find many references to “sewing circles.” Some grew to have official officers and meetings.

The quilting revival of the early 1970s spawned a new generation of quilting groups that updated the 19th century tradition for a new era. 

After returning to her native Pittsburgh from Chicago in 1978, Louise Silk began teaching a Mother’s Day Out quilting course at Rodef Shalom Congregation. In the early days of the Renaissance II urban renewal program in the late 1970s, the city’s Neighborhoods for Living Center asked this Mother’s Day Out group to oversee a community quilt project called “The Great Things About Pittsburgh” quilt. Quilters all over the city made squares celebrating local icons: Troy Hill, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, the Great Race, the Squirrel Hill Café, the Pittsburgh Symphony. Convening as The Quilter’s Triangle, Louise and her cohort stitched these squares together into a quilt. 

The Great Things About Pittsburgh quilt debuted at the 3rd Annual Allegheny Mountains Quilt Festival at Kaufmann’s Department Store in downtown Pittsburgh October 1980 and later went to live at the South Side branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. The current location of the quilt is unknown.

Encouraged by the success of the project, the Quilter’s Triangle began exhibiting more frequently throughout the 1980s. It convened quilting shows at the Squirrel Hill branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Old Economy Village in Ambridge, Pittsburgh National Bank on Craig Street, the Old Post Office Museum on the North Side, and First Unitarian Church. 

Among those who saw these exhibits was local illustrator Ilene Winn-Lederer, who was inspired to create a children’s book called “Stitchburgh.”

The next installment of our Gut Yontif! series is Dec. 28 with a fiery Chanukah celebration from Rosabel Rosalind, then on Thursday, Feb. 13 with an intimate Tu B’shvat seder from Lydia Rosenberg, and finally on Wednesday, March 12 with an all-embracing Purim party from Olivia Devorah Tucker. 

The “Gut Yontif!” series is made possible thanks to a generous grant from the SteelTree Fund of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

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.  

Nov. 13-24:

Three Rivers Film Festival and Pittsburgh Shorts

Film Pittsburgh will present the 2024 Three Rivers Film Festival (43 years strong--recently voted #1 film festival the 2nd year in a row by City Paper’s Best of PGH reader’s poll!) from November 13th-20th at the August Wilson Center, the Harris Theater, and The Lindsay Theater. Tickets can be purchased online at https://filmpittsburgh.org/. Use the code RAUH2024 at checkout to receive a $3 discount on general admission tickets.

Questions? Call us at 412-426-FILM (3456) or go to filmpittsburgh.org/. 

Nov. 18-19:

18 Cheshvan Commemoration

For the third year, the 10.27 Healing Partnership is hosting a day of Jewish learning to commemorate 18 Cheshvan, the Hebrew yahrzeit of the October 27 attack. The yarhzeit this year falls on the evening of Nov. 18 into Nov. 19.

There will be an evening of in-person study with local teachers on Monday, Nov. 18 from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill. 

• Rhonda Rosen: “Introduction to Contemplative Judaism”
• Kalix Jacobson: “Lamentations: How the Music of the Jewish People Brought us Through Times of Despair”
• Eric Lidji: “On The Importance of Minyan”
• Amitai Ben-Nun: “The Weekly Parsha: Vayera”
• Jill Joshowitz: “Hanoten Teshua: the Jewish Prayer for the Government”

There will also be two lunch-time sessions of virtual Torah study with visiting teachers Rabbi Irving Greenberg, Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt, and Cantor Joanna Dulkin on Tuesday, Nov. 19 from 11-1 p.m.

To register, please visit the 10.27 Healing Partnership website.

Nov. 20:

Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh Presents:

Reckoning With Antisemitism

On Wednesday, Nov. 20 at 6:30 p.m., Christian Associates and the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh welcome a panel of Jewish leaders to share how antisemitism has affected their lives and community and what they hope their Christian neighbors will come to understand about the Jewish experience.

The panel will include Eric Lidji, director of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center; Sara Stock Mayo, a spiritual leader, musician, poet, and activist; and Alan Iszauk, Pittsburgh Jewish community member.

"Reckoning With Antisemitism: Listening to Jewish Voices" will occur at the John Knox Room at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary at 616 N. Highland Ave.

Dec. 15:

JGS Pittsburgh Presents:

Strategies for Shaping Your Family Story

Using the life of Moische, later known as Morris, Sana Loue will explore various strategies and resources to shape the background of our family stories of immigration and adjustment to life in the United States.

The program is Sunday, December 15 from 1-3 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. 

“Strategies for Shaping Your Family Story” with Sana Loue 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.

Sana Loue is a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in the Department of Bioethics. She has been researching her family’s origins for several years, tracking documents and stories through Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, and Russia. Her recent publication, From Public Policy to Family Dynamics: A Case Study of the Impact of Public Policy on Two 20th Century Jewish Immigrant Families, tells the stories of her brother Michael, born with Down syndrome, and the impact of Russian and U.S. eugenics policy on family dynamics, as well as that of her grandfather Moische and the effects of U.S. immigration and welfare policy on family structure and relationships.

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 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.

Shop | Join | Visit